Product Manager

Product Manager

San Francisco, California

About Baselayer

Every business in America needs a bank account to exist. The system that decides whether they're real, who's behind them, and whether they're a risk, runs on infrastructure from the 1980s. We're rebuilding that layer from scratch.

Baselayer is the identity layer for institutions across the United States — the most complete business graph in America and every human tied to it. We fuse public records, IRS data, sanctions lists, web signals, and fraud telemetry from 2,200+ financial institutions into a single graph that resolves any business and the humans behind it in milliseconds. The legacy credit bureaus took 50 years to build something that gets 60% match rates. We've built something that gets 98% in under two years.

Today we're trusted by over 20% of financial institutions in America — including FIS, Rho, Socure and leading loan infrastructure providers. But the graph is becoming infrastructure for anyone who needs to know if a business is real and worth trusting: gig platforms, marketplaces, AI companies, and commerce infrastructure at scale.

Trust is the substrate of every financial transaction. We're rebuilding it.

About The Team

We're solving real-time entity resolution at a scale no one else has cracked — fusing dozens of data sources into a single business identity graph and resolving any entity in milliseconds. It's a graph AI problem, a retrieval problem, and a fraud-modeling problem stacked on top of each other. The technical depth is real.

You'd be joining a small team where the data moat is defensible, the research problems are open, and the infrastructure you build becomes load-bearing for businesses. Ownership is real. Velocity is real. There's no layer of process between an idea and shipping it.

We're at an inflection point — the graph is built, the match rates speak for themselves, and the hardest problems are still ahead: graph embeddings, fraud propagation models across the business network, real-time traversal at sub-100ms latency, and expanding the identity layer beyond finance into every platform that needs to trust a business.

If you want to work on something foundational — the kind of infrastructure that gets built once and everything else runs on top of — this is it.

About The Role

As Baselayer's first dedicated Product Manager, you'll report directly to our CTO and own the creation, design, and full scoping of new products that take Baselayer beyond financial institutions and into new verticals where business identity is broken. You'll define what we build, why we build it, and what "done" looks like. You won't be inheriting a roadmap. You'll be writing one.

This role is hands-on. You'll write the specs, draw the wireframes, partner with design, and sit in eng standups. You'll also own the existing product surface: setting priorities, sequencing the roadmap, and making the daily calls that keep engineering shipping the right things. New verticals are the headline, but the day-to-day is a mix of zero-to-one product definition and disciplined operating cadence on what's already in market.

What You'll Do

New Product Definition & Scoping

• Lead the scoping of new products targeting verticals beyond financial institutions, from initial thesis through detailed product spec
• Translate market opportunity into product requirements, including target user, core workflows, success metrics, and what's explicitly out of scope
• Build the artifacts that align the company: PRDs, one-pagers, wireframes, decision logs, and launch criteria
• Own the "what" and the "why" so eng and design can own the "how"

Specs, Wireframes & Design Partnership

• Write specs that engineers can build from without a dozen follow-up questions
• Produce wireframes and flow diagrams that make tradeoffs concrete and force decisions early
• Partner closely with design on UX, with strong opinions on craft and a clear bar for what ships
• Run spec reviews that surface ambiguity before it becomes rework

Roadmap & Prioritization for Existing Products

• Own the roadmap for Baselayer's current product surface, sequencing what gets built and what waits
• Make the daily prioritization calls that keep engineering focused on the highest-leverage work
• Build a planning cadence that's predictable for the team and legible to the rest of the company
• Kill work that isn't pulling its weight

Cross-Functional Execution

• Drive execution across engineering, design, and GTM (Sales, Marketing, CS, Growth)
• Run the launch process: scope lock, build, beta, GA, with clear handoffs and ownership at each stage
• Be the connective tissue between what's being built and what's being sold, supported, and marketed
• Operate with founder-level ownership and urgency. You'll be trusted to make calls and held to the outcomes

Minimum Requirements

• 5+ years in product management, with at least one zero-to-one product you scoped, shipped, and grew into material revenue
• Track record working closely with senior engineering leadership (CTO, VP Eng, founding engineers) as a true thought partner, not a ticket-writer
• Strong written communication. You write specs, briefs, and one-pagers that move decisions forward without a meeting
• Strong opinions on UX and product craft, with the ability to defend them and the humility to update them
• Operates with founder-level ownership and urgency. You don't wait to be told what's broken
• Comfortable with technical concepts. You can hold your own in architecture conversations without needing to write the code yourself
• Bias toward shipping. A v1 in market beats a v3 in a doc

What Sets You Apart

• Experience taking a product into a new vertical or expanding into adjacent markets
• Background in B2B SaaS, fintech, identity, KYB, fraud, risk, or compliance
• Worked at an early-stage company where you owned product without the safety net of a PM team
• Experience as the first PM hire at a venture-backed startup

Work Location

• Based in SF; hybrid - 4 days per week in office.

Compensation

• Salary Range: $180,000 – $240,000 + Variable Bonus

Benefits

• Time off when you need it: Flexible PTO so you can recharge without red tape.
• In-person energy: We're based in SF and meet in the office 4 days a week.
• Competitive compensation: We pay well and back it with equity. We want you to think and act like an owner.
• Career rocket fuel: You'll help build the foundation of a high-growth startup, working side by side with experienced founders and team members who've done it before.
• Benefits on us: We cover 100% of your health, dental, and vision premiums. No surprise deductions from your paycheck.
• 401(k) with company match: We match your contributions so your future self benefits too
• HSA contributions included: We contribute to your HSA on applicable plans, so your coverage works as hard as you do
• Stay healthy, stay sharp: A $250 annual gym stipend to help you bring your best self to work, and everywhere else
• A seat at the table: We believe in transparency, radical candor, and giving every team member a voice