Job description
Lightyear is looking for a commercially-minded Director of Product to join our team. The Director of Product will own the end-to-end product and go-to-market function, with a particular emphasis on product roadmap, product-market fit, methodology definition, design-partner development, and the technical sale across data subscribers and financial institutions.
As Director of Product, you will own and shape what we build and who we build it for: defining the index methodology in partnership with our data team, running the design-partner research sprint, translating buyer pain into product requirements, and carrying the technical half of the sales conversation that turns interest into paying customers. You will translate a complex, technical data product into clear value for both infrastructure operators and investors, while building the early commercial motion from zero. This role is perfect for those who are as comfortable shaping methodology and product detail with engineers as they are sitting across from a FinOps lead, a quant fund, or an exchange partner and closing the deal.
What you'll do
Product & Methodology
- Own the product roadmap and definition of product-market fit, from MVP through the index family
- Partner with the data and engineering team to define and defend the index methodology — what is measured, how it is weighted, normalized, and chain-linked — to a standard credible to subscribers, investors, and eventually exchange partners
- Translate buyer pain surfaced in research and design-partner work into concrete product requirements, feature decisions, and methodology constraints
- Define the monetizing mini-products (observability, procurement/routing, and the evaluation harness) and prioritize the build sequence that best generates proprietary data
- Own the distinction between the cited flagship index and the sub-index family, and the product logic for what is published free, licensed, and reserved
- Define the agent-native product surface (MCP / micropayment distribution) alongside the human-facing terminal and API
Commercial, Design Partners & Go-to-Market
Run the design-partner research sprint, converting structured conversations across buyers, supply-side, and the financial side into a ranked view of the most acute, monetizable demand
Carry the technical and domain half of the sales conversation — credibly demoing the product and engaging FinOps leads, AI engineers, quant funds, and structurers on methodology and value
Build the early commercial motion from zero: pipeline, pilot conversion, pricing hypotheses, and the path from free benchmark to paid data licensing and index licensing
Partner with the existing sales/BD function — opening and running relationships together, with this role owning the technical close and the translation of customer needs into product
Develop the pricing and packaging strategy across the product ladder: terminal/API subscriptions, underlying data licensing, agent micropayments, and index-for-financial-product licensing
Build the interface on financialization — supporting the path from index to passive products, and the governance and neutrality requirements that lets the index be licensed broadly
Prepare clear, decision-useful product and commercial reporting for the CEO and group leadership, including PMF signals, design-partner status, pipeline, and go/no-go evidence
Our ideal candidate
5+ years of professional experience in product management, data/fintech commercial roles, or related fields, ideally at a data, market-data, fintech, or developer-infrastructure company
Demonstrated experience owning a data or SaaS product end-to-end at an early stage, from definition through go-to-market
Strong commercial instinct, with the ability to run a technical sale and translate between buyer needs and product/methodology decisions
Background in or strong working knowledge of data products, indices, benchmarks, market data, or financial data — enough to be credible to both operators and investors
Familiarity with AI/ML infrastructure economics (inference, compute, model pricing) strongly preferred; willingness to develop deep domain fluency quickly is essential
Experience defining or working with methodology-driven products (indices, benchmarks, pricing references) preferred
Comfort engaging financial-institution counterparties — funds, RIAs, structurers, or exchanges — and an understanding of how data becomes a financial product
Experience running customer research, design-partner programs, or 0→1 commercial motions
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make a complex, technical product clear to non-technical buyers
Commercial judgment and product rigor in equal measure, with the ambition to grow into broader product or commercial leadership over time
Intrinsically motivated, with the ability to thrive in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment
$175,000 - $190,000 a year
A well-qualified candidate, based in New York City, can expect a base salary of $175,000.00–$190,000.00. A standard offer from Lightyear includes base compensation, incentive-based compensation such as discretionary bonuses or stock options, and a highly competitive benefits and perks package. Offers are determined by a number of factors including (but not limited to) the applicant's experience, skills, certifications, as well as internal equity among our team.
About Lightyear
Lightyear is the data infrastructure for financializing frontier technology. We build the proprietary data, the reference indices, and the financial products that turn the volatile, opaque inputs of the frontier economy — compute, energy, hardware — into measurable, tradable markets. A company within the Hivemind group, Lightyear pairs a deep proprietary-data engine with Hivemind Capital's asset-management platform, owning each market end-to-end from the data that prices it to the products built on top.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.