Product Manager

Arcanys is a privately owned 300+ people company, with about 280 software engineers, QAs, PMs, BAs and designers in the Philippines.

While looking like just another technology outsourcing firm, Arcanys is at the forefront of the industry, both helping startups and mid-sized companies to scale their development team, and making meaningful financial investments in early stage startups with its Arcanys Ventures arm.

With already 25+ companies in its portfolio, and 6-8 new investments per year, there is a growing need for a Product Manager to help some of these companies.

What’s this role about?

We are investing in tech startups that need engineering teams. Our contribution is usually a whole team of 3-4 software engineers and a few part-time people, in exchange for equity. Sometimes, the product management function may be weak and we need someone with extensive experience in web applications product development to take on that role.

Ultimately, you may become a “fractional” product manager working for several of our clients at the same time, and occasionally handling short term missions. Visit our portfolio at ventures.arcanys.com to have a sense of the companies we are helping.

We are flexible with hiring someone part-time (to start) or full-time.

What are the required skills/conditions?

Non-negotiables

• You must have extensive experience building web and mobile products for startups (in their 1st to 5th year of life). Experience with product development from large corporations is not going to be that useful in comparison. We need someone extremely agile.

• The number one set of skills we are counting on is your ability to eliminate unnecessary features, reduce scope creep and prioritize ruthlessly to ship regularly.

• Result-driven with a strong metrics mindset — proven ability to translate data and KPIs into practical, actionable recommendations for product strategy, roadmap prioritization, and the creation of clear product requirements (PRDs, user stories, acceptance criteria).

• Minimum of 12 years experience in product or software engineering related role, including 5 recent years as a Product Manager in a software-focused company.

• Good understanding of software development processes (agile methodologies, scrum, kanban, etc.).

Other requirements

• Extensive experience conceptualizing a variety of online B2B and B2C software products in web and mobile format.

• Early career spent as a business analyst or UI/UX designer is a plus

• Strong understanding and application of gamification principles is a plus

• Excellent project management skills, with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously.

• Effective communication and interpersonal skills, capable of working with diverse teams.

• Experience working with outsourced teams preferred.

• Familiarity with modern AI tools for product work — e.g., using LLMs (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) for PRD drafting, user research synthesis, competitive analysis, and prototyping; comfort with AI-powered product analytics, design tools, and workflow automation. Bonus if you've shipped AI-powered features in a product.

What are the responsibilities?

• Jump in various startups to review and improve product management practices

• Occasionally jump in as fractional product manager to help accelerate product ideation

• Develop training and learning plan, to increase the understanding of fast product development, for business analysts and architect colleagues

• Help review and evaluate product roadmaps of potential investments, including competitive analysis

• Contribute to the improvement of internal Arcanys tools

As a company focused on its people's satisfaction first (and clients’ in close second), we make a point to offer exciting work opportunities and foster a culture that everyone can meaningfully contribute to.

All of this wrapped into a great care for employees welfare, GreatPlaceToWork certified, Glassdoor ratings of 4.8/5, Clutch Ratings of 5/5.

Working conditions:

• Remote, with the annual trip to the HQ in the Philippines (Cebu).

• Flexible working schedule. You can choose your working hours (within reason).

• Work as a full-time or part-time employee

• Flat management style and open-door policy - no micromanagement and your voice is being heard.