Product Lead Practitioner

Role overview A remote EMEA-based consulting role advising private equity investors and portfolio company leaders on product, AI, and technology strategy across the investment lifecycle. The work centers on product-led due diligence and value creation: assessing whether a target's product strategy, AI credibility, and execution capability can actually deliver the projected returns across diverse European markets.

Responsibilities - Lead and contribute to product assessments across the EMEA investment lifecycle, from pre-close diligence through post-close value creation and exit preparation. - Evaluate the strength, credibility, and competitive defensibility of a target company's product strategy, roadmap, and go-to-market approach in EMEA markets. - Assess how AI and machine learning are embedded in a product, distinguishing genuine capability from surface-level positioning, and articulate implications for competitive advantage, risk, and value creation. - Analyze product-market fit, customer segmentation, expansion opportunity, localization needs, and the assumptions behind growth projections. - Review product team structure, delivery capability, execution track record, and organizational readiness across distributed EMEA teams. - Conduct primary research including executive interviews, customer discovery conversations, and expert network engagements. - Synthesize findings into structured, investment-grade deliverables for deal teams, investment committees, operating partners, and company leadership. - Advise portfolio company product leaders on strategy, prioritization, localization, and capability development after close.

Requirements - 15+ years of product management experience with significant time in senior or executive leadership roles (Director, VP, CPO, or equivalent) at B2B software or SaaS companies operating in EMEA or globally. - Demonstrated track record shipping products at scale, including ownership of strategy, roadmap prioritization, and cross-functional delivery across regional or international markets. - Hands-on experience building or leading AI/ML-powered products, including build/partner/buy decisions, model risk, and navigating user trust, data protection, and experience challenges in EMEA. - Ability to critically evaluate a company's AI strategy from the outside, including data assets, model dependencies, technical differentiation, regulatory exposure, and the realism of AI-driven roadmap assumptions. - Strong analytical capability, fluent in market research, customer data, competitive intelligence, and regional market signals. - Exceptional written and verbal communication, able to translate product and technology complexity into concise narratives for non-technical executive audiences. - Comfort working in fast-moving, ambiguous environments across multiple markets and time zones, with high accountability for output quality.

Nice to have - Prior management consulting, investment due diligence, or advisory experience serving PE-backed companies in EMEA. - Familiarity with private equity investment models, deal processes, and value creation frameworks used by EMEA investors. - Experience at or advising PE-backed software companies through rapid growth, operational improvement, international expansion, or M&A. - Vertical depth in FinTech, HealthTech, GovTech, LegalTech, MarTech, HR Tech, industrial software, or compliance-heavy software. - Experience scaling product organizations across distributed or multilingual teams and exposure to sell-side advisory or exit preparation.