Head of Product & AI Studio

Location: Washington, District of Columbia
Job Category: Media Business Positions,Other
Job ID: 11569
Employment Type: Full time
Salary: per year
Posted: 03.04.2026

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Occupations:

Job Description:

The American Journalism Project (AJP) is seeking a Head of Product & AI Studio to own the support strategy for product and AI excellence across AJP’s growing portfolio of local nonprofit news organizations, and own the strategy for AJP’s own product and AI efforts as an organization. This role calls for a seasoned product leader with sharp strategic instincts, deep experience building and scaling digital products, and a passion for helping mission-driven news organizations use technology responsibly and effectively.

You’ll shape AJP’s product and AI strategy, coach newsroom and business leaders, cultivate industry partnerships, and help develop a tech and AI-forward approach to product development that strengthens organizational sustainability and audience impact in our portfolio. You’ll also lead AJP’s product innovation and excellence efforts internally and externally, helping teams identify and adopt industry best practices, while managing your team and partners to achieve strong results.

Who we are

We’re a small but entrepreneurial team working to re-shape the future of local news in our country. We’re passionate about journalism, civic engagement, and how local news plays a unique role in shaping our democracy. We help build and grow sustainable local news organizations all over the country — through financial investment, venture support, and movement building — that are governed by, sustained by, and look like the public they serve. Learn about our portfolio.

AJP has raised over $240 million for the cause so far, and aims to catalyze enough investment in nonprofit local news to create thriving, equitable, public service-oriented newsrooms that increase civic engagement and make communities work better for their residents.

Our team is deeply connected to our mission and supportive of each others’ goals and overall well-being. We aim to be an organization where everyone feels heard, respected, and valued. We are an entirely remote, distributed team and strive to maintain a healthy, fun, and productive workplace, working alongside smart, energetic colleagues who enjoy one another and the work. Meet our full team.

Our values

• Local First: We know that local journalism must serve and be led by local communities. We make a practice of listening to, and making decisions with – not for – those communities, and connecting them to find strength in each other.
• Bold Leadership: We understand the severe economic challenge facing local news and thus democracy, and we embrace a sense of possibility with courage, urgency, and perseverance.
• Constant Learning: We recognize the unknown in front of us. Therefore, we operate with humility and a commitment to continuous improvement and collaboration.
• Commitment to Equity: We commit to creating a better, more diverse, and more inclusive news media that advances human and civil rights. We actively fight against injustice and racism, and that starts with doing the work ourselves.
• Integrity: We accept the responsibility of earning trust every day. We operate with honesty, transparency, dignity, and respect, and without allegiance to party, ideology, profit, or power.

Your team

The Growth Investments team is committed to strengthening the nonprofit news sector across the country. We continuously search for excellent nonprofit news organizations that have the potential to grow in scale and impact in their communities, invest capital in those organizations targeted at supporting their growth, and coach and support those grantees to maximize their revenue potential. Our goal is to set all the organizations in our portfolio on a path to become best-in-class local nonprofit institutions with the sustainable resources to more adequately meet the information needs of their communities. This role will report to the Senior Vice President, Specialized Support, and manage the Product & AI Studio staff and contractors.

Compensation & benefits

Our total compensation package is competitive in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, and we are committed to supporting our team with what they need to show up every day ready to bolster the local press our democracy deserves.

We benchmark our salaries against similar organizations, and use a scale that considers job complexity and magnitude of responsibility to determine role levels and corresponding
base salaries, as well as regular cost-of-living adjustments. The salary range for this position is $189,633 – $208,596. Read about our benefits here.

The position

The Head of Product & AI Studio will lead AJP’s product strategy and excellence, including the responsible integration of AI, across the organization and our portfolio of local nonprofit newsrooms. The role combines senior product leadership, coaching, and partnerships to help mission-driven news organizations build and scale digital products that strengthen sustainability and audience impact.

Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Lead AJP’s overall Product & AI Studio

• Work with AJP staff, portfolio organizations and industry experts to set a clear, ambitious product strategy for AJP’s Product & AI Studio and guide its execution across internal teams and external partners.
• Set the vision and direction of AJP’s product and AI program including insights development, data strategy, partnerships and audience-focused product initiatives.
• Shape AJP’s approach to AI usage, opportunity identification, guardrails, and portfolio support—ensuring responsible use and long-term sustainability.
• Manage the Product & AI Studio at AJP including consultants and team members.

Serve as a specialist coach to product and technology leaders in portfolio organizations

• Develop a clear perspective on product excellence in nonprofit local news by working closely with AJP-supported newsrooms and establishing models others can follow.
• Work with the Product & AI Studio team to assess product strategy, workflows, and technical capabilities across the portfolio; identify scalable improvements and guide organizations toward high-impact solutions.
• Support portfolio organizations in building and refining product roadmaps, user research practices, audience discovery approaches, funnel analytics, and KPI frameworks and the leadership skills needed to advance all this work
• Roll up your sleeves when needed—serving as an expert thought partner, facilitator, and hands-on collaborator.
• Collaborate with our team of Success Partners (an internal term for our team members who are the primary contacts for AJP’s nonprofit news grantees) and leaders from our Specialized Support and Portfolio Learning teams to ensure product strategy is fully integrated with editorial, revenue, and organizational planning

Build and execute learning experiences and champion product excellence across the portfolio

• Ensure AJP and our grantees are on the forefront of knowledge in product and AI development and implementation by leading an ambitious learning agenda for use cases and best practices of emerging technologies in local news and ensuring those insights are shared broadly.
• Build a community of product leaders across the portfolio to collaborate, share insights, pressure-test ideas, and experiment together.
• Partner with the VP of Portfolio Learning to design and lead accelerators, workshops, and trainings that build product, user research, and AI fluency across the portfolio.
• Create or source templates, guides, playbooks, and case studies that help organizations adopt strong product practices and implement AI tools responsibly and effectively.
• Drive portfolio and staff understanding of product excellence—leading briefings, showcasing emerging practices, and supporting staff-wide learning around AI and product strategy.
• Lead experimentation across the portfolio to test new product approaches, AI-enabled workflows, and tools that can strengthen local news organizations

Cultivate strategic partnerships and oversee technical vendor relationships

• Build on our established relationships with current supporters and steward those relationships and others to ensure continued financial support for the studio.
• Build and steward partnerships with industry-leading technical and product organizations, including vendors to advance the impact of our portfolio of newsrooms and to support the ecosystem in developing strong tools for the industry.
• Network across the journalism, product, and AI ecosystems to ensure AJP stays ahead of trends and remains connected to external innovation.
• Identify industry-leading vendor partners to provide product insights, research and implementation support and manage them to success

What to expect in the hiring process

Our approach to hiring is to create a consistent and transparent process for all candidates. We hope to fill this role as soon as possible, though the hiring process can typically take from a few weeks to several months. We will do our best to communicate with you about timing expectations throughout the process. Please note, every application is reviewed by at least one member of our team, if not more, and we do not use AI or automated tools to screen candidates.

Candidates who advance to later rounds of this process can expect multiple interviews with members of our hiring committee. Semi-finalists will be asked to complete a hiring exercise designed to help us understand your thinking and approach to the role, and you will be offered an optional prep session to ask any questions that will help you put your best foot forward in this process. We aim to truly get to know you, to help you fully understand the role you’re applying for, and to get to know your prospective team.

Please submit an application through our portal. Download the full job description here. If you have any questions please feel free to email careers@theajp.org with “Head of Product & AI Studio” in the subject line.

Information Session

We hosted an information session via Zoom on Feb. 19, 2026. Watch a recording of the session here.

 

The American Journalism Project is dedicated to equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. AJP encourages people of all races, colors, national origins, ancestries, creeds, religions, genders, ages, disabilities, veteran status, sexual orientations, and marital statuses to apply.

Job Requirements:

Background & skills

We know not all strong candidates will have all the skills we list. That’s OK. Research shows that women and people of color are less likely to apply for a position if they don’t meet every skill listed. At AJP, we are committed to creating a better, more diverse, and more inclusive news ecosystem, and that starts with doing the work ourselves. So if your past experience doesn’t align perfectly, but you know this is the role for you – please tell us!

An ideal candidate will have…

• Demonstrated ability to develop best-in-class product strategies rooted in audience needs, organizational sustainability, and mission alignment.
• Deep experience guiding digital product development and innovation, including user research, roadmap design, analytics, and iterative improvement.
• A track record of helping organizations adopt new technologies—especially AI—and implement them safely, ethically, and efficiently to drive measurable results.
• Experience as a senior product or technology leader (e.g., VP of Product, CPO, CTO, Product Director) in a newsroom, nonprofit, or mission-driven organization.
• Experience coaching senior leaders, with the ability to develop, persuade, motivate, and influence across levels and disciplines.
• Strong understanding of how product strategy intersects with audience growth, revenue development, and newsroom operations.
• Experience assessing team capabilities and guiding product and technical teams through growth and change.
• Ready to travel as needed but also excited to work for a remote organization (we are a fully virtual team; however, we estimate this person would need to travel at least 10 times a year, with a heavy focus on conference seasons)
• Experience creating templates, frameworks, and other tools that help others learn and implement product best practices.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear insights and actionable recommendations.
• Strong attention to detail and a commitment to high-quality documentation and analysis.
• A deep appreciation for the role of equity and inclusion in product development and newsroom operations, and a willingness to coach others on turning those values into practice.