Senior Product Manager, Recommendations

Roku
New York, US
On-siteCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Aimed at senior product managers with technical depth in ML/AI-driven recommendations, operating across multiple surfaces in the streaming media industry.

Best fit for

  • Senior PMs who have driven ML/AI product initiatives end-to-end
    — “7+ years of product management experience, ideally in recommendations, personalization, search/discovery, or ML/AI-driven product areas
  • Candidates comfortable engaging in technical discussions with ML engineers
    — “Ability to engage meaningfully in technical discussions about model performance, feature engineering, and system architecture
  • Leaders who can influence cross-functional teams without direct authority
    — “demonstrated ability to influence and drive alignment across engineering, data science, design, business, and content teams without direct authority

Things to consider

  • High ownership role with expectations for extreme accountability
    — “Move fast and demonstrate extreme ownership of outcomes
  • Requires maintaining tight alignment with multiple partner teams
    — “Maintain 100% lockstep with partners in ML Research and Engineering, Merchandising, and Analytics

How to stand out

  • Showcase specific examples of driving material outcomes from ambiguous initiatives
    — “track record of driving complex, ambiguous initiatives end-to-end
  • Highlight experience with recommendation systems at scale (100M+ users)
    — “Familiarity with recommendation systems, content ranking, collaborative filtering, or personalization at scale (100M+ users)
  • Prepare clear metrics frameworks used in past recommendation experiments
    — “propose clear primary decision metrics and supporting metrics for every initiative
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · CompanyLevel · Senior

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • driving measurable outcomes for user engagement and business value
  • leading strategic themes through deep analysis
Typical background
product management experiencebackground in technology or media

Skills & requirements

Required

Product StrategyData-driven Decision MakingCross-functional CollaborationKPI Definition

Preferred

Machine LearningDigital Marketing

Stack & domain

Product StrategyExperimentsUser Engagement KpisBusiness Model OutcomesMl/ai Recommendations EcosystemHigh OwnershipHigh VisibilityOperating Across Multiple SurfacesPartnering Closely With Engineering, Ux, Data Science, Content, Business, And Cross-functional PmsProduct ManagementRecommendationsUser Engagement

About the role

Original posting from Roku

Teamwork makes the stream work.

 

Roku is changing how the world watches TV

Roku is the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and we've set our sights on powering every television in the world. Roku pioneered streaming to the TV. Our mission is to be the TV streaming platform that connects the entire TV ecosystem. We connect consumers to the content they love, enable content publishers to build and monetize large audiences, and provide advertisers unique capabilities to engage consumers.

From your first day at Roku, you'll make a valuable - and valued - contribution. We're a fast-growing public company where no one is a bystander. We offer you the opportunity to delight millions of TV streamers around the world while gaining meaningful experience across a variety of disciplines.

 

About the Team

Roku's Recommendations team powers nearly all Roku-controlled UI surfaces, presenting content, apps, and offers through personalized browse pages, carousels, rows, and destination experiences across 100+ surfaces. The system matches over 100M viewers to millions of entertainment entities daily, optimizing for user engagement, monetization, and long-term platform health.

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Product Manager to own and drive critical product areas within Recommendations. In this role, you will be responsible for defining product strategy, leading experiments, and delivering measurable outcomes that drive viewer engagement KPIs and business model outcomes (for ad-supported, subscription, and TVOD/PVOD), through the ML/AI recommendations ecosystem.

This is a high-ownership, high-visibility role. You will operate across multiple surfaces and partner closely with engineering, UX, data science, content, business, and cross-functional PMs to shape how Roku's recommendations platform serves users and the business.

For New York Only - The estimated annual salary for this position is between $195,000 - $303,000 annually. Compensation packages are based on factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, certifications, and specific geographical location. This role is eligible for health insurance, equity awards, life insurance, disability benefits, parental leave, wellness benefits, and paid time off.

What You’ll Be Doing

Define and own the product strategy and roadmap for your area within Platform Recommendations, with a focus on maximizing user engagement and business value across all monetization models

Identify unique problem spaces across surfaces and develop strategic recommendations backed by data and analysis

Drive material outcomes from strategic themes: Drive material outcomes from strategic themes through deep, independent analysis, quantified impact, coherent recommendations, and leadership-ready proposals

Articulate customer and business problems clearly: Articulate customer and business problems clearly, evaluate options and trade-offs, and develop sequenced roadmaps that move the ball forward strategically

Lead KPI definition and defense: propose clear primary decision metrics and supporting metrics for every initiative, especially in ambiguous domains where north-star KPIs are not easily defined

Own experiment design end-to-end: define test contracts and hold the line on experimental rigor

Drive experiments to decisions: ensure every test is tied to a concrete decision or roadmap change, and prevent KPI drift by proactively aligning stakeholders

Move fast and demonstrate extreme ownership of outcomes: actively track, unblock, and push for value, and propose concrete options when faced with trade-offs

Maintain 100% lockstep with partners: Maintain 100% lockstep with partners in ML Research and Engineering, Merchandising, and Analytics with detail orientation and ensure alignment on strategy, outcomes and requirements/timelines

Communicate with clarity and conciseness: Communicate with clarity and conciseness, with high signal-to-noise in written documents, messaging, presentations and verbal discussions

Proactively keep stakeholders informed: Proactively keep stakeholders informed of progress, risks, and blockers with specific impacts, options and recommended paths

 

We’re Excited If You Have

7+ years of product management experience, ideally in recommendations, personalization, search/discovery, or ML/AI-driven product areas

Strong analytical rigor: comfort with experiment design, A/B testing, statistical significance, and metric frameworks. Ability to define, defend, and prevent drift on KPIs

Proven ownership and bias to action: track record of driving complex, ambiguous initiatives end-to-end — from problem framing through strategy to shipped outcomes. You escalate early, propose alternatives, and don't let work stall

Technical depth: experience working closely with ML engineers and data scientists on ranking, optimization, and signal-based systems. Ability to engage meaningfully in technical discussions about model performance, feature engineering, and system architecture

Excellent cross-functional leadership: demonstrated ability to influence and drive alignment across engineering, data science, design, business, and content teams without direct authority

Outcome-oriented experimentation mindset: experience designing and running experiments that drive real product and business decisions

Clear, concise communicator: strong written and verbal skills; ability to present strategy, trade-offs, and recommendations to executive leadership

Experience in streaming, media, entertainment, or large-scale content platforms

Familiarity with recommendation systems, content ranking, collaborative filtering, or personalization at scale (100M+ users)

Experience with GenAI/LLM applications in product discovery, content understanding, or signal generation

Experience operating across multiple product surfaces (TV, mobile, web) with different user behaviors and constraints

BS/MS in a quantitative field (engineering, CS, mathematics); MBA a plus

#LI-SSC 

Our Hybrid Work Approach

Roku fosters an inclusive and collaborative environment where teams work in the office Monday through Thursday. Fridays are flexible for remote work except for employees whose roles are required to be in the office five days a week or employees who are in offices with a five day in office policy.

 

Benefits

Roku is committed to offering a diverse range of benefits as part of our compensation package to support our employees and their families. Our comprehensive benefits include global access to mental health and financial wellness support and resources. Local benefits include statutory and voluntary benefits which may include healthcare (medical, dental, and vision), life, accident, disability, commuter, and retirement options (401(k)/pension). Employees are supported in taking time off, in accordance with local leave policies and other personal needs to support their evolving work and life needs. It's important to note that not every benefit is available in all locations or for every role. For details specific to your location, please consult with your recruiter.

 

Accommodations

Roku welcomes applicants of all backgrounds and provides reasonable accommodations and adjustments in accordance with applicable law. If you require reasonable accommodation at any point in the hiring process, please direct your inquiries to EmployeeRelations@Roku.com.

 

The Roku Culture

Roku is a great place for people who want to work in a fast-paced environment where everyone is focused on the company's success rather than their own. We try to surround ourselves with people who are great at their jobs, who are easy to work with, and who keep their egos in check. We appreciate a sense of humor. We believe a fewer number of very talented folks can do more for less cost than a larger number of less talented teams. We're independent thinkers with big ideas who act boldly, move fast and accomplish extr

Source: Roku careers

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