Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative, founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, that bets early on exceptional people making the world better. We knit talent into networks, bet on the most promising ideas through diverse forms of competition and support, and equip people to scale through partners and modern tools. To realize this vision, Schmidt Futures uses a broad set of tools — including gifts, grants, investments, and startup activity — for charitable, educational, and commercial efforts with a public purpose. Our initiative brings together the efforts of various charitable and non-charitable entities to improve our potential impact by making diverse types of capital available to the efforts we support.
Schmidt Futures bets on smart, talented visionaries and teams working on the world’s most pressing challenges. Technology often plays a key role in solving these challenges and our team of engineers, designers, and product managers works at this intersection of technology and social impact. We partner with programs, organizations, and government agencies to turn discoveries, innovations, and ideas into products that benefit society. Associate Product Managers (APMs) join this team as graduating seniors or recent college graduates who are entrepreneurial technologists eager to change the world. Schmidt Futures is now accepting applications for the Fall 2023 APM class.
The Program
The Schmidt Futures APM Program cultivates and trains a group of exceptional young leaders applying their technical talents toward social impact. Over the course of two years, APMs rotate among a range of projects, operating with ownership and autonomy while learning from senior leaders at Schmidt Futures and partner organizations. Some rotations may involve work with government or civil society for engagements of up to 9 months.
Throughout the program, APMS will:
- Build products that leverage technology to further Schmidt Futures’ goals and benefit society
- Participate in and contribute to the APM program community, including leadership training and mentoring from distinguished leaders, immersion trips to learn about unique challenges in different markets, and collaborations across organizations and industries
- Implement Schmidt Futures organizational and programmatic initiatives, in collaboration with teammates who have expertise ranging from policy and international relations to data science and education
APMs “graduate” ready to manage teams, start businesses, lead organizations, and become social and policy entrepreneurs. The program is a two-year, full-time commitment, based in New York, with travel as needed.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead projects that apply some or all of the product development process.
- Join internal and external teams of cross-functional experts (including Schmidt Futures teammates and the leaders of social impact organizations or government agencies)
- Conduct user research and synthesize findings into actionable insights
- Define product goals and success metrics
- Craft product requirements and build a roadmap, working closely with other functions (e.g. engineering, design, communications/marketing, policy)
- Build relationships across teams and organizations through humility, curiosity, and generosity
- Contribute to a community of like-minded technologists.
- Contribute to and help shape the APM program
- Share lessons and best practices with the Schmidt Futures team and the public interest tech community, more broadly
- Work alongside and mentor the next class of APMs
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
- Creative and entrepreneurial. Brings a fresh perspective and celebrates new, better ideas.
- Flexible problem solver. Able to work through ambiguity to take on and solve challenges.
- Biased toward impact. Gets things done, with a track record of successful landings.
- User-focused. Gets to know users well in order to help create the most personalized impact.
- Ownership attitude. Eager to do whatever needs to be done to get a product out into the world, forging trust with teammates through humility and hard work.
- Curious. Excited to learn. Able to get up to speed quickly and go deep on new topics.
- Mission-driven. Committed to advancing society through the principles and values that drive Schmidt Futures: to find exceptional people and help them do more for others.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering or Computer Science (with graduation expected by June 2023) or an equivalent level of training and expertise.
- A demonstrated ability or interest in applying science and technology to solve social problems.
- Be based at the Schmidt Futures offices in New York and travel within the U.S. and internationally regularly as needed following company policy and permitting circumstances.
