Chief Product Officer / Head of Product

We've intentionally advertised this role as Chief Product Officer / Head of Product to attract a broad range of exceptional product leaders. As a scaling company, we're open to candidates with different levels of experience and leadership backgrounds, and we're focused on finding the right person to help shape Ideally's next stage of growth.

About Ideally

The research industry is being rebuilt from the ground up and Ideally is building the platform at the centre of it.

A $30bn market is shifting away from slow, agency-led research toward always-on software that enables faster, repeatable decisions at a fraction of the cost. AI is accelerating this change, automating workflows that once required specialists and putting powerful insight tools directly into the hands of the people who need them.

Ideally is building the decision engine for modern marketing teams, combining consumer data and AI agents that generate insights and recommend actions within a centralised platform. We're enabling consumer understanding to be used early and often in creative and commercial decisions.

We're one of New Zealand's fastest-growing startups, recently closed a Series A, and are scaling into the US. This is an opportunity to define a category, not just contribute to one.

Why work at Ideally

Ideally is a high-performance, high-care environment built for people who want to do the most meaningful work of their career.

We move fast, set a high bar, and expect people to take ownership of outcomes, not just execution. As the company evolves, so will the role. You will be expected to adapt quickly, focus on what matters most, and operate with sound judgement in ambiguous situations.

You will work closely with a small group of highly capable leaders across Product, Engineering, Product Science, Commercial, and Research to build something category-defining.

About this role

This role will shape the future of Ideally's product, AI and customer value strategy. Reporting directly to the CEO, you'll lead the product vision, strategy and execution of an AI-native platform that's fundamentally changing how research is done while driving meaningful commercial outcomes.

You'll spend time with customers and make high-quality product to define what we build, why it matters, and how we win. You'll lead a high-performing product team, and partner closely with our CTO  to create a high-velocity product, engineering and product science system that ships, tests and learns quickly from real customer behaviour.

Depending on your experience, this role has the breadth to operate as either a Head of Product or Chief Product Officer.

What outcomes you'll deliver

• Define and execute a differentiated product strategy that creates lasting competitive advantage.

• Turn complex research into simple, intuitive product experiences that customers rely on to make better decisions.

• Build valuable AI-powered capabilities from our unique consumer dataset.

• Continuously evolve the product roadmap using customer insight, product data, commercial priorities and emerging AI capabilities.

• Drive consistent product adoption, retention and measurable commercial impact.

• Partner closely with Engineering and Product Science to build a high-velocity product delivery system focused on speed, quality and learning.

• Establish clear product metrics and use them to improve adoption, engagement, retention and revenue.

• Build and lead a high-performing product team with strong ownership, accountability and judgement.

• Help evolve the product function and operating model as Ideally continues to scale.

What you'll bring

• Experience leading product teams within high-growth B2B SaaS businesses.

• A track record of building and scaling products that customers genuinely value.

• Strong commercial and product judgement, with the ability to make high-quality decisions in ambiguous environments.

• Experience building AI-native, data-rich or highly technical software products, or a strong understanding of how AI is transforming product development.

• The ability to operate at both strategic and hands-on levels without losing effectiveness in either.

• Experience building, leading, and raising the bar of high-performing teams.

Core capabilities

You'll bring strong commercial and product judgement, with the ability to turn customer problems, behavioural insights and data into products that deliver measurable business impact. Experience across AI product strategy, B2B SaaS, experimentation, UX, behavioural research, data-informed decision making and leading high-performing teams will help you succeed in this role.

System or tool proficiency

Figma, Linear, modern AI development tools, product analytics platforms and experimentation tooling.

Where you'll work

This role is based in Auckland, working closely with Ideally's leadership, Product, Engineering, Product Science, Commercial, and Research teams.

What we offer as perks

• Competitive rewards and upside, including salary and meaningful ESOP

• Growth and progression, with stretch opportunities and exposure as we scale

• Flexibility and autonomy, with a hybrid model and focus on impact rather than hours

• Support that matters, including paid parental leave, fertility support schemes, and wellbeing resources

• A fun, social environment, including our annual company-wide offsite ThinkFest

Perks are table stakes for us. What truly defines Ideally is our high-performance, high-care culture, the calibre of people, the ownership they're given, and the chance to help shape an industry.

Who should apply

This role is suited to someone who wants to build a category-defining product and is comfortable with the pace, ambiguity, and expectations that come with that.

If this excites you, we'd like to hear from you, even if your experience doesn't perfectly match every requirement. We care more about judgement, capability, and how you think than a checklist of credentials.

We also know from research that female and non-binary applicants are less likely to apply unless they feel 100% qualified. If that's you, please take this as your nudge to apply anyway. Focus on the bullet points that reflect your strengths and experience, not the ones that don't.