Special Projects Lead - New Ventures

We strongly encourage applications from people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

If there’s anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let us know.

About Cleo

Most people come to Cleo to do work that matters. Every day, we empower people to build a life beyond their next paycheck, building a beloved AI that enables you to forge your own path toward financial well-being.

Backed by some of the most well-known investors in tech, we’ve reached millions of people to support them throughout their financial lives, from their first paycheck to their first home and beyond. We're hitting headlines too. This year, Forbes named us as one of their Next Billion Dollar Startups, and we were crowned the 'Hottest Tech Scaleup' at the Europas.

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The Role

As Special Projects Lead - New Ventures, you will be responsible for leading Cleo’s New Product Concept Discovery process from end-to-end, driving the development and validation of new, high-impact product concepts aimed at diversifying Cleo's revenue streams. You will oversee the creation of foundational insights from market and customer research, facilitate ideation, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure each idea is thoroughly vetted. You’ll be instrumental in shaping Cleo’s strategy to discover new user needs, explore emerging trends, and identify opportunities within and outside the fintech space.

This is a high-impact, senior role where your work will directly contribute to Cleo’s diversification goals by generating a pipeline of validated, revenue-generating product concepts. You will need to drive pace, clarity, and alignment across Cleo's leadership while ensuring the smooth handover of validated ideas to product squads for build and launch.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Concept Discovery End-to-End: You will manage the entire pre-build pipeline, including research, ideation, concept development, and concept vetting.
• Validate New Product Concepts: Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure each concept is rigorously vetted for commercial viability, market potential, and customer impact.
• Drive Alignment with Leadership: You will work closely with senior leadership to ensure strategic prioritization and alignment on New Bets strategy, concept definitions, and go/no-go decisions.
• Concept Development: Collaborate closely with product and design teams to transform initial ideas into well-defined hypotheses, shaping the value proposition, product vision, and business model.
• Develop Foundational Insights: Work with PMM, research, and analytics teams to conduct comprehensive market and customer research, identifying whitespace opportunities and customer needs that can fuel ideation.
• Manage Idea Intake Process: Own the volume, quality, and relevance of ideas produced, using a combination of always-on and targeted workshops to ensure a steady pipeline of opportunities.
• Smooth Handover: Ensure the validated concepts are seamlessly transitioned to the product squads for MLP development, with a clear understanding of underlying assumptions and strategies for scaling.

Ideal Profile

• 0→1 Proposition Development Experience: You have senior experience in developing new propositions from scratch (either as a PM or outside of product)
• Strategic Research and Commercial Outcomes: Proven ability to lead strategic research initiatives and deliver commercial outcomes that impact revenue and growth.
• Complex Initiative Leadership: Experience in running complex initiatives in fast-moving environments with multiple stakeholders, ideally with B2C experience.
• Stakeholder Management: You're adept at managing senior stakeholders, including founders, to drive alignment and decision-making.
• Fintech Experience: Experience in fintech is a plus, but not required.
• High Growth Environment: You thrive in fast-paced, high-growth companies and have a bias toward action and speed.

What’s the Process Like?

We aim to move as fast as possible. Usually 2-3 weeks is enough time for us all to get to know each other.

• Step 1: 30 mins video call with a member of our Talent Team to find out more about your experience and why you’re potentially interested in Cleo.
• Step 2: 
• 1 hour with the Hiring Manager - Tom May, Product Director - New Ventures.
• 30 mins with Alex from our Commercial Team
• Step 3: Take home task interview, presented to our Product Director and VP Growth
• Step 4: 45 minutes each with two cross-functional peers 

What do you get for all your hard work?

• • A competitive compensation package (base + equity) with reviews every 8 months. You can view our public progression framework and salary bandings here: https://cleo-ai.progressionapp.com/ - This position is a PM4 level and we can pay £102,535 - £127,707 depending on experience.
  • Work at one of the fastest-growing tech startups, backed by top VC firms like Sofina, Balderton & EQT Ventures.
  • A clear progression plan. We want you to keep growing. That means trying new things, leading others, challenging the status quo and owning your impact. Always with our complete support.
  • Flexibility: We treat you as humans first, employees second. Because we can’t fight for the world’s financial health, if we’re not healthy ourselves. This means all the usual perks but it also means flexibility. We take pride in being a flexible workplace that trusts our Cleople to deliver their best work, giving you the autonomy to structure your day around morning drop-offs to school or daily dog walks.
  • Hybrid-first: Join our hybrid-first team, where we blend the best of both remote and in-office work. We expect our team members to be in our London office 1-2 times a week. On Thursdays, we buy you lunch but you can come to the office on whichever days work best for you!
  • Other benefits;
    • 25 days annual leave a year + public holidays (+ an additional day for every year you spend at Cleo)
    • Check out our new benefits package here: https://web.meetcleo.com/blog/big-benefits-energy-the-latest-cleo-employee-benefits
    • 6% employer-matched pension in the UK
    • Company-wide performance reviews every 8 months e.g every 2 terms, in line with our termly cycles (Jan-April, May-Aug, Sept-Dec):
      • Generous pay increases for high-performers and high-growth team members
      • Equity top-ups for team members getting promoted
    • Private Medical Insurance via Vitality, dental cover, and life assurance
    • Enhanced parental leave
    • 1 month paid sabbatical after 4 years at Cleo
    • Regular socials and activities, online and in-person
    • We'll pay for your OpenAI subscription
    • Online mental health support via Spill
    • And many more!