Senior Technical Product Manager

About Cogent

Cogent Labs, an AI startup based in Tokyo, has been at the forefront of AI innovation for a decade since 2014. Our journey has been marked by rapid growth and cutting-edge technological advancements, making us a prime destination for ambitious professionals seeking to make a real world impact in solving a wide range of business problems.

Our flagship product, SmartRead, has revolutionized document processing with its advanced AI based automated document processing capabilities. Building on this success, we're expanding our portfolio with SmartFind, which uses conversational interface like Chat GPT, and workflow automation tools in 2025. What sets us apart is our commitment in developing in-house, cutting-edge AI technology including proprietary large document models.

At Cogent Labs, we foster a culture of ownership and teamwork like a professional sports team. We are a meritocratic, results-driven team, looking for a self-starter and highly motivated individuals who thrive on challenges in a closely collaborating team environment.

While our engineering team faces exciting technical challenges everyday, the team maintains exceptionally high standards for each other, creating a supportive environment that encourages knowledge sharing and collaborative learning and work. Also, if you're ambitious, you'll have plenty of opportunities to propose new ideas, own them and lead projects at any level.

Job Summary

This role involves translating our cutting-edge AI technology into successful B2B SaaS products, bridging the gap between deep technical development and strategic business goals. As a TPM, you will not only identify market needs but also deeply understand the technical characteristics of AI (Deep Learning, NLP, etc.) to define feasible and scalable product specifications in close collaboration with our engineering team. You will leverage your technical understanding, B2B market knowledge, and language fluency (Japanese/English) to drive product innovation and success.

Responsibilities

• Technical Requirement Definition & Feasibility: Understand customer needs and market trends to create detailed technical specifications (PRDs) that account for AI model performance limits and system architecture, ensuring development feasibility.
• Bridge Engineering and Business: Act as the key interface between technical teams (Engineers/Researchers), business stakeholders (Sales, Marketing, Leadership), and strategic partners, translating complex technical concepts into business value.
• Lead Technical Product Roadmap: Develop product strategies and own the execution of roadmaps for AI-based document automation and workflow solutions, staying ahead of future technological trends.
• Contribute to Engineering Culture: Foster a culture of teamwork, knowledge sharing, and experimentation to empower the development team and maintain high standards of technical excellence.

Required skills

Required qualifications

• PM Experience: 5+ years of Product Management experience, ideally with B2B SaaS products.
• Technical Literacy: Proven ability to understand complex technical concepts and effectively connect them to business strategy and market needs.
• R&D Collaboration: Demonstrated success working directly with R&D and engineering teams to deliver products.
• Language Proficiency: Fluent Japanese (written and spoken) and Business level English.
• Soft Skills: Strong strategic thinking, leadership, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Nice to have qualifications

• Experience with AI/ML, document processing, and workflow automation.
• Knowledge/understanding of standard Japanese business processes, especially in Procure-to-Pay (P2P) and Supply Chain areas, including relevant tools (ERP, TMS) and documents (Invoice, PO, etc.).
• Bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) or Business field is preferred (STEM degrees are highly prioritized).

Why Join Cogent Labs

• Directly influence product strategy and technology direction, reporting to the CTO.
• Play a foundational role in a new, high-impact team.
• Join an innovative tech company in a dynamic environment.
• Competitive compensation and benefits package.

Team culture

The Cogent Labs engineering department is continuously working towards developing a culture improving and rewarding the following qualities:

• Team effort: A cohesive team can be more effective than an isolated prodigy. Engineers are expected to work well in groups and look for opportunities to empower their colleagues.
• Ownership: Take full responsibility for your own projects and tasks and if needed, cross over boundaries in order to successfully deliver your project.
• Self-improvement: Create an environment where engineers can focus on their engineering tasks and self-improvement without excessive outside disturbances.
• Experimentation: Engineers should have some freedom in experimenting with new ideas and technologies, as this ultimately could translate into building better products or the creation of valuable new IP.
• Quality & Excellence: Maintaining a mindset of developing high quality features and code. We avoid cutting corners as much as possible.
• Customer Service: Being customer focused, not only externally but internally as well. This means developing services that not only improve the experience of our end customers, but also being ‘customer service’ oriented within your team and the company as a whole by helping out others and sharing knowledge.

The ideal candidate

• Can empathize Cogent Labs’ VISION and MISSION.
• Is a team player who aims for higher goals.
• Has integrity and humility, and shows respect and gratitude to others.
• Prefers open and transparent communication.
• Has a strong growth mindset.
• Can receive feedback positively and provide constructive feedback to others.