Head of Product Development

About the role

Basic Capital is building a new wealth system for everyday Americans, and we are doing it by unlocking access to capital markets in a way the world has not seen before. As Head of Product Development, you own the mandate to fundamentally rethink, rebuild, and innovate across every layer of retirement investing, from strategy and structure to incentives and outcomes. You will own the end to end product lifecycle for both accumulation and de accumulation offerings, translating complex market structure and regulation into simple, robust products that customers can trust. This role requires you to design new investment products and strategies with creativity, rigor, and a bias toward shipping solutions that feel inevitable in hindsight. You will own the vision for how Basic Capital builds wealth over time, leading initiatives that redefine what retirement investing can be for every American.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define the product vision for how Basic Capital builds wealth over time and establish the north star metrics that prove its impact on customer outcomes.

Design new investment products and strategies that align with our mission and customer needs, using first principles thinking to challenge legacy assumptions about retirement.

Lead the development of retirement income products, including annuities and lifetime income solutions that convert savings into durable, flexible outcomes people can rely on.

Build products that help people convert savings into durable, flexible retirement outcomes while balancing risk, liquidity, and regulatory constraints.

Improve and scale our suite of accumulation products across registered and unregistered exempted offerings to serve customers at every stage of their retirement journey.

Develop new strategies, packaging, and product structures that unlock better outcomes for customers and create clear value propositions in crowded markets.

Partner cross functionally with investing, legal and compliance, operations, and distribution to shepherd products from concept through launch and ongoing optimization.

Iterate on product design to improve performance, simplicity, and adoption, using customer feedback and data to drive continuous refinement.

Create products that are not only financially sound but also clearly positioned and branded for distinct customer segments and use cases.

Design structures that can scale through distribution channels and capital markets, ensuring they are robust, efficient, and defensible over time.

Build a product roadmap that compounds into a durable advantage for Basic Capital by sequencing launches to maximize learning and market impact.

Own the documentation and rationale behind each product decision, creating a clear narrative that connects market insights, regulatory realities, and customer needs.

Establish guardrails and success criteria for new products, defining what good looks like before, during, and after launch.

Champion experimentation within a rigorous framework, testing new ideas quickly while maintaining the highest standards for risk management and customer protection.

Act as the primary product owner across the retirement investing stack, coordinating stakeholders to deliver coherent, market ready solutions on schedule.

Requirements

You must have direct experience designing, structuring, and launching investment products, with a track record of seeing at least one product through conception to sustained market use.

You must possess a strong understanding of retirement investing across both accumulation and de accumulation strategies, including how they interact over the full lifecycle of a customer.

You must be able to operate effectively across product, investing, legal and compliance, operations, and distribution, synthesizing diverse inputs into coherent product decisions.

You must demonstrate strong strategic thinking paired with execution velocity, balancing long term vision with the ability to deliver tangible results in fast moving environments.

You must be comfortable working in ambiguity with high ownership and high accountability, making decisions despite incomplete information while maintaining rigorous analytical discipline.

You must have deep knowledge of investment products and market structure, including how different instruments behave under varying market conditions and regulatory regimes.

You must have a builder mindset and an obsession with creating products that actually ship, prioritizing simplicity, clarity, and usability without sacrificing rigor.

You must have high standards for rigor, clarity, and customer outcomes, insisting that every product decision is traceable to a clear rationale and measurable impact.

Nice to have

Experience with annuities, lifetime income products, or retirement income strategy that demonstrates comfort with de accumulation mechanics and customer needs in later life.

Familiarity with registered and unregistered exempted product structures, including how tax treatment and eligibility rules shape product design.

A background in asset management, fintech investing products, or structured product development that has exposed you to complex trade offs between risk, cost, and flexibility.

You have launched products that required cross functional coordination and regulatory rigor, showing you can navigate complex stakeholder landscapes while maintaining momentum.

You enjoy building new markets, not just participating in existing ones, indicating a willingness to experiment, learn, and define category standards for retirement investing.

Practical notes

This role is full time based in our New York Office in SoHo.

We expect immediate availability and a long term commitment to building with us as we scale.

Candidates must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship at this time.

Travel is not required for this role, though occasional in person collaboration with our New York team may be needed.

This role reports to senior leadership and operates with high autonomy, requiring strong judgment, discretion, and proactive communication.