Job Title: Technical Product Manager, Agrometeorological Products
Reports to: Chief Technical Officer (CTO)
Works closely with: Platform Engineering, Software Development, and Partnership teams
Location: Remote-first. Preference for East/Southern Africa time zone
Contract Type: Full-time (40h per week)
Term: One-Year Fixed-Term Contract, with possibility of renewal
About TomorrowNow
TomorrowNow is rewriting the future of agricultural resilience. By harnessing next-generation weather and climate technology, we empower smallholder farmers to adapt and thrive amidst the challenges of climate change.
From a starting base of 5 million farmers, our ambition is bold: to ultimately reach 100 million farmers with next-generation agromet advisories.
As a climate-tech nonprofit, TomorrowNow combines cutting-edge innovation with on-the-ground action to deliver scalable solutions for those most affected by climate variability.
Our mission is to transform how smallholder farmers access and use climate information — turning it into a powerful lever for growth, resilience, and prosperity.
Role Description
This role owns the development and delivery of TomorrowNow’s agrometeorological product portfolio - from product concept and applied R&D through operational delivery to farmers and institutional partners — with a strong emphasis on:
- Product strategy and roadmap for agromet indices, advisories, decision-support tools, and geospatial features
- Hands-on product and technical development (forecast products, decision-support algorithms, geospatial workflows)
- Applied R&D that feeds the product roadmap (new agromet indices, ensemble methods, probabilistic forecasting approaches)
- Validation and benchmarking to ensure product quality (forecast verification, ground-truth observation networks, systematic evaluation)
- Partner engagement for product input and adoption (NMHS, NARS, and farmer-facing partners co-shaping and adopting agromet products)
- The Technical Product Manager is a mid-career professional with a geospatial and product background and demonstrated experience taking weather, climate, or agricultural data products from concept to operational use.
The role combines product ownership, hands-on technical capability, engineering coordination, and direct donor and partner engagement to move agromet products from concept → prototype → operational delivery → institutional adoption.
Key Responsibilities
Product Development & Ownership
- Own the agromet product roadmap: indices, advisories, decision-support tools, and geospatial features
- Define product requirements, prioritization, and release scope based on partner needs and field evidence
- Take new products from concept through operational delivery — working hands-on, not as a coordinator-only
- Design and develop new agromet products, indices, and advisory content for farmer-facing delivery
- Lead applied R&D that informs the product roadmap: forecast product evaluation, geospatial analysis, ensemble methods, and decision-support algorithm design
- Evaluate new datasets, models, tools, or approaches and make product adoption decisions
- Design validation frameworks and ensure methodological soundness across forecast and geospatial products
- Translate prototypes into production-ready products in collaboration with platform engineering
Engineering Coordination & Delivery
- Work closely with the platform engineering team to convert product prototypes into production features
- Lead product delivery: maintain delivery plans, timelines, scope, and task tracking
- Coordinate across engineering, geospatial, and external contributors to ship product releases
- Participate in engineering sprint planning and technical design decisions
- Proactively identify risks, dependencies, and execution bottlenecks; drive resolution
- Manage multiple concurrent product workstreams with minimal supervision
Technical Contribution & Content Development
- Intermediate Python proficiency — able to write, modify, and review analysis scripts, geospatial workflows, validation pipelines, and data processing code
- Develop new agromet content independently: advisory algorithms, index calculations, geospatial analysis workflows, and data products
- Expected to leverage AI-assisted coding tools (e.g., LLMs) to accelerate development, prototype systems, and extend capabilities beyond core expertise
- Partner with the engineering team to translate prototypes into production-ready platform features
- This role requires hands-on technical capability to build new products, not just coordinate others. The ability to independently produce working analyses, prototype new indices, ship product specs, and collaborate with engineers on implementation is essential.
Partner & Stakeholder Engagement
- Engage NMHS, NARS, and farmer-facing partners directly to capture product input and validate fit
- Run demos, feedback sessions, and pilots to inform product iteration
- Build and maintain relationships with key technical partners and stakeholders
- Represent TomorrowNow in external meetings with donors, NMHS partners, and academic collaborators
- Prepare and present clear product documentation, status updates, and strategic summaries
- Develop donor-facing product materials (slides, reports, progress summaries, proposal inputs)
Qualifications
Education
- MSc (advantageous) in one of the following or a closely related field:
- Geospatial Science, Remote Sensing, or Earth Observation
- Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, or Agrometeorology
- Climate Science or Environmental Science
- Agricultural Science with a weather/climate or geospatial focus
- Earth Science, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or Computational Earth Science
Experience
- 5–10 years of professional experience in product development, geospatial programs, applied meteorology, climate services, agricultural technology, or a related operational field
- Strong product background — demonstrated experience designing, developing, and delivering data-driven products or services to end users, with ownership of the product lifecycle
- Demonstrated experience taking new products from concept through operational delivery
- Track record of working with geospatial, weather, climate, or agricultural datasets in operational (not purely academic) settings
- Experience with international development contexts, donor-funded programs, or partnerships with NMHS/NARS
- Experience coordinating with software development teams to ship product features
Technical & Learning Capability
- Intermediate Python proficiency — able to write, modify, review, and debug analysis scripts, geospatial workflows, and data pipelines
- Strong familiarity with geospatial and climate data formats (NetCDF, GeoTIFF, CSV), GIS tools, and earth observation platforms
- Demonstrated willingness and ability to adopt new tools rapidly, including AI-assisted coding and analysis workflows
- Able to translate partner needs into product requirements and technical specifications
- Able to bridge scientific requirements and engineering implementation effectively
- Comfortable operating in a startup environment with evolving requirements and broad scope
Preferred (Not Required)
- Product management experience in a technology or data services organization (formal PM training a plus)
- Experience running geospatial products or programs at scale (earth observation, remote sensing, spatial analysis, geospatial platforms)
- Direct experience delivering agricultural weather products or farmer advisory tools in Africa
- Working relationships with NMHS or NARS in East or Southern Africa
- Familiarity with WMO/FAO agromet frameworks, DCAS, or climate services value chains
- Experience with forecast verification, validation methodologies, or ensemble forecasting
- Experience managing donor relationships with major foundations, government agencies, or international organizations
A Typical Week
This role blends deep technical product work with engineering coordination and external engagement.
Time Allocation & Activity
- ~40% Product & Technical Development
Designing and prototyping new agromet products, indices, and advisory algorithms; running validation analyses; building geospatial workflows; reviewing data pipelines. Hands-on Python, xarray, GEE work
- ~25% Engineering Coordination & Product Delivery
Working with platform engineering on sprint planning, handoff of prototypes to production, technical design decisions, release coordination, risk management, and delivery tracking
- ~20% Partner & Stakeholder Engagement
Calls with NMHS/NARS and farmer-facing partners to capture product input, demos and feedback sessions, donor update preparation, workshop delivery, partner relationship management
- ~15% Documentation & Reporting
Product specs, technical documentation, donor deliverables, validation result write-ups, release notes, and partner-facing materials
Tools & Platforms
The person in this role will work with the following tools and platforms daily. Deep expertise is not expected at hire - willingness and ability to learn quickly is.
Category & Tools:
Core Platform
Internal geospatial platform, APIs, and integration framework
Data & Geospatial
NetCDF, GeoTIFF, xarray, Google Earth Engine, QGIS, satellite-derived soil and rainfall products
Forecast Products
Multiple NWP and ML-based forecast models, reanalysis products, ensemble systems
Validation
Weather station networks, ground-truth sensors, custom validation frameworks
Development
Python (pandas, numpy, scipy, xarray), Git/GitHub, Jupyter, AI coding assistants
Product Management
GitHub Projects, Linear / Jira, Figma (for product specs), Google Workspace, Slack
Travel & Location
Category & Details:
Location
Remote-first. Preference for candidates based in or near East/Southern Africa time zones
Travel
Approximately 20–30%. Regular product missions, partner workshops, and field validation visits across East Africa (Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda) and West Africa. Occasional travel to partner institutions and donor meetings
Working Hours
Flexible. Must have overlap with East Africa (EAT, UTC+3) and periodic overlap with US time zones for donor calls and internal coordination