Senior Product Manager, Caper Recommendations & Personalization

Overview

Caper is at the forefront of Physical AI, building smart shopping carts that sense and respond to the real world in real time. By bringing intelligence onto the cart, Caper digitizes the entire in-store shopping journey, turning every trip into an interactive, personalized experience from the first item added to checkout. Our plug-and-play technology requires no store renovation or operational overhaul — retailers simply add Caper Carts and instantly upgrade their stores into connected, intelligent shopping environments. Caper is one of the fastest-growing retail automation technology products in the market and is already widely adopted across the industry.

We are looking for a Senior Product Manager to own recommendations and personalization on the Caper Cart. In this role, you will define how the cart decides what to show each shopper, when to show it, and how it adapts to who they are. Every recommendation, moment of inspiration, and ranking decision on the cart screen runs through the systems you will build and refine.

This is a unique opportunity to sit at the intersection of recommendation systems, machine learning, and a physical shopping experience that unfolds in real time as a customer moves through a store. You will blend ML and data science work with hands-on UX design thinking, partnering closely with Instacart's discovery and personalization platforms while shaping a first-of-its-kind experience for the Caper customer. You will report to the Group Product Manager for Caper Customer Value and work alongside a tight-knit team of three product managers, with broad cross-functional reach across Engineering, Data Science, Design, Ads, and Operations.

About the Job

• Set and own the vision for recommendations and personalization on Caper. Caper turns the store itself into a personalization surface, where every item added and every step through the store is a chance to show something useful in the moment. You will drive Engagement as a primary pillar metric — growing customer interactions, building monetizable surfaces, and diversifying the content mix to serve savings, discovery, and health-focused shoppers.
• Own the system that decides what to show and when. Mature recommendation and item ranking using machine learning, including LLM-based techniques, and use real-time signals — cart location and motion, lists, search, and Instacart personalization data — to deliver content at the moments it is most relevant rather than constant or intrusive.
• Drive AI-first innovation to expand what Caper shows shoppers. Ship net-new content types with nuanced product information and pairings tailored to each individual, and lead the architecture for capturing real-time, in-session signals that make personalization feel genuinely intelligent.
• Champion a high-quality, intuitive shopping experience by partnering closely with Design to translate complex personalization logic into interactions that feel simple and natural on the cart screen. Spend time in labs and partner stores to observe real shopper behavior, test features, and iterate quickly based on what you learn.
• Run a fast, experiment-driven roadmap and serve as the product lead for recommendations and personalization across the organization — aligning senior stakeholders on strategy, tradeoffs, and progress, and partnering cross-functionally with Engineering, Data Science, Design, Ads, and Operations from discovery through launch with clear PRDs and measurable success criteria.

About You

Minimum Qualifications

• 3+ years of product management experience or equivalent practical experience
• Experience partnering with ML or data science teams to ship models into a production consumer product
• Experience defining and driving engagement or relevance metrics, and using experimentation to move them
• Demonstrated ability to leverage data and quantitative analysis to make sound decisions in ambiguous environments
• Track record of close partnership with UX design teams and applying strong design thinking practices throughout the product development process
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with experience presenting to large groups and aligning multiple senior stakeholders on strategy and tradeoffs

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building recommendation, personalization, ranking, or search products
• Experience with consumer-facing hardware, IoT, or physical retail products
• Familiarity with retail, grocery, ads, or marketplace recommendation systems

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