Product Director, Programmable Voice
Indexed description
The role targets the global SMB, mid-market and voice-AI startup segments and enterprises — customers typically in the €10–100k ARR range — who want the capabilities large API platforms offer but cannot justify building and operating lower-level voice products themselves. It closes a structural gap in the portfolio: today Proximus Global has no SMB voice offering in any market, while external CPaaS players capture the higher-margin application layer on top of our own wholesale assets.
This role owns the end-to-end product journey — from proposition definition through market launch and international scaling — leading a team of product managers and working cross-functionally across BICS, Konera and Telesign. The successful candidate will build the partner ecosystem and commercial model that position Proximus Global as a trusted, AI-ready challenger to Twilio, Bandwidth and Vonage in selected use cases and priority regions.
Key Responsibilities
Team Leadership
- Lead, mentor and develop a team of product managers across discovery, launch and scale-up stages
- Balance strategic guidance with hands-on support to bring a greenfield product to market at the pace of the category
- Build a product culture rooted in accountability, customer evidence, speed and AI-assisted ways of working
- Own and evolve the Programmable Voice strategy, positioning the offering as the trusted L4 challenger to established global API platforms in selected use cases and priority regions
- Maintain a clear, phased roadmap: near term — number masking, branded calling and the AI voice agent on a programmable call-control engine, real-time media streaming and self-serve distribution; mid term — transcription, translation and language handling, notifications, flash calling, voicemail, recording, AI-capable IVR, CRM/workflow connectors and agentic exposure; long term — voice embedded natively into major LLM runtimes and agent frameworks
- Enforce scope discipline against the agreed exclusions: no direct large-enterprise motion (retained by BICS Cloud Communications), no race to the cheapest per-minute pipe, no in-house foundation voice models, and one global product with regional adapters rather than parallel codebases
- Identify market opportunities, customer needs and competitive positioning across Europe, North America, MEA, LATAM and Asia-Pacific
- Own the full product lifecycle, from ideation through launch to scaling, on a global footprint from day one
- Define and execute product plans, timelines and budgets, and steer build-versus-buy and platform architecture decisions for the greenfield OSS/BSS stack
- Ensure timely delivery within scope and quality expectations, including clean integration into BICS Cloud Communications, Konera and Telesign
- Define and own the usage-based commercial model — per minute for voice and the AI voice agent, per number for DID, per verified call for branded calling — packaged into SMB-friendly plans with sensible add-ons rather than enterprise-only custom pricing
- Build and defend the business case against a serviceable market of roughly $3.4B in 2026 growing to $6.2B by 2030, and against agreed run-rate ambitions
- Manage internal transfer pricing with BICS, Konera and Telesign on an arm’s-length basis within the agreed group envelope
- Evolve pricing over time from pure per-minute charging toward bundled platform and subscription models
- Own a self-serve, product-led motion: portal and dashboard, SDK and ADK, enabling an SMB anywhere in the world to operate the product without a dedicated implementation programme
- Sequence commercial launch by region — Europe and North America first, with Latin America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific following as regulatory and identity-signal models mature
- Recruit lead customers and design partners among voice-AI startups, including the Y Combinator conversational-AI cohort, and position the platform explicitly around their needs
- Ensure the proposition remains uniform globally: the same product, the same SDK, the same trust signals, wherever the customer operates
- Build and manage the partner ecosystem: Cognigy for conversational-AI orchestration, ElevenLabs for natural agent voice, Hiya and regional attestation partners (including STIR/SHAKEN in North America) for branded calling, and Telesign for fraud and identity scoring
- Engage major LLM providers and agent-framework owners early to shape the voice APIs, media streaming, identity signals, routing features and compliance support that AI-agent developers need
- Preserve strategic optionality — avoid deep dependence on any single hyperscaler voice stack and avoid exclusive lock-in to any one AI vendor
- Drive alignment with BICS Cloud Communications on SIP trunking, numbering and branded calling, maximising reuse of existing capability and avoiding duplicate development
- Partner with Konera on network identity, verified caller, reachability and network trust signals exposed through the Programmable Voice layer
- Collaborate closely with CTO and Engineering teams (API/SDK engineers, network architects, DevOps) and with GTM, Marketing, Legal and Finance to ensure seamless execution and clear expectation setting
- Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders across Proximus Global entities and with external partners, customers and regulators
- Act as a key point of contact for strategic collaborations and ecosystem development
- Represent Programmable Voice in executive forums and ensure alignment with Proximus Global Vision 2030 and the wider portfolio strategy
- Stay ahead of category trends: branded calling as a network-level trust layer, the shift from agent assist to fully agentic voice, the intensifying latency race, and the buyer shift from pipes to outcomes
- Embed AI into both the product offering and day-to-day product management and delivery practice, including AI-assisted development and modern API-gateway tooling
- Explore adjacent, carrier-unique capabilities such as voice analytics, number and line intelligence, and the broader interpretation of voice as a trust signal
- Define and track KPIs across activation, time-to-first-call, self-serve conversion, ARR per customer, usage, margin, retention and team performance
- Monitor performance of products and initiatives and identify opportunities for optimisation
- Report progress, risks and trade-offs transparently to leadership
- Manage the principal delivery risks: resourcing a credible global L4 build, keeping pace with AI-assisted development models, and the operational readiness of underlying onboarding and provisioning processes
- Confirm and track country-level regulatory and compliance requirements for AI voice, call recording, consent and any voice analytics or biometric use cases, and reflect them in launch sequencing, partner selection and go-to-market readiness
- Manage budget, staffing and technology resources effectively
- Ensure teams are equipped with the tools, processes and support needed to succeed
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business or a related field (master’s degree preferred)
- Proven product leadership experience in CPaaS, UCaaS/CCaaS, voice or API platform businesses, ideally within telecommunications
- Track record of taking products from zero to one in innovation, incubation or greenfield environments, and scaling them internationally
- Experience with self-serve, product-led and SDK-led distribution models aimed at SMB, startup and developer buyers
- Strong background in API strategy, packaging, pricing and monetisation
- Strong leadership and team development capabilities, excellent strategic thinking paired with hands-on execution
- Commercial acumen, including pricing design, business case construction and margin management
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, including with external partners, regulators and startup founders
- Solid understanding of the voice stack: PSTN and SIP trunking, DID numbering, call control, real-time media streaming and interconnect fundamentals
- Familiarity with branded calling and caller authentication frameworks, including STIR/SHAKEN and regional attestation models
- Deep understanding of telco APIs (e.g. identity, fraud prevention, QoD/network slicing, carrier billing)
- Working knowledge of the conversational and agentic AI landscape, including voice agents, orchestration platforms and LLM runtimes
- Awareness of the competitive field, including Twilio, Bandwidth, Vonage, Telnyx, Infobip and Sinch
- Familiarity with industry standards, platforms and best practices
- Good compensation - Competitive € salary plus benefits package.
- Development opportunities.
- Challenging but also a friendly working environment.
- And much, much more...
Our comprehensive suite of solutions – from our super network for voice, messaging, and data, to 5G and IoT; and from verification and intelligence to CPaaS for personalised omnichannel engagement – enables businesses and communities to thrive. Reaching over 5 billion subscribers, securing more than 180 billion transactions annually, and connecting 1,000+ destinations, we honour our commitment to connect, protect and engage everyone, everywhere.
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