Product Lead

• Remote roles across the Asia-Pacific region (Southeast Asia, Australia, Aotearoa NZ, Pacific Islands)
• Daily-rate consultancy | Short and longer-term engagements
• Build products that matter — with people who care

About Us Catalpa is an Australian not-for-profit working across the Asia-Pacific to improve lives through locally driven solutions. We design creative responses to complex problems, blending technology, behavioural insights and deep contextual understanding. We're a deliberately diverse bunch — engineers, designers, economists, researchers, strategists — brought together by a shared belief: well-designed products can create meaningful social impact. You can learn more about us at www.catalpa.io. Our work is often one-of-a-kind, sometimes ambitious, occasionally messy — and genuinely rewarding. We work remotely from homes, co-working spaces and a small number of offices across the region. About The Opportunities We're picking up pace this year and are looking for an experienced Product Lead to join our growing Products team — a small, sharp group of digital leads, designers, developers and strategists who love solving real problems with partners and are comfortable working in the intersection of people, technology, and complex real-world systems. As a Product Lead at Catalpa, you'll play a critical role in shaping, building and delivering digital products used in areas like health, education, infrastructure, transparency and public services, for developing nations. You'll work end-to-end: setting direction, defining roadmaps, guiding delivery and collaborating closely with partners and multidisciplinary teams. This includes working beyond the screen — understanding operational, organisational and policy contexts, and ensuring products can be adopted, maintained and evolved in the real world. What You'll Do You'll thrive with Catalpa if you enjoy big-picture thinking and hands-on problem-solving. In this role, you will:

• Shape product strategy and vision in partnership with project teams and partners
• Translate complex problems into clear goals, roadmaps and delivery plans
• Lead multidisciplinary teams through discovery, development and product delivery
• Balance user needs, technical constraints and real-world contexts
• Turn ambiguity into shared understanding and forward momentum
• Iterate products based on user feedback, data and learning
• Support teams to adopt and evolve Catalpa's agile product practices
• Teach, learn and contribute to a growing product development culture

You do your best work when bridging user needs, technical considerations, and business outcomes, and you're comfortable transforming ambiguity into shared understanding and clear direction. You'll work alongside project teams, engineers, UX/UI designers, partners, and specialists across Catalpa to shape our digital products from idea to delivery. You'll have the opportunity to use modern AI development tools to collaborate directly with engineers and play an active role in shaping the final product. You will be working on projects that solve problems across a variety of areas for social impact — health, education, transportation infrastructure, aid transparency, and more. RequirementsWe want to hear from you if you have any of the below experience, skills, or interests: Most importantly, you're an experienced Product Lead who cares deeply about outcomes, not just outputs. You likely bring:

• 5+ years' experience and enjoy working closely with product designers, project teams and other engineers to scope features, problem-solve, and move products from an idea to daily use in the real world
• A balance between hands-on and capacity of making well-informed product decisions while following Catalpa's ways of working and direction from the Senior digital team
• Clear communication skills in English and ease collaborating across time zones and cultures (we're diverse!)
• A thoughtful, human-centred mindset — you care about how products affect real people and you bring people to the design process
• Curiosity, pragmatism and a bias toward collaboration
• Confidence and experience working with senior partners and decision-makers
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and fast-moving environments
• Experience working in agile, multidisciplinary teams
• You enjoy shared ownership, clear communication, and doing work that genuinely makes a difference

Nice To Have (but Not Essential)

• Experience working across the full lifecycle of digital initiatives — from early discovery through delivery, handover, and transition to local ownership
• Experience using AI dev tools, like Cursor, to craft functional prototypes and UI/UX improvements for shipping products
• Experience building products intended for use in low-resource settings with intermittent connectivity.
• Experience in areas such as communication, design, usability, or accessibility
• Experience in the NGO, international development or public sector space
• Experience mentoring others or helping build product capability in teams

If you don't tick every box — please apply anyway. We value learning, perspective and potential as much as a perfect CV. Eligibility We love working with kind, smart people from diverse backgrounds willing to learn new things. This job will require many skills, but feel free to apply even if you think you may not be a ‘perfect fit'. Work environment We work in a creative, supportive environment with colleagues from diverse walks of life, and we value their perspectives. We pay attention to the details and work together to achieve the best outcomes for our communities. Importantly, we work here because we love what we do and the impact we have. We know people's lives include many obligations outside of work, so we aim to create a flexible work environment that provides remote work options, generous family leave, and return-to-work policies to support new parents. We know we do our best work when we take care of ourselves and our communities. We take two weeks off at the end of each year to recharge and refresh. Fit Catalpa staff believe in technology's potential to transform lives. Our team members are flexible and can handle working across a broad range of responsibilities. They don't mind rolling up their sleeves to solve thorny challenges that take time, patience, and creativity. We are friendly and care about the people we work with, always seeking to build and nurture relationships for the long term. Catalpa seeks to provide a fair and equal employment opportunity for all people, regardless of race, colour, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, or marital status. We especially welcome applications from people with diverse backgrounds. Safeguarding Catalpa prioritises the safeguarding of all people, including the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment and the safeguarding of children. Engagement of personnel with Catalpa is conditional upon the outcome of background checks, and there is a requirement for all candidates to disclose any current charges or previous convictions regarding assault, abuse or exploitation of children or adults, as well as regarding fraud and/or corruption. All Catalpa personnel are required to abide by Catalpa's Child Safeguarding Policy, Prevention of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment Policy and Code of Conduct. How To Apply If this sounds like you, please apply now with your up-to-date resume, and we will contact you! Please send a cover letter and explain why you'd be a good fit for this role. Applications are to be submitted through our jobs page catalpa.io/work-with-us For further inquiries or questions regarding this position, email jobs@catalpa.io with ‘Product Lead roles' in the email's subject line. Please do not email CV's as we require them to go through our website, thanks. Expression of interest closes at midnight on 4th January 2026. We look forward to hearing from you! Benefits

• Remote roles across the Asia-Pacific region (Southeast Asia, Australia, Aotearoa NZ, Pacific Islands)
• Daily-rate consultancy | Short and longer-term engagements
• Build products that matter — with people who care