Product Manager — Developer Tooling & SDK Platform

Location: Bangalore / Hyderabad (India)
Org: Developer Experience · Candescent

Candescent is looking for a highly technical Product Manager to lead our Developer Tooling & SDK Platform team within the Developer Interfaces vertical. You’ll own the strategy and execution for SDKs (web, mobile, server), CLI tools, code extensions, and our public GitHub ecosystem—including sample apps and reference integrations. Your north star: reduce developer integration time from weeks to hours through intuitive, high-quality tools.

What You’ll Do

• Drive the roadmap for SDKs, CLIs, code extensions, and developer utilities.

• Build interactive SDK playgrounds, toolkits, and sample apps to accelerate TTFX.

• Maintain and evolve Candescent’s public GitHub presence and developer resources.

• Collaborate closely with engineering, documentation, and design to deliver cohesive developer experiences.

• Define metrics that reduce friction and improve integration speed, reliability, and adoption.

• Champion developer empathy and modern API-first workflows across the organization.

About You

• Background as a developer, SDET, QA engineer, or similar technical role.

• Hands-on experience with SDKs, developer tooling, or integration workflows.

• Strong understanding of API design, developer workflows, and rapid iteration cycles.

• Excellent technical writing and documentation skills.

• Passion for solving developer pain points and building delightful, frictionless experiences.

About the Developer Experience Org

We aim to enable effortless and extensible integration for Financial Institutions, Fintechs, and AI developers—through world-class APIs, SDKs, a unified console, and an open marketplace. Our mission is to position Candescent as the leading extensible and intelligent fintech developer platform, delivering frictionless onboarding, AI-augmented productivity, and ecosystem network effects.

Interview rubric

1. Technical Depth & Developer Empathy

What we’re assessing:

• Ability to understand APIs, SDKs, CLIs, extensions

• Experience working as a developer/SDET/QA

• Ability to reason about developer workflows, debugging, integration paths

• Ability to empathize with developer pain points

Positive Signals:

• Can read and reason about code (not necessarily write production code)

• Understands API versioning, SDK semantics, dependency management

• Explains “why developers do what they do”

• Provides examples of reducing developer friction

Red Flags:

• Superficial understanding of core developer tools

• Cannot articulate how developers think or debug

• Focuses only on features, not developer outcomes

2. Experience with SDKs, Tooling, and GitHub Ecosystems

What we’re assessing:

• Prior experience with SDKs (web/mobile/server), CLIs, sample apps, code playgrounds

• Ability to maintain a public GitHub repo with strong community hygiene

• Understanding of testing frameworks, code samples, documentation pipelines

Positive Signals:

• Has built or shipped SDKs or CLIs

• Familiar with playground environments (e.g., CodeSandbox, Snack, Postman, Swagger, custom sandboxes)

• Experience writing or maintaining sample apps or integrations

• Understands GitHub workflows, issue triage, PR reviews, versioning

Red Flags:

• Has never worked with developer-facing assets

• No familiarity with GitHub as a product surface

3. Product Strategy & Roadmapping

What we’re assessing:

• Ability to define a cohesive strategy across SDKs, tools, docs, and insights

• Ability to prioritize based on outcomes (TTFX, developer cycle time, adoption)

• Ability to articulate trade-offs and decision frameworks

Positive Signals:

• Writes clear product requirements

• Designs with outcomes, not features

• Understands metrics like TTFX, onboarding funnel, support ticket volume, SDK adoption

Red Flags:

• Vague or reactive thinking

• Cannot define success metrics

• Talks only about outputs (features) not outcomes

4. Documentation & Communication Skills

What we’re assessing:

• Ability to write concise, clear developer-facing documentation

• Ability to explain complex concepts simply

• Ability to collaborate effectively across engineering, DevRel, design, and docs teams

Positive Signals:

• Communicates clearly with both technical and non-technical audiences

• Knows best practices for API/SDK documentation

• Can empathize with learners and beginners

Red Flags:

• Overly verbose or unclear explanations

• Cannot structure complex ideas

5. Execution & Delivery

What we’re assessing:

• Ability to move ideas into shipped, high-quality artifacts

• Cross-functional collaboration and leadership

• Comfort in fast-paced environments

• Strong ownership mindset

Positive Signals:

• Gives examples of shipping complex, multi-stakeholder products

• Demonstrates urgency and bias for action

• Breaks work down into incremental deliverables

• Manages engineering partnerships well

Red Flags:

• Struggles to articulate delivery methodology

• Passes responsibility instead of owning outcomes

• Overly theoretical; lacks shipping history

6. Problem Solving & Systems Thinking

What we’re assessing:

• Ability to diagnose friction in developer workflows

• Ability to think in systems: APIs → SDKs → Docs → Errors → Tooling → Support

• Ability to design holistic developer experiences

Positive Signals:

• Uses data, logs, feedback, telemetry

• Thinks of developer journey as an end-to-end funnel

• Shows clarity in structuring ambiguous problems

Red Flags:

• Jumps straight to feature ideas

• Lacks a framework for diagnosing developer problems