DeepSeek, the Chinese startup that rattled the AI industry earlier this year, is hiring for a product role that illustrates the company’s shift from research to commercialization.
In a job notice posted Tuesday on its official WeChat account, DeepSeek said it is looking to fill a “product and design” position on its teams in Beijing and Hangzhou. It is unclear from the notice if the job refers to a single role or multiple positions.
The Hangzhou-based firm labeled the job notice “urgent.” The company wrote that it wants people to help create the “next generation of intelligent product experience” centered on large language models.
Candidates are expected to have product management experience and be proficient in product and visual design, the notice said.
DeepSeek did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
DeepSeek is also hiring a chief financial officer and chief operating officer — jobs not labeled urgent. The company is expanding its research and engineering teams, according to other listings on its WeChat account.
The move marks a major shift for the company, which has been focused on fundamental AI model research. Last month, DeepSeek released an upgraded version of its open-source V3 large language model, boosting its reasoning and coding capabilities.
Founded in 2023 by Chinese entrepreneur Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek made headlines and disrupted markets in January after unveiling its low-cost reasoning model, R1. The startup claims R1 can rival top competitors like OpenAI’s GPT-4 — but at a fraction of the cost.
An analyst told Business Insider earlier this month that DeepSeek’s latest models — especially the reasoning-focused R1 and R2 set to launch later this month or in May — mark a “significant inflection point” in China’s AI ambitions.
“These models not only match the best-in-class performance globally, but are also open-sourced under the most permissive MIT License,” said Wei Sun, the principal analyst for AI at Counterpoint Research.
“That changes the game,” she added.
Unlike flagship models in the US, which are typically closed-sourced and monetized through APIs or enterprise licensing, DeepSeek’s models like R1 and V3 are free for anyone to download, modify, and integrate.
DeepSeek has been quiet about the progress of its next-generation R2 model.
Amid high costs and chip shortages, Chinese firms have been prioritizing AI integration and consolidation to stay competitive, an analyst told BI earlier this month.
Tencent has deployed its Hunyuan model and DeepSeek R1 across its massive ecosystem, including WeChat, said Ray Wang, a Washington-based analyst who specializes in AI and US-China tech statecraft. WeChat, China’s biggest social media app, is used by nearly 1.4 billion people.
Baidu has also integrated DeepSeek R1 into its search engine, he said.
While details about DeepSeek’s hiring process are scant, Liang, the founder, has made it clear that he values creativity over experience when it comes to hiring.
In a 2023 interview with Chinese tech publication 36KR, he said that “experience is not that important,” even in a similar role. “Basic skills, creativity, and passion are much more important,” he added.
“Our core technical positions are mainly filled by fresh graduates or those who have graduated one or two years ago,” he said.
Rise of product managers
The rush to hire product talent mirrors a broader trend in the AI world.
In the US, product managers are seen as increasingly critical for some companies in the AI era, helping bridge the gap between rapidly advancing AI technology and real-world user needs.
“The future really does belong to product managers,” Frank Fusco, a product manager turned CEO of a software company called Silicon Society, told BI in November.
As AI becomes more capable of handling coding and other engineering tasks, Fusco said it’s an opportunity for product managers to take on an even greater role.
OpenAI is hiring seven product manager roles in its New York and San Francisco offices, and Anthropic is hiring 11 product-related roles, according to the companies’ websites.
However, some tech companies are revisiting their reliance on product managers. Microsoft wants to increase the number of engineers relative to product or program managers, BI’s Ashley Stewart reported last month. Other companies like Airbnb and Snap have been rethinking the need for product managers.
