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Nominal builds software that lets hardware teams test, iterate, and deploy as fast as software teams.
The Role
Leads the Data Foundation product function, setting multi-year strategy, roadmap, investment priorities, and customer outcomes. Builds and develops a multi-level product management organization, partners with Engineering leadership, represents results to executives, and aligns cross-functional teams on platform, security, monetization, and enterprise-readiness decisions. Establishes product operating cadences and promotes AI-native discovery and delivery practices.
Summary Generated by Built In
About Nominal
About the role
🚀 What you'll do
🔍 We're looking for someone with
⚡ Skills that supercharge us
✨ Benefits/Perks
Engineers today are building some of the most ambitious machines humanity has ever seen. They should have AI that’s purpose-built for them.
Nominal is building the Hardware Intelligence Platform that gives engineers increased visibility into complex physical systems, helps them make better decisions, and ultimately gets their products into the real world faster. It brings together the systems, data, intelligence, and applications hardware engineering requires to meet the AI moment. Hardware engineering teams use Nominal to simulate, test, manufacture, and operate the physical systems that keep the world moving, from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation energy systems and robotics.
Our customers span aerospace, defense, manufacturing, transportation, energy, and robotics. They include Anduril, Shield AI, Wisk Aero, Pratt Miller Motorsports, Antares, and Shinkei Systems, amongst others, alongside programs within the U.S. Air Force and Navy. Our team draws from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, Tesla, and other leading companies, united by a common mission: giving hardware engineers the tools to build the future with speed, safety, and confidence. We're a fast-moving team that owns problems end-to-end, works across disciplines, and thrives at the intersection of hardware and software.
Some of the world’s leading technology investors, including Sequoia, Lightspeed, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, and Insight Partners, are backing Nominal’s ambition to change how machines are built and operated. We’re looking for engineers who want to take on hard problems and help make a new generation of world-changing hardware possible.
About the role
Data Foundation is the layer of Nominal's platform that customers rely on to bring hardware data in, secure it, control its cost, and keep it running. It spans data onboarding, developer experiences, security and governance, usage and cost management, and reliable operations. As the Group Product Manager - Data Foundation, you set the strategy for Data Foundation as a function, build the PM team that owns each journey, and stand as the product peer to the Engineering lead who owns the platform.
This role is ideal for a product leader who has set direction for a platform area and grown the team that executed it, including developing people into leads. You'll own the function's strategy, structure, and results, and translate Nominal's company priorities into a multi-year plan for Data Foundation. Your work is mostly coaching and direction-setting, with hands-on product work reserved for the few decisions where your judgment is the deciding factor.
- Set the multi-year strategy for Data Foundation and translate company priorities into the function's roadmap, investment choices, and customer outcomes.
- Design the Data Foundation PM organization, including which journeys get a dedicated PM, when to add leads, and how the team grows with the product.
- Recruit and develop a team of senior PMs with deep data systems expertise, and grow the first product leads within it.
- Partner as a peer with the Engineering platform lead on direction, staffing, and trade-offs, so Product and Engineering run as one plan.
- Set journey-level North Stars and the operating cadence that holds the function accountable to them, and represent Data Foundation's results to the executive team.
- Drive alignment across Design, GTM, Finance, and Security on the hardest cross-functional calls, such as platform investment against monetization or enterprise readiness.
- Build an AI-native product practice across the function and set the standard for how PMs use AI in discovery and delivery.
🔍 We're looking for someone with
- Experience setting strategy for a platform or data product area, with the roadmap and results that followed.
- A track record of building a PM team from a few people to a multi-level organization, including growing at least one PM into a lead or manager.
- Prior ownership of a function's goals and headcount plan, with the plan you wrote and the outcomes you were accountable for.
- Depth in data systems or developer platforms, shown by products you led that engineers use through APIs, SDKs, or a CLI.
- A background in shipping platform products to enterprise customers, where security reviews and deployment options shape what gets built.
- Experience presenting a product area's results and investment case to an executive team, because this role represents Data Foundation at the company level.
- Hands-on product work on the highest-stakes decisions while leading, such as the discovery or trade-off calls you took yourself and why.
- Prior ownership of a usage-based infrastructure product, or one offered as both multi-tenant and single-tenant.
- A background in aerospace, defense, automotive, or industrial products, or in hardware test and telemetry data.
- Experience leading product managers who were themselves managers.
- A track record of shipping customer- or developer-facing features built on a large language model or agent.
- 🏥 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 🏖️ Unlimited PTO and sick leave
- 🍽️ Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
- 🚀 Professional Development Stipend
- ✈️ Annual company retreat
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.
ITAR Requirements
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
CompensationThe base pay range for this role is $242,000 – $285,000 per year.
Skills Required
- Experience setting strategy for a platform or data product area, including ownership of the resulting roadmap and outcomes
- Experience building a product management team from a small group into a multi-level organization
- Experience developing at least one product manager into a lead or manager
- Prior ownership of a function's goals and headcount plan, with accountability for outcomes
- Depth in data systems or developer platforms, demonstrated through products used by engineers via APIs, SDKs, or a CLI
- Experience shipping platform products to enterprise customers where security reviews and deployment options influence product decisions
- Experience presenting a product area's results and investment case to an executive team
- Hands-on product work on high-stakes discovery and trade-off decisions while leading a team
- U.S. citizenship or national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, asylee, or eligibility to obtain required ITAR authorizations
- Prior ownership of a usage-based infrastructure product offered as multi-tenant and single-tenant
- Background in aerospace, defense, automotive, industrial products, or hardware test and telemetry data
- Experience leading product managers who were themselves managers
- Track record of shipping customer- or developer-facing features built on a large language model or agent
Nominal Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Nominal and has not been reviewed or approved by Nominal.
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Healthcare Strength — 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision coverage is repeatedly described as covering both employees and dependents, indicating unusually strong healthcare provisioning. Additional mentions of “Platinum” coverage reinforce the sense of a high-tier plan offering.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Unlimited PTO and paid holidays/sick time are presented as part of the core package, suggesting broad time-off benefits on paper. Parental leave is also framed as fully paid in several places, reinforcing overall leave breadth.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Wellness stipends, daily gourmet lunch (and sometimes dinner), and periodic retreats are consistently highlighted as meaningful lifestyle perks. Learning/development and other small stipends further round out a perks-heavy total rewards posture.
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The Company
What We Do
Nominal builds the essential software stack that enables hardware teams to test and iterate as rapidly as software teams. Nominal empowers engineers to continuously monitor, validate, and deploy innovations, transforming how mission-critical hardware is built and operated.
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