Product Manager, Perception and Navigation

JOB SUMMARY

You will focus on driving the product vision, ensuring seamless execution across the complex hardware/software divide, and translating market demands into user oriented, executable product roadmaps. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Own and maintain the perception and navigation software roadmap: scope, sequencing, and feature priorities across detection, tracking, localization, mapping, and obstacle avoidance.
• Drive the technical definition of the perception stack, turning sensor inputs into the scene understanding and world state that the autonomy and model layers rely on.
• Define evaluation metrics and field-testing regimes for perception and navigation: detection, tracking, localization, and mapping accuracy, latency budgets, and the success and regression criteria that gate releases.
• Own the requirements for perception data pipelines including collection, labeling, and the feedback loop from field deployments.
• Lead product requirements for safe perception: reason through failure modes, validation coverage, and autonomy risk.
• Co-design within the compute envelope: account for edge deployment constraints, latency, and on-robot performance, partnering closely with the sensing and compute team.
• Define and prioritize use cases based on business impact, feasibility, and customer needs.
• Ensure that product development efforts align with real-world economic value for customers.
• Synthesize insights from user research, customer meetings, usage data, and sales feedback into a strategy that delivers business objectives and customer benefits.
• Work with industrial design, user experience, and engineering teams to conceptualize and implement interactive features.
• Define product features/enhancements and communicate requirements to engineering teams via clearly written requirements documents, diagrams, and concise verbal communication.
• Support product marketing initiatives, partner relationships, and other opportunities to accelerate the adoption of our products.

SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS

• 7+ years of experience in 
• Strong experience in perception and navigation fundamentals: detection, tracking, localization, mapping, and obstacle avoidance.
• Demonstrated experience defining evaluation metrics, field-testing regimes, and performance tracking for autonomy or perception software.
• Field deployment experience taking perception or autonomy software from the lab into reliable real-world operation.
• Practical safety judgment around failure modes, validation coverage, and autonomy risks. 
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, enabling translation of technical insights into business impact.
• You make decisions in uncertainty, prioritizing velocity over perfection.
• You prioritize user feedback, promoting and advocating for that voice to internal teams.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

At least 7 years of experience product management

• Experience with autonomous robots or autonomous vehicles.
• Experience with perception or autonomy evaluation frameworks and large-scale field-test data analysis.
• Experience generating or using synthetic and simulation-generated data for perception.
• Experience with data collection operations (teleoperation fleets, annotation and curation pipelines).
• Experience working with customers in light and heavy duty industrial environments.
• Experience with robotics and functional safety standards (ISO 10218, ISO/TS 15066, ISO 13482, RIA 15.08).

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS 

• [Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times
• Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen
• Hearing and speech to communicate]