Director of Product Management, Hardware Austin, TX

JOB SUMMARY: The Head of Product Management, Hardware leads product management for all of Apptronik's hardware systems, including robots, peripherals, and components. You own the hardware product vision, partnering closely with engineering and manufacturing leadership to develop and execute the hardware roadmap. You build and lead a team of product managers who translate market demands and customer use cases into executable roadmaps. You are accountable for hardware products across their full lifecycle, from concept and new product introduction through production, sustaining, and end-of-life. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES Build, lead, and develop the hardware product management team: hire, level, coach, and set the standards for how hardware products are managed. Partner with engineering leadership developing and maintaining the hardware roadmap: scope, sequencing, and priorities across robots, peripherals, and components. Own hardware product strategy, assuring engineering deliverables create a coherent portfolio, managing reuse, variants, and configuration strategy Establish roadmap governance, prioritization frameworks, and metrics discipline across the team, holding product managers accountable to customer-connected, outcome-driven roadmaps. Drive the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) strategy, balancing unit COGS with field reliability, serviceability, and maintenance costs to maximize customer ROI. Define and track portfolio-level product and program health metrics, and represent hardware product status in executive reviews. Drive the full new product introduction (NPI) lifecycle with hardware engineering and operations, from prototype through mass production, owning gate criteria and product go/no-go decisions. Own the hardware product lifecycle beyond launch: sustaining, continuous improvement, field-issue resolution, spares, and end-of-life planning for a deployed fleet. Drive make-versus-buy decisions across systems and components, weighing cost, lead time, risk, IP, and supply continuity. Lead vendor and manufacturing engagement at the product level, working with suppliers, contract manufacturers, and internal manufacturing teams on requirements, feasibility, cost, quality, and supply. Own product cost: BOM and COGS targets and the sourcing and inventory trade-offs behind them, ensuring competitive unit economics. Align with software product leadership across the hardware/software divide so systems are defined, sequenced, and integrated coherently. Partner with safety, quality, and compliance teams to ensure products meet applicable standards and that failure modes and field risks are addressed.

SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS: Proven track record building and leading product management teams Deep hardware product and NPI fluency: taking complex hardware from concept through end of life, including design for manufacturability, reliability and validation, and cost/BOM management. Experience with autonomous robots or similar complex electromechanical systems enabling fluency at the hardware/software co-development boundary. Hands-on experience working with vendors, suppliers, contract manufacturers, and internal manufacturing teams. A keen eye for make-versus-buy decisions across systems and components. Strong analytical skills with metrics discipline for performance tracking and data-driven decision-making. Excellent verbal and written communication, translating technical insight into business impact for engineering and executive audiences. EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in mechanical, electrical, systems, or robotics engineering, or a related field; advanced degree or MBA helpful. At least 10 years of experience in product management or engineering, including 5+ years leading product managers, with a track record of shipping complex hardware products.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer. Ability to spend time on lab and manufacturing floors, and to travel to supplier and manufacturing sites as needed. Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times. Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen; hearing and speech to communicate. This is a direct hire. Please, no outside Agency solicitations. Apptronik provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Create a Job Alert Interested in building your career at Apptronik? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email. Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf Enter manually Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf Do you currently reside in the Austin Metro Area? * Select... Are you legally authorized to work in the United States? * * Select... Linked In Profile Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for employment (e.g., H-1B visa status)? * Select... 1. Please confirm that you are either: (a) a U.S. citizen; (b) lawful permanent resident of the U.S. (green card holder); or (3) protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). * Select... Technology Control Restrictions: As a person in this position will have access to technical data and/or computer software maintained by the Company, which includes export-controlled technical data and/or computer software, successful applicants must be eligible under U.S. export control regulations to access such information. a. If NO, please indicate your country of citizenship and, if different, the country in which you have most recently obtained citizenship or permanent residency status. This information will be used to determine whether it would be possible to obtain any required license from the U.S. government. (Enter in "N/A" if marked Yes above) * 2. Please indicate whether you ever been indicted for or convicted of violating any of the U.S. Criminal statues enumerated in 22 CFR 120.6 or violating a foreign criminal law on exportation of defense articles where conviction of such law carries a minimum term of imprisonment of greater than one year. * Select... 3. Please indicate whether you have been declared ineligible to contract with, or to receive a license or other approval to import defense articles or defense services from, or to receive an export license or other approval from, any agency of the U.S. Government. * Select... Voluntary Self-Identification For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file. As set forth in Apptronik’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law. If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows: A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability. A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service. An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense. An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.