Senior Product Manager, Hardware Platform

Socket.dev; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Apptronik seeks a seasoned Product Manager to own the humanoid platform roadmap and lifecycle, turning field data and engineering constraints into a prioritized product strategy. You’ll manage a deployed fleet, define requirements, and drive cross-functional collaboration with engineering, supply chain, and program management.

The role emphasizes balancing performance, cost, and reliability while guiding change management for updates and new capabilities.

Qualifications

• Experience managing a hardware product lifecycle from launch to end-of-life.
• Experience shipping physical products and hardware iteration cycles.
• Strong analytical skills using fleet, telemetry, or field data to drive decisions.
• Experience evaluating new technologies via trade studies and risk assessment.
• Excellent communication skills to translate technical insights into business impact.
• Ability to make decisions under uncertainty prioritizing velocity over perfection.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the platform roadmap: scope, sequencing, and priorities across capability improvements, reliability, cost, and supportability.
• Manage the deployed fleet as a product: define and track operational metrics and drive priorities.
• Turn field data and customer deployment insights into clear requirements for engineering.
• Lead trade studies balancing performance, reliability, cost, serviceability, and schedule; justify prioritization.
• Own change management for a product in the field: plan changes, upgrades, and rollouts with minimal disruption.
• Partner with supply chain and engineering on component lifecycle risks and make/buy decisions.
• Drive cost-down initiatives linking BOM and total cost of ownership to program economics.
• Continuously evaluate emerging technologies and build business cases for adoption.
• Work with program management to align platform deliverables to build cycles and milestones.
• Support product marketing initiatives and partnerships to accelerate adoption.

Skills

Hardware PM

Data-driven decisions

Technical communication

Tradeoff analysis

Decision under uncertainty

Education

BS in Engineering

Job description

Apptronik is a human-centered robotics company developing AI-powered robots to support humanity in every facet of life. Our flagship humanoid robot, Apollo, is built to collaborate thoughtfully with people, starting with critical industries such as manufacturing and logistics, with future applications in healthcare, the home, and beyond.

We operate at the cutting edge of Applied AI, applying our expertise across the full robotics stack to solve some of society's most important problems. You will join a team dedicated to bringing Apollo to market at scale, tackling the complex challenges like safety, commercialization, and mass production to change the world for the better.

JOB SUMMARY

You will own the product direction for our humanoid robot platform operating in the field today. You'll manage it as a complete product, turning customer outcomes, field data, and engineering constraints into a roadmap that maximizes the platform's value at every stage of its life.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Own and maintain the platform roadmap: scope, sequencing, and priorities across capability improvements, reliability, cost, and supportability.
• Manage the deployed fleet as a product: define and track the operational metrics that matter and drive the priorities they reveal.
• Turn field data, service feedback, and customer deployment insights into clearly written requirements, and communicate them to engineering teams through requirements documents, diagrams, and concise verbal communication.
• Lead trade studies balancing performance, reliability, cost, serviceability, and schedule; make and defend prioritization calls between sustaining investments and forward-looking capability work.
• Own change management for a product in the field: prioritize engineering changes, retrofit and upgrade programs, and software/hardware update rollouts with minimal customer disruption.
• Partner with supply chain and engineering on component lifecycle risks and drive make/buy and second-source decisions.
• Drive cost-down initiatives across the platform, connecting bill-of-materials and service-cost decisions to customer total cost of ownership and program economics.
• Continuously evaluate emerging technologies and build the business case for when and how to adopt them.
• Work with program management to align platform deliverables to build cycles, deployment schedules, and program milestones.
• Support product marketing initiatives, partner relationships, and other opportunities to accelerate the adoption of our products.

SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS

• Demonstrated experience managing a hardware product across its full lifecycle, from launch to end-of-life.
• Demonstrated experience managing the tradeoffs associated with shipping physical products and hardware iteration cycles.
• Strong analytical skills with experience using fleet, field, or telemetry data to drive product decisions and performance tracking.
• Experience evaluating new technologies for adoption: running trade studies, assessing maturity and risk, and building the case for (or against) technology insertion.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, enabling translation of technical insights into business impact.
• You make decisions in uncertainty, prioritizing velocity over perfection.

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience with robotics, autonomous vehicles
• Experience managing platform transitions, carrying customers, learnings, and architecture from one product generation into the next.
• Familiarity with functional safety for hardware systems.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

• At least 5 years of experience in product management.
• BS in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent technical field

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

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.