Senior Product Manager (Perception and Navigation)

Apptronik; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Apptronik in Sunnyvale, CA, seeks a Senior Product Manager to drive the product vision for perception and navigation in autonomous robots. You will own the roadmap across detection, tracking, localization, mapping, and obstacle avoidance, translating market demands into executable plans that balance hardware and software constraints.

You will define evaluation metrics, field-testing regimes, and data pipelines to ensure robust performance and safety.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of product management experience.
• Experience in perception or navigation robotics.
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written.
• Field deployment experience taking perception/autonomy software from lab to real-world operation.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain the perception and navigation software roadmap: scope, sequencing, and feature priorities.
• Drive the technical definition of the perception stack and translate sensor inputs into scene understanding.

Skills

Product management

Stakeholder communication

Roadmap prioritization

Cross-functional leadership

Systems thinking

Tools

Perception stack

Sensor data pipelines

Job description

• 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
• 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

Strong experience in perception and navigation fundamentals: detection, tracking, localization, mapping, and obstacle avoidanceExperience with autonomous robots or autonomous vehiclesPractical safety judgment around failure modes, validation coverage, and autonomy risksExcellent communication skills, both verbal and written, enabling translation of technical insights into business impactExperience working with customers in light and heavy duty industrial environmentsField deployment experience taking perception or autonomy software from the lab into reliable real-world operationYou make decisions in uncertainty, prioritizing velocity over perfectionYou prioritize user feedback, promoting and advocating for that voice to internal teamsExperience generating or using synthetic and simulation-generated data for perceptionExperience with robotics and functional safety standards (ISO 10218, ISO/TS 15066, ISO 13482, RIA 15.08)Experience with data collection operations (teleoperation fleets, annotation and curation pipelines)Demonstrated experience defining evaluation metrics, field-testing regimes, and performance tracking for autonomy or perception softwareExperience with perception or autonomy evaluation frameworks and large-scale field-test data analysis7+ years of experienceAt least 7 years of experience product management:

Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen[Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computerMust be able to lift 15 pounds at timesHearing and speech to communicatePHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: