Senior Product Manager, Perception & Navigation

Apptronik; California City (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 223,000; Full time

Job summary

Apptronik is a human-centered robotics company focused on AI-powered robots to support humanity, with Apollo as the flagship humanoid robot targeting manufacturing and logistics. This role drives the product vision across hardware/software interfaces, translating market needs into executable roadmaps for perception and autonomy systems.

You will lead cross-functional teams to deliver scalable, safe, and commercially valuable robotic solutions.

Qualifications

• 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).

Responsibilities

• Own the perception/navigation software roadmap: scope, sequencing, and feature priorities.
• Define the perception stack requirements from sensor inputs to scene understanding.
• Set evaluation metrics and field-testing regimes for perception and navigation.
• Own data pipelines for perception including collection, labeling, and feedback.
• Lead requirements for safe perception and autonomy risk.
• Co-design within compute envelope addressing edge deployment constraints and latency.
• Define and prioritize use cases based on business impact and customer needs.
• Ensure development aligns with real-world economic value for customers.
• Synthesize insights from user research, meetings, usage data, and sales feedback into strategy.
• Collaborate with industrial design, UX, and engineering to implement interactive features.
• Define product features/enhancements and communicate requirements to engineering.
• Support product marketing, partnerships, and adoption initiatives.

Skills

Perception & navigation

Evaluation metrics

Field deployment

Safety judgment

Communication skills

Decision making under uncertainty

User feedback advocacy

Education

Autonomous robots / vehicles

Perception frameworks & large-scale data

Synthetic/simulation data for perception

Data collection operations (teleoperation, annotation)

Industrial customer engagement

Robotics safety standards (ISO 10218, ISO/TS 15066, ISO 13482, RIA 15.08)

Job description

Apptronik is a human-centered robotics company focused on AI-powered robots to support humanity, with Apollo as the flagship humanoid robot targeting manufacturing and logistics. This role drives the product vision across hardware/software interfaces, translating market needs into executable roadmaps for perception and autonomy systems.

You will lead cross-functional teams to deliver scalable, safe, and commercially valuable robotic solutions.