Senior Product Manager - Vertical (Industry Expert)

Zeitview (formerly DroneBase); San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Medical plans with HSA

Unlimited PTO

Autonomy & upward mobility

DEI culture

Job summary

Zeitview is seeking a customer-driven leader to define vertical success, embed with strategic accounts, and translate insights into prioritized requirements for platform PMs and engineering. You will shape discovery with customers, analyze usage data, and present compelling business cases to drive product direction.

The role emphasizes travel to customer sites and inspection locations, with direct interaction on-site, ensuring you understand real-world workflows and economics of solar, wind, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (or higher) in science, technology, or related field, or equivalent work experience.
• 8+ years of professional experience, with 5+ years in product management, solutions consulting, technical sales, or a comparable customer-facing role in enterprise software.
• Deep domain expertise in at least one: solar energy, wind energy, commercial properties, electric utilities, oil & gas; can interpret assets, inspection workflows, regulatory context, and business model.
• Track record of building trusted relationships with enterprise customers and converting them into product insight.
• Ability to run structured discovery and synthesize qualitative and quantitative inputs into a prioritized problem set for teams.
• Commercial acumen: understanding how product decisions relate to pipeline, deal size, retention, and competitive positioning.
• Exceptional communication skills; can present to VP on one day and translate to a product brief for PMs/Engineering.
• Willingness to travel to customer sites and inspection locations.

Responsibilities

• Define what each vertical's success looks like in terms of revenue, retention, and customer outcomes, not just features.
• Embed with 3–5 strategic accounts to understand workflows and write recognizable requirements.
• Run structured discovery using interviews, field observations, competitive analysis, and usage data; synthesize into prioritized problems.
• Negotiate with platform PMs on engineering capacity, using data and customer evidence to defend priorities.
• Write requirements that are specific yet flexible for platform-wide use and engineering review.
• Build internal credibility as the industry expert within the building.

Skills

Stakeholder comms

Discovery methods

Customer relationships

Market intelligence

Growth mindset

Executive-level communication

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in STEM

Tools

Go-to-market collaboration

Job description

*We are looking for a candidate who is already located in either Boston/New England or the San Francisco Bay Area*

About Us

Zeitview is the leading intelligent aerial imaging company for high-value infrastructure, providing businesses with actionable, real-time insights to recover revenue, reduce risk and improve build quality. We serve customers in the solar, wind, insurance, construction, real estate, and critical infrastructure industries. Trusted by the largest enterprises in the world, Zeitview is active in over 70 countries. Our mission is to accelerate the global transition to renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure through advanced inspection solutions. Take a look at our latest achievements here!

This role in one paragraph

Be the voice of the customer for an entire industry at Zeitview. You will be Zeitview's resident expert for one of our target verticals -- solar, wind, electric utilities, oil & gas, or commercial properties. You own problem definition: understanding what enterprise customers in your vertical actually need, why they need it, and what it's worth. You run discovery, build client relationships alongside sales, synthesize market signals, and translate all of that into clear, prioritized requirements that our platform product managers and engineering teams can execute against. You are responsible for competitive intel and defining metrics to demonstrate the success of the product and strategies. You should be growth focused. You will not just iterate on our existing product/service offerings but propose business cases and GTM for expanding our offerings. You do not own the product backlog or ship software directly, you own the "what" and "why," then work with solutions-side PMs to negotiate the "how" and "when."

What you'll actually do in the first 6 months

• Define what "success" looks like for your vertical in terms that connect to revenue, retention, and customer outcomes, not just feature delivery
• Embed with 3–5 strategic accounts in your vertical. Not to sell, but to understand their inspection workflows, pain points, and decision-making structures deeply enough to write requirements they'd recognize as their own
• Run structured discovery across a mix of methods (customer interviews, operational ride-alongs, competitive analysis, usage data) and synthesize findings into a prioritized problem set for your vertical
• Negotiate with platform PMs over engineering capacity, making the case for your vertical's priorities with data and customer evidence, not volume
• Write requirements that hold up under engineering scrutiny: specific enough to build from, flexible enough to serve platform-wide
• Build internal credibility as the person who knows your industry better than anyone else in the building

This role is NOT

• A platform-building role. You will not own a product backlog, write technical specs, or ship software with engineers day-to-day. If that's what you're looking for, see our Senior Product Manager - Asset Insights posting.
• A pure strategy role, with no customer contact. You will be on calls with enterprise clients regularly. You will travel to sites. You will see the physical infrastructure your product serves.
• A people management role. You will coordinate across functions and informally guide others, but you will not have direct reports.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree (or higher) in a science, technology, or related field, or equivalent work experience
• 8+ years of professional experience, with 5+ years in product management, solutions consulting, technical sales, or a comparable customer-facing role in enterprise software
• Deep domain expertise in at least one of: solar energy, wind energy, commercial properties, and in particular electric utilities, oil & gas. "Deep" means you can walk onto a customer site and understand what you're looking at: the assets, the inspection workflows, the regulatory context, and the business model. Candidates without direct industry experience will not be considered.
• You have a track record of building trusted relationships with enterprise customers and converting those relationships into product insight, not just feature requests, but an understanding of underlying needs
• You can run structured discovery and synthesize qualitative and quantitative inputs into a prioritized problem set that other teams can act on
• You have commercial acumen: you understand how product decisions connect to pipeline, deal size, retention, and competitive positioning in your vertical
• Exceptional communication skills. You can present to a customer's VP of Asset Management on Monday and translate that conversation into a product brief for solutions PMs and Engineering on Tuesday
• Willingness to travel to customer sites and inspection locations

Strongly preferred: These will move you to the top

• Direct industry experience. You've worked in the industry, not just sold to it
• Experience working with operational or service delivery teams (field inspection, drone operations, or similar)
• Experience with geospatial data, remote sensing, or asset management platforms
• Familiarity with AI/ML-powered products, enough to assess where these capabilities address real vertical problems vs. where they're a distraction
• Experience with go-to-market strategy: product launches, positioning, pricing, or vertical-specific marketing
• Experience in mobile application development

What’s Included

• Feel great about your work as you join a leading mission-driven intelligent aerial imaging company - our goal is to accelerate the global transition to renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure, and you personally will play a large part in making this happen!
• Competitive base salary, annual bonus and stock options
• Your choice of multiple medical insurance plans, including options with an HSA and 100% coverage of the premium for yourself and your dependents
• Unlimited PTO: We mean it when we say we prioritize work-life balance and mental health
• Autonomy and upward mobility
• Diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture: a place where your voice matters

This role has a base salary range of $160,000 - $180,000 USD, plus a target annual bonus and eligibility for stock options. Actual compensation may vary based on experience, skills, and location within USA.

Zeitview is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. At Zeitview, we believe in cultivating an environment where our team members can bring their authentic, whole selves to work. Encouraging identity and belonging is one of the many aspects of our culture that makes us stronger as an organization and drives innovation. We are committed to building and delivering a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workforce that includes age, color, sex, disability, national origin, race, religion or veteran status, that is representative of the world around us, where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity - and to act swiftly if this value is ever threatened. We are constantly striving to be better, and we continue to take strategic steps to advance representation.

We also provide reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities and for seriously held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law.