Senior R&D Product Manager

Advanced Navigation is the world’s most determined innovator in AI robotics and navigation technologies across land, air, sea and space applications. Founded on a culture of research and discovery, Advanced Navigation's mission is to be the catalyst of the autonomy revolution. Fields of expertise include artificial intelligence, underwater sonar, GNSS, radio frequency systems, inertial sensors, robotics, quantum sensors and photonics. 

Today, Advanced Navigation is a supplier to some of the world's largest companies, including Airbus, Boeing, Google, Tesla, NASA, Apple, and General Motors. Discover it for yourself: https://youtu.be/F7uAqs1gtuk

OVERVIEW OF ROLE

As a Senior R&D Product Manager at Advanced Navigation, you hold end-to-end accountability for the success of your product line. You are responsible for the commercial success and technical integrity of our INS family. This role requires a rare blend of high-level strategic thinking and the ability to "deep dive" into the daily engineering grind. You will bridge the gap between market requirements and technical execution, leading trade-off discussions across Hardware, Firmware, and Software to deliver world-class PNT (Positioning, Navigation, and Timing) solutions.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Product ownership & strategy

Drive commercial success: own the end-to-end P&L, revenue growth, and market penetration strategy for the INS product family.

Market requirement definition: define and document high-fidelity market requirements based on rigorous technical discovery with key customers and industry trends in Advanced Navigation’s strategic industries.

Roadmap leadership: architect and manage the INS product roadmap, balancing New Product Introduction (NPI) with essential sustaining engineering.

Portfolio optimization: analyze sales mix and competitive positioning to optimize product family pricing and profitability.

Engineering leadership & execution

Lead Technical Trade-offs: actively lead daily technical trade-off discussions between Hardware, Firmware, and Software teams. You must be able to debate technical constraints with engineers to ensure the best product outcome.

Stage-gate management: oversee the product lifecycle from initial concept through development, verification, launch, and end-of-life.

Technical discovery: lead deep-dive technical discovery sessions with key customers and strategic partners to validate complex software features and HW variants.

Lifecycle oversight: work closely with Engineering and support to prioritize bug fixes and product improvements based on data-driven customer impact.

Organizational Integration

Marketing partnership: collaborate with Marketing to provide the "technical core" for collateral, while delegating final production and distribution to the Marketing team.

Growth & values: evolve with the organization by taking on strategic tasks as the product line expands and embody the company’s values through quantifiable performance targets.

KEY MEASURABLES

• Product profitability: Support growth in revenue & margin for the INS product family by developing comprehensive platform strategies that deliver on Advanced Navigation’s strategic goals. 
• Requirement fidelity: quality and clarity of market requirements, ensuring minimal "scope creep" during development phases.
• Engineering alignment: success in resolving technical bottlenecks and making timely trade-off decisions that keep R&D on schedule.
• Roadmap execution: timely delivery of Product deliverables as part of the Product Realization Process.
• Commercial feedback: satisfaction from key strategic customers regarding technical solution alignment.

QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Engineering (Aeronautical, Mechatronics, Electrical, or similar technical field).
• Technical authority: proven ability to deep-dive into complex technical topics and build rapport/authority with highly specialized engineering teams.
• Strategic conflict resolution: skilled at negotiating constraints between different engineering disciplines (e.g., SW vs. HW limitations).
• Commercial acumen: strong understanding of market dynamics, pricing strategies, and P&L management.
• Communication: ability to translate complex technical trade-offs into clear business impact for executive stakeholders.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in technical & commercial leadership role
• Engineering background: broad experience across Hardware, Embedded Firmware, and Software development cycles.
• Domain expertise: proven experience working with Inertial Navigation (GNSS/INS) technologies.
• Industry context: experience in the defense industry using Assured PNT (Positioning, Navigation, and Timing) is highly desirable.