Senior Product Manager, Perception and Navigation
Apptronik
Sunnyvale, CA · Posted July 18, 2026
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Where Sunnyvale, CA ranks
Where Sunnyvale, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for consumer and retail pay after cost of living$194k · of 11
- #3Best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living$213k · of 28
- #4Best cities for pay after cost of living in California$192k · of 32
- #4Best all-round cities for AI careers95 / 100 · of 100
- #4Best all-round cities for AI careers in the West Coast88 / 100 · of 39
- #5Best cities for pay after cost of living in the West Coast$192k · of 39
Rankings about product jobs
- Best cities for product jobs #1 New York (738 openings)
- Best cities for product pay after cost of living #1 Santa Clara ($224k)
- Most requested AI skills in product jobs #1 AI product management (17.9%)
- AI tools named most often in product jobs #1 Claude (3.2%)
- Employers with the most product jobs #1 Amazon (356 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 326 open senior product manager listings that state pay, the middle half runs $166,500 to $205,000 and the median is $185,000.
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How AI is used in this kind of work
Among marketing managers, AI is already used for a large share of the tasks. Measured exposure for marketing managers: 32% (high).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
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About the job
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 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.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
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.
SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS
4+ years of experience in product management.
Strong experience in perception and navigation fundamentals: detection, tracking, localization, mapping, and obstacle avoidance.
Demonstrated experience defining evaluation metrics, field-testing regimes, and performance tracking for autonomy or perception software.
Field deployment experience taking perception or autonomy software from the lab into reliable real-world operation.
Practical safety judgment around failure modes, validation coverage, and autonomy risks.
Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, enabling translation of technical insights into business impact.
You make decisions in uncertainty, prioritizing velocity over perfection.
You prioritize user feedback, promoting and advocating for that voice to internal teams.
EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE
At least 7 years of experience product management
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).
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
The annual salary range is $190,000 - $223,000 base
*This is a direct hire. Please, no outside Agency solicitations.
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.