AIx Product Manager

Applied Materials•Santa Clara, CA

5d•$138,000 - $190,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Product Manager, Level 4 is an emerging product leader role designed for a technically deep engineer with a PhD who is transitioning into Product Management within Applied Materials. This role leverages advanced engineering expertise to translate customer high-value problems, technology capabilities, field feedback, and business priorities into clear product requirements, roadmap inputs, and execution plans. The role is expected to operate with structured transition support while building product judgment, commercial acumen, stakeholder influence, and customer-facing communication skills.

Requirements

PhD in Engineering, Science, Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, Data Science, or a related technical discipline.
Strong technical foundation with demonstrated ability to solve complex engineering or technology problems relevant to Applied Materials products, services, or customer environments.
Ability to translate technical concepts into customer value, product requirements, and cross-functional execution plans.
Effective written and verbal communication skills with the ability to engage engineering, field, business, and customer-facing stakeholders.
Demonstrated curiosity and commitment to developing product management, business, and commercial skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with semiconductor equipment, process technology, services, diagnostics, data platforms, automation, reliability, or advanced manufacturing environments.
Exposure to customer escalations, field support, roadmap discussions, technology transfer, or cross-functional product development.
Experience preparing technical presentations, competitive assessments, business cases, or requirements documents.
Familiarity with market requirements specifications, product lifecycle management, launch readiness, pricing inputs, or service product strategy.

Responsibilities

Contribute to product strategy, roadmap definition, and requirements development for a defined product, platform, service offering, or technology area.
Partner with Engineering, BU, Field, Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Service teams to convert technical opportunities into scalable product outcomes.
Apply deep domain expertise to evaluate technical feasibility, customer value, differentiation, and execution trade-offs.
Operate as an individual contributor or matrixed product lead with guidance from senior Product Management and business leaders.
Translate customer, field, and engineering inputs into product requirements, use cases, value propositions, and roadmap recommendations.
Support market and customer segmentation analysis to identify where Applied should invest, compete, or differentiate.
Contribute to product lifecycle decisions, including feature prioritization, release readiness, adoption barriers, and retirement considerations.
Build fact-based business cases that connect technical capability to customer outcomes, revenue opportunity, margin impact, and strategic fit.
Engage with field teams, customer-facing stakeholders, and technical experts to understand customer high-value problems and operational pain points.
Capture and synthesize Voice of Customer, escalation learnings, installed-base insights, and competitive intelligence into actionable product recommendations.
Support customer technical review preparation by providing product positioning, technical rationale, and evidence-based messaging.
Identify gaps between current product capabilities and customer needs, then recommend corrective actions or roadmap adjustments.
Partner with Engineering and Program Management to ensure requirements are understood, feasible, prioritized, and traceable through execution.
Coordinate with Sales, Field, Service, and Operations to support launch planning, enablement, adoption tracking, and issue resolution.
Maintain clear documentation of product decisions, assumptions, dependencies, risks, and success metrics.
Use structured operating rhythms, dashboards, and reviews to communicate progress and escalate issues appropriately.
Receive structured mentorship from a senior Product Manager or business leader for roadmap ownership, product strategy, customer engagement, and commercial decision-making.
Complete a defined transition plan covering product management fundamentals, market requirements, pricing and business case development, launch readiness, and stakeholder influence.
Participate in customer, field, and BU reviews initially as a technical product contributor, progressing toward ownership of selected product decisions and roadmap workstreams.
Build capability in executive communication, concise storytelling, trade-off framing, and business outcome orientation.
Demonstrate increasing independence over 6–12 months in converting technical depth into product strategy, requirements, and measurable business impact.