Principal Hardware Product Manager – Security Appliances

Opswat•Tampa, FL

About The Position

OPSWAT is a global leader in IT, OT, and ICS critical infrastructure cybersecurity, delivering an end-to-end platform that protects complex networks, secures devices, and ensures compliance for public and private sector organizations and enterprises. With over 20 years of experience, OPSWAT has earned the trust of more than 1,700 organizations globally. We are seeking a Principal Hardware Product Manager to lead the strategy, roadmap, and lifecycle of our security appliance portfolio. These appliances are critical for customers in sensitive environments such as critical infrastructure, defense, government, and enterprise OT/IT boundaries. This role requires end-to-end ownership of the hardware, from market requirements and industrial design through NPI, certification, mass production, sustaining, and end-of-life. You will collaborate with hardware engineering, supply chain, software product, and compliance teams to translate business strategy into a differentiated, certifiable, manufacturable, and serviceable hardware portfolio. This is a hands-on role for an individual who thinks in terms of product, understands hardware engineering and supply chain, and is comfortable making significant decisions regarding BOM, inventory, and go-to-market strategy.

Requirements

10+ years of product management experience, with at least 6 years in hardware product management for networked, embedded, or appliance-class products.
Proven track record of leading multiple hardware platforms from concept to mass production.
Deep, working understanding of the NPI process and gate model (Concept, Proto, EVT, DVT, PVT, MP), including the artifacts and decisions at each gate.
Strong commercial instincts, comfortable owning BOM cost, ASP, margin, and inventory exposure as product KPIs.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, capable of briefing executives, writing business cases, and running cross-functional program reviews.
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

Domain experience in cybersecurity products, such as network security (NGFW, IDS/IPS, segmentation), OT/ICS security, USB/peripheral security, secure gateways, or data diodes.
Familiarity with public sector and defense procurement processes, including DoDIN APL, CSfC, federal channel motions, and the impact of certification status on sales.
Experience with ruggedized, air-gapped, or critical-infrastructure deployments and their associated hardware design constraints (environmental, EMC, supply chain provenance).
Familiarity with secure hardware primitives like TPM, HSM, secure enclaves, secure boot, anti-tamper, and supply-chain integrity controls (e.g., SBOM for hardware, attestation).
MBA or equivalent commercial training.

Responsibilities

Own the multi-year hardware roadmap for the appliance portfolio, including SKU strategy, form factors, performance tiers, refresh cadence, and platform consolidation.
Drive the New Product Introduction (NPI) lifecycle from Concept to Mass Production, managing gate criteria, schedules, and go/no-go decisions in collaboration with hardware engineering and operations.
Manage the entire product lifecycle, including General Availability, sustaining, End-of-Sale, End-of-Service, and End-of-Life, including planning for last-time-buys, customer migrations, and field replacements.
Define and publish lifecycle policies for support windows, RMA terms, and spare-parts SLAs.
Own the appliance Profit and Loss (P&L) levers within the Product Manager's control, such as BOM cost targets, Average Selling Price (ASP), margin, attach rates, refresh-driven revenue, and inventory exposure.
Translate customer, market, and threat landscape insights into hardware requirements, including performance, ports, tamper resistance, secure boot, TPM/HSM integration, ruggedization, and physical security features.
Conduct competitive analysis against peer security appliance vendors to identify and address hardware gaps and establish differentiation.
Evaluate and pilot emerging technologies, such as new silicon, networking interfaces, storage, AI/ML acceleration, and secure enclaves, to inform roadmap decisions.
Define the appliance design language and customer experience, focusing on chassis, indicators, serviceability, and deployment ergonomics for various user types.
Develop hardware business cases for new platforms, including TAM/SAM, target customer profiles, pricing, projected volumes, payback periods, and risk assessments.
Own the certification roadmap for the portfolio, including FIPS 140-3, Common Criteria / NIAP, DoDIN APL, FCC/CE/UKCA, UL/IEC 62368, RoHS/REACH, and country-specific marks.
Sequence certifications based on customer demand and revenue impact, managing scope, budget, schedule, and lab selection.
Coordinate with software product management and compliance engineering on dependencies between hardware certifications and validated cryptographic modules, OS, or firmware.
Maintain a certification matrix by SKU and market, ensuring accurate and current claims for sales, marketing, and customers.
Plan for recertification, delta evaluations, and assurance maintenance as platforms evolve and standards change.
Build resourcing plans for hardware programs, including engineering headcount, ODM/EMS partner allocation, lab time, certification budget, and tooling investment.
Manage program priorities, making explicit trade-offs between competing hardware initiatives, sustaining work, and certification efforts.
Track NRE, tooling, and prototype budgets with finance and operations, identifying overruns and proposing recovery options.
Conduct regular program reviews and executive readouts to communicate the status of each platform.
Collaborate with supply chain and operations on sourcing strategy, ODM/EMS selection, dual-sourcing, geographic diversification, and tariff/trade compliance.
Co-own demand forecasting and Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) signals for each appliance SKU, balancing stock-out risk with inventory write-off exposure.
Lead responses to component End-of-Life (EOL) notices, allocation events, and supply disruptions, assessing design/certification impact of substitutions and approving alternate component qualifications.
Set and track quality KPIs with manufacturing partners, driving corrective actions as needed.
Lead cost-down programs for mature platforms, including component renegotiation, design-for-cost revisions, test-time optimization, and logistics restructuring.
Act as the voice of the customer and market within the hardware engineering team, providing clear, prioritized, and technically credible requirements.
Co-author Product Requirements Documents (PRDs) and platform specifications with engineering leads, approving trade-offs between performance, cost, schedule, certifiability, and serviceability.
Engage with technical work, including design reviews and understanding constraints, to make informed product decisions.
Drive hardware/software integration decisions with software PMs and firmware leads, covering secure boot chains, provisioning, telemetry, in-field updates, and diagnostics.
Champion serviceability and field experience as a critical design requirement, including installation, replacement, diagnostics, and on-site support workflows.