Product Manager, Core Product Experiences

Arlo•Milpitas, CA

4d•$130,000 - $155,000

About The Position

Arlo is seeking an Experience Lead for their app ecosystem, responsible for the end-to-end product experience. This role focuses not just on shipping features, but on the overall feel and usability of the product, from initial interaction to long-term engagement. The ideal candidate will possess deep customer empathy and sound judgment regarding product quality and release readiness. Collaboration with engineering is key, with the ability to contribute to architecture reviews and write effective specifications. The role also involves leveraging AI tools for efficiency while maintaining accountability for the final product outcome. This is a fixed-term contract position for up to 12 months.

Requirements

3 + years in product management with a track record of shipping consumer-facing products end to end
Demonstrated accountability for a product experience holistically — from first impression through retention
Strong understanding of the engineering development lifecycle: sprint cadences, CI/CD pipelines, branching strategies, staging environments, and release processes
Proven track record writing high-quality specs and PRDs that require minimal clarification from engineering
Experience synthesizing customer research, support signals, and behavioral data into prioritized decisions
Experience proposing and implementing process changes that measurably improved delivery speed or quality
Excellent written and verbal communication

Nice To Haves

Engineering background or strong hands-on technical fluency (can read code, write scripts, understand system design trade-offs)
Comfortable using AI tools ( e.g. Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot) as everyday productivity aids — helpful, not
Background in consumer hardware, IoT, or security/smart home products
Experience with developer tooling, platform products, or API/SDK products where the "user" is often an engineer
Experience using customer support/care data to inform product prioritization

Responsibilities

Accountable for the holistic product experience across all surfaces — from first impression to long-term retention
Establish and enforce experience standards, design principles, and quality bars that scale
Synthesize customer research, behavioral data, and support signals into a clear, prioritized experience vision
Lead cross-functional experience reviews that align product, design, and engineering on customer outcomes
Define what "done" looks like from a user's perspective — not a developer's
Write PRDs, specs, and user stories that are clear enough to require minimal back-and-forth with engineering
Use AI tools and other modern workflows where they genuinely speed things up — while staying accountable for the quality of the output
Keep specs current as engineering feedback and edge cases surface during the build
Turn customer research, support themes, and competitive context into actionable requirements
Demonstrate fluency across the full SDLC: sprint planning, backlog grooming, story pointing, CI/CD, code review, staging, release management
Accountable for the PM side of the operating model — from ticket creation through QA sign-off and post-launch monitoring
Write specs at the right level of fidelity — enough context for engineering to move fast, enough flexibility to stay adaptive
Participate meaningfully in architecture discussions and technical trade-off conversations without needing hand-holding
Hold both product and engineering accountable to the definition-of-ready and definition-of-done
Serve as the connective tissue between product, engineering, design, data, and customer care
Run tight, well-prepared ceremonies — standups, retros, and planning grounded in real data and customer signal
Translate fluently between customer language and technical language, often in the same conversation
Elevate the team by sharing the workflows, templates, and practices that make you effective