Product Manager - Defense

Applied Intuition•Sunnyvale, CA

20h•$200,000 - $250,000•Onsite

About The Position

As a Product Manager for Defense OS, you will own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for a defense operating system derived directly from Applied Intuition's commercial automotive VehicleOS product, as the product peer to a director-level engineering lead. You will drive the product through customer discovery, requirements definition, prioritization, and close partnership with engineering, design, and operations — owning outcomes through influence rather than managing a team. As the first instantiation of this broadly applicable defense product, you will own the product for a navy warship operating system that integrates combat systems, communications systems, and hull, mechanical, and electrical (HM&E) systems on unmanned surface vessels and traditional surface combatants. A central part of the work is shaping the product strategy for a zonal architecture — location-based zone controllers and centralized compute replacing a federated, domain-based design — and defining how it integrates with existing defense-unique systems built by primes that were not delivered with modernized software and data interfaces. Your work will influence the scope, sequencing, field-readiness, and adoption of the Defense OS product.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in a technical field (Computer Science, Engineering, or related) or equivalent experience; advanced degree or deep technical background a plus.
8+ years of product management experience shipping complex technical products, including owning a product line end to end, ideally platforms spanning both hardware and software, real-time/embedded, or systems-of-systems.
Demonstrated ability to own a product end to end as an individual contributor: vision, roadmap, requirements, prioritization, launch, and iteration against measurable outcomes.
Thrives as an IC — comfortable owning a product area and driving cross-functional outcomes through influence rather than managing direct reports.
Strong technical literacy — enough to engage credibly with engineers on architecture trade-offs (e.g., zonal versus federated domain architectures, hardware/software integration, interfaces and data flow) and make informed scope decisions, without managing the implementation.
Experience defining product strategy for integrating with legacy, proprietary, or closed third-party systems that lack modern software and data interfaces — deciding what to bridge and how to sequence the integration work.
Skilled at customer and user discovery: translating ambiguous operational problems into clear, prioritized requirements.
Comfort in a fast-paced, highly ambiguous environment, and the ability to make and defend trade-offs between speed, quality, and scope.
Excellent written and verbal communication, including clear status, risk, and decision communication to senior leadership.
US citizenship is required. You must already hold, or be eligible to receive, an active US Top Secret security clearance upon onboarding to this role.

Nice To Haves

Product management (or equivalent) experience on software-defined vehicles or analogous platforms where a zonal architecture and centralized compute replaced distributed, domain-based controllers.
Familiarity with naval/maritime subsystems (combat, C5I, HM&E), DoD acquisition and requirements processes, and delivery in regulated environments (RMF/ATO, IL5/IL6); prior naval or operational experience a plus.

Responsibilities

Own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for Defense OS — defining how Applied's commercial VehicleOS is adapted into a navy warship operating system, the first instantiation of this broadly applicable defense product.
Lead customer and user discovery directly with Navy program offices, operators, and crews to translate operational needs, acquisition requirements, and field constraints into a prioritized product roadmap.
Define the product strategy for a zonal architecture — location-based zone controllers and centralized compute replacing a federated, domain-based design — including how it integrates with existing defense-unique systems built by primes (combat, communications, and HM&E subsystems) that lack modernized software and data interfaces; decide what to bridge, in what sequence, and where to build versus partner.
Write clear requirements, define success metrics, and make the prioritization and scope trade-offs that keep engineering focused on the highest-value, field-relevant work.
Partner closely with engineering, hardware/integration, and operations to sequence delivery across simulation, integration lab, and live-platform testing on unmanned surface vessels and traditional surface combatants.
Own the trade-offs between speed, quality, and scope under acquisition and field constraints.
Work with design to shape operator interfaces and workflows grounded in how crews actually operate.
Partner with defense customers and shipbuilders/integrators as a design-informed product lead, translating their needs into the roadmap.
Communicate product strategy, status, risk, and trade-offs to senior leadership and external stakeholders, and provide product input into program and business decisions.
Build the feedback loops — usage signals, customer input, and program data — that justify investment and shape the roadmap over time.