Robotics Staff Product Manager

Ford

11d • Hybrid

About The Position

As part of Ford's Manufacturing team, you’ll help build world-class, state-of-the-art smart vehicles. Ford’s Advanced Industrial Technology & Platforms (ATP) team is building scalable robotics products and platform capabilities to reimagine manufacturing across Ford. As a Staff Product Manager, Robotics, you will set product direction and drive delivery for robotics solutions from discovery through pilot and scale—leading through influence across engineering, manufacturing, safety, quality, IT, cybersecurity, and suppliers.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering OR Computer Science.
• 8+ years of experience in product management and/or technical delivery for complex technical products (hardware/software/system + operational deployment).
• Experience with advanced robotics concepts and technology - ROS, ROS2, Robotics Simulations (Isaac Sim, Gazebo, etc) & AI.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and align cross-functional teams at scale, driving decisions and outcomes through influence.
• Strong requirements and execution discipline: ability to translate ambiguous problems into crisp scope, measurable success criteria, and release plans.
• Experience using data and operational feedback to prioritize, iterate, and improve product performance over time.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage effectively with both executive stakeholders and engineering teams.

Nice To Haves

• Experience delivering robotics systems in real-world deployments (e.g., AMRs/AGVs, robotics navigation, fleet management, autonomy behaviors, HMI/operator workflows, teleoperation, cobotics, etc.,).
• Experience taking products from discovery to prototype to pilot to scaled rollout across multiple sites, including change management and operational readiness.
• Familiarity with robotics platform concepts: localization/mapping, motion planning, safety behaviors, teleoperation, fleet orchestration, edge compute, and industrial networking/integration.
• Strong understanding of reliability/serviceability practices (telemetry, failure modes, spares strategy, maintainability, support playbooks).
• Experience with industrial safety processes and standards practices (risk assessments, safe operating procedures, change control).
• Vendor/supplier management experience (RFx support, supplier scorecards, roadmap alignment, performance management).
• MBA or Master’s degree in engineering, robotics, computer science, or a related field.

Responsibilities

• Set the product strategy and multi-release roadmap for ATP robotics, balancing immediate operational wins with platform scalability and long-term architecture.
• Lead discovery with plant and operations partners to identify high-value use cases; define personas, workflows, constraints, and measurable outcomes.
• Own the creation and quality of product requirements (PRDs, user stories, acceptance criteria), ensuring they span robotics behavior, integration, safety, and operational readiness.
• Drive cross-functional execution with engineering: prioritize backlogs, define MVP scope, manage tradeoffs, and deliver releases that perform in real industrial environments.
• Define and monitor product KPIs such as uptime/availability, MTTR, throughput and cycle-time impact, deployment lead time, safety incident reduction, and total cost of ownership.
• Lead pilot-to-scale planning: site selection, rollout playbooks, training, support model, and post-deployment iteration based on telemetry and operator feedback.
• Influence technical and business decisions across stakeholders—aligning on architecture choices, sourcing approaches, and operating model (support, monitoring, maintenance).
• Partner with Purchasing and suppliers to evaluate solutions and shape vendor roadmaps; establish clear performance expectations and accountability mechanisms.
• Create a forward path for platform evolution (e.g., vision-guided navigation) while ensuring today’s decisions don’t block tomorrow’s capabilities.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior