Senior Product Manager

Location: Austin TX (Hybrid minimum 3 days/week on-site preferred)
Travel: 15% or less
Clearance: U.S. Citizen with the ability and willingness to obtain and maintain a DoD security clearance (sponsorship available)

About NODA

NODA is a veteran-owned venture-backed technology company transforming how unmanned systems collaborate in complex mission-critical environments. We develop next-generation software that enables autonomous orchestration of heterogeneous unmanned systems across air sea land and space for defence intelligence and commercial customers. Joining NODA means working on high-impact systems that go from prototype to fielded capability.

About the Role

NODA AI is seeking a Senior Product Manager to own the products and workflows that turn mission intent into executable plans for autonomous systems. This is a highly technical customer-facing product role at the intersection of mission planning command and control autonomy and real-world operations. Our users operate in environments where software must do more than be intuitive. It must help operators translate mission intent into executable plans synchronize actions across systems and platforms understand risks and constraints and adapt as conditions change. You will bring a deep understanding of how operators plan and execute missions today and help define how those workflows evolve as autonomous and multi-domain systems become increasingly central to operations. We are looking for someone who understands mission planning software command-and-control systems and operational workflows ideally through direct experience with systems such as Joint Mission Planning System (JMPS) FalconView Portable Flight Planning Software (PFPS) other comparable DoD mission planning or C2 products and commercial ground control stations such as QGroundControl.

This is a hands-on senior individual contributor role with significant product ownership. You will spend time with operators work shoulder-to-shoulder with Engineering and Design participate in field exercises and customer deployments and see firsthand how the product performs in operational environments. You will serve as a voice of the operator translating operator feedback doctrine TTPs field observations technical constraints and customer requirements into product strategy intuitive workflows and engineering priorities. A critical part of this role will be helping NODA AI evolve into a scalable multi-domain product platform. You will identify patterns across missions customers platforms and integrations and determine what should become configurable repeatable product capability balancing immediate operational needs and customer commitments with the long-term architecture and integrity of the platform.

This role requires strong product instincts technical fluency operational awareness and the ability to bring structure and coordination to ambiguous cross-functional problems. You will own meaningful product outcomes from discovery through development field deployment and iteration. You will help define what we build and why make difficult prioritization decisions and distinguish between what a customer asks for and the underlying problem the product should solve. Success requires deep user empathy technical fluency strong product and design judgment and the ability to bring clarity to complex ambiguous problems. You will partner closely with Engineering to deliver capabilities that reduce operator workload accelerate decision-making and give users confidence in the plans they execute when the mission matters.

What Youll Do

• Facilitate the product strategy roadmap and requirements for NODA AIs mission planning software translating mission needs into intuitive operationally relevant product capabilities.

• Act as the voice of the operator working directly with warfighters mission planners and Government stakeholders to understand operational workflows identify unmet needs and translate insights into product direction.

• Define and evolve workflows for mission creation course-of-action development planning tasking coordination visualization feasibility validation execution monitoring and dynamic re-planning across autonomous and multi-domain systems.

• Translate mission objectives operator workflows technical constraints and customer requirements into clear product requirements workflows user stories acceptance criteria and development priorities.

• Drive the transition from programs to scalable product capabilities identifying patterns across customer engagements and defining the abstractions configurations workflows and interfaces that turn one-off requirements into repeatable capabilities across customers and missions.

• Partner closely with Engineering and Design through the full product lifecycle from discovery and prototyping through development integration field deployment validation and iteration delivering reliable and intuitive experiences that increase operator confidence.

• Drive product decisions involving complex interactions between planning software autonomy command and control communications networking sensors payloads platforms and Ground Control Stations.

• Evaluate integration and interoperability requirements with existing Government systems mission planning tools Ground Control Stations data formats interfaces and operational workflows.

• Participate directly in field exercises demonstrations integration events testing and customer deployments to observe product performance validate workflows and gather operator feedback firsthand.

• Define and measure product success through planning speed operator workload feasibility validation risk and constraint identification mission-plan quality successful execution user adoption operator feedback and mission outcomes using those insights to continuously improve the product.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Engineering Computer Science or a related technical field

• 5 years of product management or technical product management experience including ownership of complex mission-critical software or integrated hardware/software products

• Minimum 2 years of experience in a dedicated Product Manager role

• U.S. Citizenship required due to ITAR regulations & the ability to obtain and maintain a Department of Defense (DoD) security clearance

• Demonstrated success delivering and scaling field-deployed mission-critical or operationally complex software products

• Track record of shipping products not just features with end-to-end ownership from user research and product strategy through design development field deployment adoption and iteration including making difficult decisions about what not to build

• Direct knowledge of military mission planning and execution workflows gained through product engineering program or operational experience

• Hands-on familiarity with one or more mission planning environments such as JMPS FalconView PFPS Ground Control Station software or comparable DoD planning and execution tools

• Strong understanding of the relationship between mission planning command and control platform tasking autonomous behaviors and mission execution

• Exceptional product discovery and research instincts with demonstrated ability to learn complex domains through direct user engagement workflow observation technical investigation doctrine and operational context and synthesize findings into product decisions

• Strong technical fluency and systems-level thinking. You do not need to write the code but you must understand complex software systems deeply enough to partner with Engineering on architecture interfaces dependencies feasibility and technical tradeoffs

• Demonstrated ability to translate complex operational and customer requirements into clear product requirements and actionable priorities for engineering teams

• Strong product judgment including the ability to distinguish between customer requests underlying user problems program-specific requirements and scalable product capabilities

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to write a clear product brief lead a productive design or product review and communicate strategy and tradeoffs to engineers operators Government customers program leadership and executives

• Willingness and ability to travel to customer sites test events demonstrations exercises and field deployments as required

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or Technical Graduate Degree

• Active DoD security clearance

• Prior Military highly desirable; specifically aviation UAS C2 or related operational background.

• Prior work in a fast-moving defense technology autonomy robotics or dual-use technology company

• Direct operational experience using JMPS FalconView PFPS or similar mission planning software

• Hands-on experience with Ground Control Stations (GCS) for unmanned aircraft ground vehicles maritime systems or other autonomous platforms

• Product or operational background with autonomous systems robotics unmanned systems AI/ML command-and-control software or multi-domain operations

• Background integrating software with sensors payloads vehicles communications systems edge compute or other hardware platforms

• Background supporting Government test events demonstrations exercises operational evaluations or field deployments

• Direct interaction with DoD acquisition organizations program offices operational units or intelligence community customers

• Prior ownership of a 0-to-1 product or major new product capability in a technically complex environment

Skills & Attributes

• Ability to make effective prioritization decisions when balancing user needs technical feasibility resource constraints customer commitments program requirements and long-term product architecture.

• Operator obsessed: You want to understand how users actually plan and execute missions not simply what a requirements document says they do.

• Strong product judgment: You can separate a customer request from the underlying user problem and determine whether the right answer is a new feature a different workflow an integration or something we should not build.

• Product-minded not program-driven: You recognize patterns across customer requirements and build scalable capabilities rather than accumulating one-off solutions.

• Technically credible: You can go deep enough with engineers to understand system constraints architecture integrations dependencies and technical tradeoffs without needing to be the person writing the code.

• Mission-oriented: You evaluate product decisions based on whether they make the operator more capable and the mission more successful.

• Strategic and execution-focused: You can maintain a long-term product vision while making practical decisions about what needs to ship now.

• Decisive: You are comfortable making difficult prioritization decisions with imperfect information and clearly communicating the reasoning and tradeoffs behind them.

• Hands-on: You are willing to sit with users test workflows participate in field events troubleshoot alongside engineers and see firsthand how the product performs.

• High ownership: You take responsibility for product outcomes from initial discovery through field deployment adoption and iteration.

• Clear communicator: You can translate between operators engineers program teams Government stakeholders and executives without losing the substance of the problem.

• Comfortable in ambiguity: You create structure where requirements are evolving technology is advancing quickly and the right product solution is not immediately obvious.

Benefits & Perks
Our culture fosters collaboration respect and trust empowering passionate people to do their best work. We offer a competitive salary comprehensive benefits and opportunities for career addition to an opportunity to take part in an innovative collaborative and fast-growing business with a highly motivated and skilled team we also take pride in taking care of our employees. Here are just a few ways that we show our appreciation:

• We offer comprehensive medical dental and visions plans

• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan to invest in your long-term retirement goals Company match

• Equity grants for new hires

• Unlimited PTO

• 11 Paid holidays

• Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a holiday hiatus in November & December.

• Generous Parental Leave

• Military Leave for annual training or service requirements

• FSA

• DCFSA

• HSA

• Professional Development Opportunities

• Access to One Medical

• Mental Health Resources: We provide free mental health resources 24/7 including therapy and more. Additional work-life services such as free legal and financial support are available to you as well.

Export Control Compliance

To conform to U.S. government export control regulations including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR) you must be a U.S. citizen lawful permanent resident of the U.S. protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) or otherwise eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State or U.S. Department of Commerce.

Equal Opportunity Statement

NODA AI is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to fostering a diverse inclusive and respectful workplace and to maintaining equitable employment and hiring practices. We provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees and make all employment decisions without regard to race color religion sex (including pregnancy childbirth and related medical conditions) sexual orientation gender identity or expression national origin age disability genetic information protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal state or local law.

As a federal contractor NODA AI complies with all applicable equal employment opportunity and affirmative action requirements including Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended and the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA) as amended. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants and employees with disabilities throughout the recruiting hiring and employment process.

Consistent with applicable federal state and local laws qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with applicable fair chance and ban-the-box laws including the Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance where applicable. We actively encourage qualified individuals of all backgrounds including women minorities protected veterans and individuals with disabilities to apply.

NODA AI is committed to fostering an inclusive supportive and accessible work environment for all applicants and employees. If you require accommodations or assistance during the application process please dont hesitate to reach out to us at or contact your recruiter so we can provide the support you need.

Required Experience:

Senior IC