Senior Product Manager - Military veterans preferred

About Forterra

Forterra is a leading provider of autonomous systems for ground-based movement in the working world. Amongst some of the earliest innovators in the field of driverless technology, Forterra is focused on building systems that protect front-line soldiers and enable civilian workers in our industrial base. Forterra is the go-to provider of ground autonomy solutions for the U.S. Department of Defense, which harnesses the technology for asymmetric warfare in critical conditions.

About the role

Our autonomous vehicle (AV) product is generating real value for real customers today. As a Product team, our mission is to ensure we're building the right things, in the right order, to the right scopewhile staying tightly aligned with our customer-facing Growth and Engineering teams. If you're looking to apply your product expertise to serve the people who serve usand make a meaningful impact in the worldyou're in the right place.

We're looking for a seasoned Product Manager who can make an impact from day one. You'll embed directly with cross-functional teams (CFTs) that interact regularly with our customers and users. You'll translate what you learn in the field into clear priorities and strong execution. This role requires curiosity, clarity, and the ability to guide product conversations with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders.

We need someone who is neither a yes person that agrees without scrutiny, nor a no person that blocks progress without alternatives. You must be proactive in asking the right questions, engaging the right people, and uncovering the best path forwardbalancing user needs, technical feasibility, and business value.

What you'll do

• Drive Product Impact: Position yourself where you can best influence outcomeswhether that's observing users, testing in the field, meeting with customers, or brainstorming with engineers.
• Test in the Real World: Help validate product features in real-world environments to ensure they meet user needs and uncover critical gaps. Ensure we're testing the right things in the right order with the right value proposition.
• Partner with Growth and Engineering: Attend customer meetings alongside Growth and Engineering to gather insight first-hand and shape upcoming work.
• Engage with Users: Observe and interview users of the product to understand their workflows and identify pain points and unmet needs.
• Define Customer Needs & Identify Roadmap Gaps: Partner with Product Leadership to identify roadmap gaps, proposing initiatives that address key customer and business needs.
• Create Product Artifacts: Develop and own backlogs, user journeys, and other tools to align key stakeholders on desired outcomes and priorities.
• Enable Execution: Collaborate with technical product managers and tech leads to ensure work is well-understood, well-scoped, and targeted to user needs.
• Cross-Functional Communication: Act as a connective leaderaligning teams, surfacing risks, and resolving interdependencies across the organization.
• Make Tradeoffs Wisely: Make scope and priority tradeoff decisions in collaboration with Product Leadership and Product Owners.
• Keep Stakeholders Informed: Communicate clearly with Engineering, Growth, Executives, and others on roadmap progress, risks, and delivery status.

Qualifications

• You have 5–8+ years of product management experience, with a strong record of delivering high-impact B2B or technically sophisticated productsideally in areas like robotics or autonomous systems.
• You're skilled at talking to customers and translating their pain points into actionable insights and opportunities.
• You've led cross-functional teams through ambiguity and come out the other side with excellent products.
• You don't need to have all the answersyou know how to find them by asking the right questions to the right people.
• You're technical enough to earn the trust of engineers, hold your own in brainstorming sessions, and ensure feasibility.
• You believe great products are built in the field, not in the ivory tower. You're comfortable embedding yourself wherever you can best influence outcomesat customer sites, in cross-functional meetings, at our test sites, and in Slack.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in AV, robotics, or complex hardware/software systems.
• Familiarity with agile environments and associated tools (e.g., Jira).
• Previous work in a startup or 0-to-1 environment.
• Prior experience in a technical role (e.g., software engineering, hardware development)

Education & Experience

• Bachelor Degree in a related field OR equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of Product Management experience.

US Salary Range:
$150,000 - $180,000

Location:

Remote (US)

Up to 30% travel required.

The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience, education, specialized training, critical expertise, training, and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full-time, high-demand roles and is therefore considered part of Forterra's overall compensation package. In addition to base salary and equity, Forterra offers competitive benefits for full-time employees including:

• Premium Healthcare Benefits: Three plan options, including an HSA-eligible plan, with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for you and your dependents.
• Basic Life/AD&D, short and long-term disability insurance plans 100% covered by Forterra, plus the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your dependents.
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a winter break in December.
• Competitive paid time off (PTO) offering 20 days accrued per year.
• A minimum of 7 weeks fully paid parental leave for birth/adoption.
• A $9k annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
• Fully stocked beverage refrigerators with all the Celsius your little heart desires.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan, including traditional, Roth 401(k), and after-tax deferral with company match up to 4%.

Your recruiter will be able to share more information about our salary and benefits offering during the hiring process.

Forterra is an equal-opportunity employer, providing and promoting equal employment opportunity in accordance with local, state, and federal laws. Forterrans are unique, talented individuals who are united through a shared passion to deliver autonomous systems that enable national resilience and a robust supply chain. All qualified applications will receive equal consideration for employment.

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