Senior / Staff Product Manager - IoT Connected Devices

Overview

Senior or Staff Product Manager owning the hardware and firmware roadmap, new product introductions, and installed-base reliability for Motive's Equipment Monitoring connected devices (asset gateways, beacons, environmental sensors) and related device partnerships.

What you'll do

• Own the hardware and firmware roadmap for Equipment Monitoring in-field devices, including asset gateways, beacons, environmental and door sensors, power accessories, and new form factors.
• Drive NPI execution end-to-end from problem definition and sourcing through EVT, DVT, PVT, certification, MP ramp, and post-launch stabilization.
• Own the installed base, including field failure and RMA rates, field battery life, connectivity and positioning performance, and install success.
• Define and prioritize firmware features that extend the value of deployed devices, such as power optimization, connectivity resilience, positioning accuracy, sensor fusion, OTA reliability and staged rollout, diagnostics, security, and fleet-level observability.
• Lead the product side of device partnerships, owning technical and product decisions in partner and mesh network programs while BD and Supply Chain own commercial terms.
• Make hard trade-offs across feature set, BOM cost, power budget, connectivity (cellular, LPWAN, BLE, GNSS), antenna performance, manufacturability, ruggedness, install experience, quality, and schedule, and communicate those decisions across the organization.
• Translate customer and market signals into crisp requirements through discovery across construction, trucking and logistics, agriculture, energy, field service, and food and beverage.
• Write strong PRDs and technical specs and keep Hardware, Firmware, Mechanical, Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and TPM aligned through every gate.
• Partner with cloud and mobile product teams so that firmware contracts (telemetry schemas, provisioning, OTA, device management) evolve cleanly.
• Drive go-to-market readiness with Product Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, Support, Install, and Operations for every NPI and major firmware release.
• Represent Motive's hardware point of view externally with silicon vendors, ODMs, contract manufacturers, carriers, test labs, certification bodies, and network and OEM partners.

What you'll need

• 6+ years of product management experience, with meaningful time shipping IoT, telematics, tracking, or connected hardware products from concept through mass production and sustaining them post-launch.
• Proven ownership of at least one full hardware NPI that reached material volume (ideally 100K+ units), including EVT/DVT/PVT/MP gates, regulatory certifications, and supplier or contract-manufacturer relationships.
• Strong technical fluency in battery-powered connected systems, including MCUs and SoCs, power management and battery chemistry, multi-year battery life budgeting, RF and antenna design, GNSS, cellular (LTE-M, NB-IoT, 4G, 5G), Bluetooth Low Energy, environmental ratings (IP, shock/vibration, thermal), and firmware architecture.
• Direct experience owning firmware roadmaps, including OTA update strategy and staged rollouts, release trains, device provisioning and security, telemetry design, and observability for devices in harsh, bandwidth-constrained, power-constrained environments.
• Demonstrated ownership of field reliability, including finding root causes of failing deployed products and measuring the improvement afterward.
• Demonstrated ability to lead ambiguous, cross-functional initiatives and influence roadmaps across engineering, operations, and GTM without direct authority.
• Customer empathy paired with data fluency, running discovery in the field and using device telemetry and field-performance data to prioritize.
• Excellent written and verbal communication across executives, hardware and firmware engineers, cloud engineers, GTM teams, and customers.
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Embedded Systems, Computer Science, Industrial Design, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Must be authorized to receive and access commodities and technologies controlled under U.S. Export Administration Regulations.

Nice to have

• Experience launching cellular-connected, battery-powered tracking devices with multi-year battery life targets.
• Background in telematics, fleet technology, construction technology, industrial IoT, cold chain, supply-chain visibility, or heavy equipment.
• Experience running OTA firmware programs at scale, including staged rollouts, fleet-health monitoring, rollback strategy, and fleet-level security response.
• Experience with third-party or crowd-sourced location networks (BLE mesh, LPWAN, or similar) and the product decisions that come with depending on infrastructure you don't own.
• Familiarity with automotive and off-highway protocols (CAN, OBD-II, J1939) and industrial data standards such as AEMP 2.0.
• Experience working with global contract manufacturers and managing multi-region sourcing, logistics, and compliance.

Details

• Location: United States, remote.
• Reports to the VP of Connected Devices and works closely with the Equipment Monitoring product team.
• Compensation range for United States: $180,000 to $248,000 USD, which may be supplemented by restricted stock units for certain roles.
• Some interviews or new-hire training sessions may be held in person at one of Motive's global offices.
• Non-compete covenant may be required depending on role and primary work location, excluding lawyers, interns, and employees in CA, MN, MT, ND, and OK, or where otherwise prohibited by law.