Principal Product Manager - Robotics Safety and Compliance

About the role

You will drive execution and value creation across Vaux's autonomous intralogistics portfolio, bridging commercial strategy, product management, and functional safety engineering to deliver differentiated and safe autonomy solutions. This position owns the end-to-end product lifecycle—from market discovery and requirements definition through backlog prioritization, validation, release, and post-launch optimization. You will translate customer insights and operational feedback into clear product requirements, guide development priorities, and ensure the safe design, development, and deployment of the Vaux Smart Autonomy robotics platform. Strong leadership and communication skills are required to align cross-functional teams, translate complex safety requirements, and drive product outcomes that support recurring revenue growth and margin performance.

Responsibilities

• Own and lead translation of Smart Autonomy business line strategy into actionable product roadmaps and detailed product requirements.
• Lead product safety and compliance strategy to ensure robotics systems meet applicable multi-category standards and certifications, including robotic safety, functional safety, electrical safety, and regulatory market requirements.
• Oversee hazard analysis, risk mitigation design, and verification and validation planning to support certification and safe deployment of new products.
• Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams to embed safety and compliance requirements across hardware, software, and control systems throughout the development lifecycle.
• Manage relationships with OEMs and key suppliers to ensure component and system selections support required certifications and long-term platform scalability.
• Provide technical leadership to multidisciplinary teams and communicate product progress, performance metrics, compliance outcomes, and roadmap decisions to leadership and stakeholders.
• Direct and mature voice-of-customer programs, evaluate live deployments, develop strategic customer relationships, and review product performance data to identify product requirements and roadmap updates.
• Exercise decision-making authority to establish and adjust Smart Autonomy engineering priorities, proactively rebalancing technical resources to maximize customer value, commercial impact, and long-term platform scalability.
• Own the product “what” and “why” by developing product requirement documents (PRDs) that translate customer insights, field observations, and operational data into testable requirements and expected economic outcomes.
• Build, refine, and maintain quantitative models to determine Smart Autonomy pricing to maximize Vaux profitability.
• Leverage analytics and telemetry data to monitor performance, usage, and reliability, driving data-informed iteration cycles.
• Support product marketing efforts to prioritize target markets for the Vaux Smart Autonomy portfolio, define TAM, set customer hit lists, and define the ideal customer profile.
• Serve as a primary business representative in cross-functional sprint and release planning, facilitating clear trade-off decisions and prioritization based on value and risk.
• Communicate development status, product metrics, and roadmap decisions effectively to leadership and stakeholders.
• Perform other duties and projects as assigned.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Robotics, Electrical/Mechanical/Systems/Industrial Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical field (required). Master’s Degree (or MBA) in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, or related field (preferred).
• Experience: 8+ years of relevant experience (preferred). Experience with robotics, autonomy, or industrial automation products (required). Experience working closely with robotics engineering teams across hardware, perception, autonomy software, and control systems, including supporting field deployments of complex automation systems and translating operational feedback into product improvements (preferred).
• Computer Skills: Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (required). Experience analyzing product performance and operational data using analytics tools (e.g., Excel, SQL, Python, Tableau, or similar) (required). Familiar with Confluence, Jira, and Miro (preferred).
• Certifications: Certified Functional Safety Engineer (TÜV Rheinland) or similar functional safety expertise (preferred). Functional Safety Expert/Electrical Safety Expert Certification(s) (preferred). Project Management Professional (PMP)® (preferred).
• Additional Requirements:
  • Working knowledge of robotics safety standards relevant to industrial robotics and autonomous mobile robots, including ISO 3691-4, ISO 10218, ISO 13849, IEC 61508, and ANSI/RIA standards (required).
  • Familiar with product certification and regulatory compliance requirements across safety, electrical, and wireless domains (e.g., UL, CE, FCC) (required).
  • Understanding of robotics system architecture including sensing, perception, autonomy software, motion control, and safety systems (required).
  • Demonstrated quantitative ability (e.g., pricing, financial modeling, and/or statistics) (required).
  • Strong strategic thinking and business acumen (required).
  • Expertise in product lifecycle management and customer value analysis (required).
  • Skilled in customer-facing roles, including ability to represent a brand with enterprise accounts and determine customer problems (required).
  • Experience in scaling a robotics startup or incubated product launch (preferred).

Schedule

Generally, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm with occasional irregular hours depending on workload.

Travel: Occasional (25%-50%) to support business line operations, customer engagements, and strategic initiatives.

About Us

ArcBest® (Nasdaq: ARCB) is a multibillion-dollar integrated logistics company that helps keep the global supply chain moving. Founded in 1923 and now with 14,000 employees across 250 campuses and service centers, the company is a logistics powerhouse, using its technology, expertise, and scale to connect shippers with solutions—from ground, air, and ocean transportation to fully managed supply chains. ArcBest has a long history of innovation enriched by deep customer relationships. With a commitment to helping customers navigate supply chain challenges now and in the future, the company continues to invest in purpose-built technology such as ArcBest View™, its digital logistics platform that brings quoting, booking, shipment visibility, and reporting into one connected experience.