Product Manager, Mill Commercial Hardware
Mill · San Bruno, California ·
- Category
- Hardware
- Experience
- 3+ years
- Salary
- USD 185,000 – 215,000 / year
Product Manager to lead Mill Commercial hardware from development through launch, defining requirements and tradeoffs for food-waste reduction systems in commercial kitchens.
Mill is a waste prevention technology company reimagining what it means to eliminate waste, starting with food. We build smart systems and infrastructure for homes, businesses, and municipalities that transform food scraps from landfill-bound waste into valuable resources, including chicken feed. Tens of thousands of Mill’s residential food recyclers are already helping households divert millions of pounds of food scraps every year, paving the way for our upcoming launch of Mill Commercial—the industry’s first end-to-end solution for managing, understanding, and preventing food waste in commercial environments (e.g. grocery, restaurants, food services). At Mill, we are passionate about building easy-to-use, beautifully designed technologies that keep food in the food system and out of landfills.
About the Role
We're looking for a Product Manager to drive our commercial hardware roadmap, from current development through customer launch to new SKUs and accessory products. This is an execution role: you'll keep the Mill Commercial program moving by staying on top of the details, following through on decisions, and making sure Engineering, Ops, and Sales stay coordinated week to week.
You'll translate field learnings, customer requirements, and engineering/cost/schedule constraints into clear product decisions and requirements. You'll be accountable for defining what the product should do and why, while partnering with Engineering, Ops, and Sales to make hard tradeoffs and deliver a successful program. You'll also work closely with the sales team to enable our design partnerships and define the product roadmap.
What You'll Do
- Define and maintain clear product requirements across the full development cycle (from current hardware phase through commercial launch) grounded in customer needs, field learnings, and business constraints
- Partner deeply with Mechanical, Electrical, Systems, Firmware Engineering teams to overcome technical challenges and maintain development momentum
- Working with Industrial Design to ensure the product looks, feels, and operates the way commercial customers expect and in line with the Mill brand
- Champion for cost, user experience, serviceability, and reliability optimization
- Make and document product decisions in weekly hardware and program reviews; keep Design, Engineering, Ops, and Sales aligned on priorities and tradeoffs
- Work with Ops to synthesize field learnings into actionable product improvements, closing the loop fast between the field and engineering
- Partner with Sales to understand what early customers need, translate that into product requirements, and ensure the product is ready for deployment
- Own the product roadmap beyond Gen 1, including accessories, and work with Sales to identify what the next product needs to do to expand our market
- Surface blockers, tradeoffs, and risks to leadership with enough context to make good decisions quickly
- Define and track key performance metrics for both product development and in-market performance
What We're Looking For
- 5-7 years of product management experience; at least 3 years on hardware or electromechanical products
- Strong cross-functional executor: you can keep Eng, Ops, and Sales coordinated, and you run meetings that produce clear decisions and owners
- Technical depth: you're comfortable in a room full of engineers, and while you don't need to design the hardware you can engage substantively on tradeoffs and know when to escalate
- Experience shipping hardware: you've taken a hardware product through late-stage development, pilot, and into commercial deployment
- Field and customer experience: you've supported early deployments, you know what breaks in the real world, and you close the feedback loop fast
- Clear, direct communicator: you write tight requirements and facilitate focused reviews
Nice to Have
- Experience with commercial food service, institutional kitchens, or food waste/recycling equipment
- Experience with field-serviceable hardware or devices requiring ongoing maintenance and support
- Familiarity with IoT-connected hardware products
- Experience at an early-stage hardware startup
The estimated base salary range for this position is $185 to $215K, which does not include the value of benefits or a potential equity grant. A wide range of factors are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to skill sets, market conditions, experience and training, licensure and certifications, and business and organizational needs. At Mill, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role.