Senior Product Manager – NODA AI

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 You'll Do

• Facilitate the product strategy, roadmap, and requirements for NODA AI's 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

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field

• 7+ 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 growth. In 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 premium medical, dental, and vision coverage with zero paycheck premiums for you and your family

• 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 don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] or contact your recruiter so we can provide the support you need.