Lead Product Manager, Hardware Platform

About the role

Waabi, founded by AI visionary Raquel Urtasun, is the leader in Physical AI. With a world-class team, we're unlocking the next era of autonomous transportation with technology that's powering commercial autonomous trucks and robotaxis. Waabi is backed by and partners with world leaders in AI, automotive, logistics, and deep tech.

With offices in Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, and Pittsburgh, Waabi is growing quickly and looking for diverse, innovative and collaborative candidates who want to impact the world in a positive way.

We are seeking a Product Manager to lead product definition for the hardware platform that carries the Waabi Driver, across autonomous trucks and robotaxi.

This is our first dedicated hardware product role, and it requires someone who is grounded in hardware: a product leader who can turn the needs of autonomy, safety, operations, riders, and the public into clear requirements, and who knows enough about hardware to tell an ambitious idea from an impossible one.

You will sit at the line between requirements and implementation, laying out scenarios, testing ideas in mock-ups and vehicles, partnering with hardware engineering on high-level solutions, and representing product with our OEM and supplier partners until the product is right end-to-end.

You will...

Own product requirements for Waabi's hardware platform across trucks and robotaxi, turning field and integration feedback into requirements for future revisions and new vehicle platforms.

Define how our vehicles interact with the people around them, including riders, law enforcement, first responders, and the public. This covers exterior communication and signaling, cabin monitoring and security, in-cabin safety, and resilience to tampering and vandalism.

Lead product definition for new hardware programs before engineering kickoff, turning real-world scenarios into requirements with clear acceptance criteria and a plan to verify and validate each one.

Bring an industrial design and human factors perspective to physical touchpoints like displays, lighting, reach, and controls, and validate them hands-on in mock-ups and real vehicles.

Build trusted relationships with OEM and supplier partners, understanding their constraints and processes and keeping requirements aligned across organizations.

Represent hardware credibly in cross-functional product decisions about what's possible, what's costly, and what's out of scope.

Qualifications

• A hardware background, through an engineering degree (mechanical, electrical, systems, or similar) or equivalent hands-on experience, deep enough to earn engineering teams' trust while you work at the requirements level.
• 8+ years of experience in product management, hardware product, or systems engineering roles on physical products, ideally in automotive, autonomous vehicles, robotics, or complex consumer hardware.
• A track record of taking hardware from concept to production, with an understanding of how requirements evolve across prototype and sample stages.
• Industrial design experience, through formal training or close work with industrial designers on shipped products, and strong instincts for HMI and human factors.
• Strong requirements writing skills. You can turn a messy real-world scenario into a clear, testable requirement, with acceptance criteria and a verification method such as test, analysis, inspection, or demonstration.
• Experience building working relationships with OEMs and suppliers, and an understanding of how they develop, source, and deliver hardware.
• A commitment to trust, transparency, and honesty in a safety-critical environment.
• Willingness to be on site regularly for mock-ups, vehicle evaluations, and testing.

Bonus/nice to have

• Experience on autonomous vehicles or robotaxi, especially rider experience, external communication with road users, or first responder interaction.
• Familiarity with automotive development processes such as APQP, PPAP, and A/B/C sample phases.
• Exposure to functional safety and AV safety standards such as ISO 26262, SOTIF (ISO 21448), or UL 4600, or to vehicle regulations.