Staff Product Manager - Connected Devices

Title: Staff Product Manager - Connected Devices Location: United States - Remote

About the role

Motive is investing deeply in Connected Devices as the physical backbone of our platform, and Equipment Monitoring is one of the largest growth opportunities in the portfolio. We help customers track, protect, and optimize a vast range of assets — trailers, reefer units, construction equipment, small tools, and cargo — using rugged, purpose-built devices such as the Asset Gateway, Motive Beacon, and Environmental Sensor, alongside partner networks and OEM integrations through the AEMP 2.0 ecosystem.

As Staff Product Manager, Connected Devices (Equipment Monitoring), you will be the dedicated product leader for the entire in-field device surface of the Equipment Monitoring line. You will own the hardware and firmware roadmap, drive New Product Introductions from concept through mass production, own the reliability and performance of the devices already deployed, and lead the product side of our device partnerships that extend where and how assets can be found.

This is a role with unusually direct leverage. Equipment Monitoring anchors Motive's multi-product enterprise deals — the quality of these devices shapes not just one line but the credibility of the platform. You will report to the VP of Connected Devices and partner closely with the Equipment Monitoring product team, who own the cloud, workflow, and customer-facing experience. The dividing line is clean: once data leaves the device, it's theirs; everything up to that point is yours.

You will operate as a peer to Electrical Engineering, Embedded/Firmware, Mechanical, Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and TPM, and collaborate with the cloud and mobile teams that consume device data — without web or mobile software being the primary scope of the role.

The ideal candidate is a technically fluent product manager who thrives in ambiguity, is energized by the discipline of hardware development, is as interested in why a deployed device failed as in what the next one will do, and can move confidently between a silicon roadmap, a certification plan, a firmware release train, and a customer interview on a jobsite or loading dock.

What you'll do

• Own the hardware and firmware roadmap for Equipment Monitoring in-field devices — asset gateways, beacons, environmental and door sensors, power accessories, and the device form factors that don't exist yet.
• Drive NPI execution end-to-end from problem definition and sourcing through EVT, DVT, PVT, certification (FCC, PTCRB, carrier approvals, IP ratings, industrial environmental specs), MP ramp, and post-launch stabilization.
• Own the installed base. Field failure and RMA rates, battery life as measured in the field rather than on the bench, connectivity and positioning performance, install success — these are your metrics, and improving them is as much the job as shipping the next device.
• Define and prioritize firmware features that extend the value of devices already deployed — 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. Motive is extending asset visibility through partner and mesh networks; you will own the technical and product decisions in those programs while BD and Supply Chain own the commercial terms.
• Make the 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 clearly across the organization.
• Translate customer and market signals into crisp requirements by running discovery across construction, trucking and logistics, agriculture, energy, field service, and food and beverage; synthesizing input from Sales, Support, Install, and Customer Success; and separating one-off requests from generalizable needs.
• Write strong PRDs and technical specs that frame the problem, the constraints, and the decisions — 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 as the platform grows.
• Drive go-to-market readiness with Product Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, Support, Install, and Operations on positioning, spec sheets, pricing inputs, enablement, rollout planning, and feedback loops 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 we're looking for

• 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 through post-launch iteration.
• Proven ownership of at least one full hardware NPI that reached material volume (ideally 100K+ units), including navigating EVT/DVT/PVT/MP gates, regulatory certifications, and supplier / contract-manufacturer relationships. We will ask you to name it.
• Strong technical fluency in battery-powered connected systems — comfortable in conversations about 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 operating in harsh, bandwidth-constrained, power-constrained environments.
• Demonstrated ownership of field reliability — you've been the PM when a deployed product was failing, and you can describe how you found the cause, what you changed, and what the number looked like 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 — you run discovery in the real world as comfortably as you pull device telemetry and field-performance data, and use both to prioritize.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to move fluently between executives, hardware and firmware engineers, cloud engineers, GTM teams, and customers without losing signal.
• Trailblazer mindset — humble, kind, curious, and open to learning, with a strong bias to action and a willingness to commit and disagree productively.
• 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.

Preferred qualifications

• 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 — staged rollouts, fleet-health monitoring, rollback strategy, and fleet-level security response.
• Experience with third-party or crowd-sourced location networks (BLE mesh, LPWAN networks, 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.

What success looks like

• New Equipment Monitoring device programs are scoped clearly, sequenced well, and launched on time with strong cross-functional alignment.
• The firmware roadmap is tied tightly to customer value, hardware constraints, and measurable business outcomes.
• Device reliability, battery life, connectivity performance, and install experience improve measurably generation over generation — and we can prove it with field data.
• Motive brings new hardware capabilities to market faster and with better operational readiness across Sales, Support, Install, and Success.
• The Equipment Monitoring line benefits from dedicated device product leadership — resulting in better products, lower total cost of ownership for customers, and stronger commercial results.