Senior Product Researcher

Title: Senior Product Researcher Location: San Francisco, California HELP US TACKLE THE GROWING WILDFIRE CRISIS WITH THE LATEST ADVANCEMENTS IN AI AND IOT WHO WE ARE The challenge: Every minute matters in wildfire response. As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of wildfires—with longer fire seasons, drier fuels, and more extreme weather—new ignitions can spread rapidly, putting communities, critical infrastructure, and ecosystems at risk. Today, many wildfires are first reported by members of the public, meaning it can take valuable time to detect a fire, confirm its location and size, and mobilize responders. Fire agencies need faster, more reliable ways to detect, verify, and pinpoint new ignitions so they can respond quickly and prevent small fires from becoming catastrophic events. About Pano AI: Pano AI is the leader in AI-powered wildfire detection and intelligence, helping fire professionals detect, respond to, and contain wildfires faster and more safely. Our platform combines advanced hardware, software, artificial intelligence, satellite imagery, and other data sources to provide real-time situational awareness and actionable intelligence. Using a network of ultra-high-definition, 360-degree cameras positioned across high vantage points, Pano AI delivers a real-time view of wildfire activity, enabling faster, more informed decision-making when every second counts. We are a team of more than 175 people working in a hybrid-remote environment across North America and Australia, with headquarters in San Francisco. Our customers include government agencies, utilities, insurers, and private landowners who rely on Pano AI to help protect people, property, and natural landscapes. Pano AI currently serves customers across the United States, Australia, and Canada, monitoring more than 50 million acres worldwide. Our values are part of everything we do at Pano AI. They guide how we work together, how we serve our customers, and how we approach our mission. Impact: As we scale our business, we grow our impact—enabling emergency managers to protect people, infrastructure, and the environment from devastating wildfires. Service: We serve those who serve, and the teammates beside us. Trust: We earn trust through integrity, accountability, and an obsession with quality so that our partners can rely on us. Excellence and Speed: We produce exceptional work quickly because our mission demands both precision and urgency. Innovation: We apply cutting-edge technology to what we build and how we work. Our work has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative AI Companies in 2023 and one of the World's Most Innovative Companies in 2026 ranking #1 in Sustainability. We have also been named to TIME's list of the 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025 and recognized by MIT Technology Review one of the top climate technology companies to watch. Backed by $89 million in funding from leading investors including Giant Ventures, Liberty Mutual Ventures, Tokio Marine Future Fund, Congruent Ventures, Initialized Capital, Salesforce Ventures, and T-Mobile Ventures, we're building technology that helps communities around the world become more resilient to wildfire. Learn more at www.pano.ai THE ROLE We're hiring a seasoned Senior Product Researcher to bring rigorous customer evidence into the decisions that shape Pano's product portfolio and how we take it to market. This role sits at the intersection of product research, product strategy, and market investigation. You'll work across multiple active areas at once — wildfire intelligence platform, new product expansions across both software and hardware development, key priority partnerships, and go-to-market assessment — partnering with PMs, engineering, design, GTM, customer success and commercial teams. Our customers are utilities, federal and state agencies, and emergency managers operating in high-consequence conditions, which means the research is close to the field: command centers, control rooms, active deployments, and executive briefings. This is not a role limited to running studies. You'll help Pano decide which opportunities are worth pursuing, size and scope the investment, and build research practices the rest of the organization can use. You'll be trusted to take an ambiguous strategic question, choose the right approach, and come back with something leadership can act on. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own research end-to-end across several concurrent product areas — scoping the question, recruiting participants, running sessions with customers and internal experts, and synthesizing findings into pain point taxonomies, stakeholder maps, personas, and clear recommendations. - Partner with PMs, design, and engineering leads to evaluate future product opportunities: frame the questions that de-risk an investment, and generate the evidence needed to size and scope it before roadmap capacity is committed. - Conduct market analysis and competitive intelligence — landscape scans, competitor and adjacent-product audits, new-market assessments — to inform positioning and entry decisions in emerging segments and geographies. - Contribute customer and market evidence to pricing, packaging, and adoption strategy in partnership with Product, Sales, and Product Marketing, including buyer versus user dynamics, procurement realities, and value perception. - Run field and co-design research with customers on site, translating operational observation into design and product implications. - Build research capability across the organization: reusable guides and templates, a searchable repository of findings, a participant panel, and hands-on coaching for PMs and designers running their own customer conversations. - Produce concise, well-structured readouts and briefs that inform executive decisions, and present them directly to internal and customer audiences. WHAT YOU'LL BRING - 8+ years in product research, UX research, market research, or product strategy, with a track record of work that visibly changed a roadmap, an investment decision, or a go-to-market plan. - Mixed-methods depth: strong qualitative interviewing and synthesis, plus comfort with survey design, segmentation, opportunity sizing, and pricing research methods. - Proven ability to run multiple workstreams independently with minimal direction — choosing the right method for the decision at hand and delivering on compressed timelines without sacrificing rigor. - Experience researching complex B2B or enterprise domains with operational end users and multi-stakeholder buying committees. - Excellent synthesis and storytelling: turns messy fieldwork into a crisp, structured argument that senior leaders and customers can follow and act on. - Strong presence with customers, from frontline operators to executive sponsors, and the judgment to manage sensitive account dynamics well. - Master’s degree or equivalent practical experience is a must, and personal qualities of curiosity, pro-activeness, and open-mindedness. NICE-TO-HAVES - Domain experience in wildfire, utilities, energy, public safety, or emergency management, or another high-risk, compliance-driven environment. - Experience at a Series B–D company, including helping establish research practices where little structure existed. - Familiarity with AI/ML products, imagery or sensor data, or combined hardware and software offerings. - Experience with field research methods such as ride-alongs, site visits, and observation in operational settings. - A passion for wildfire prevention, climate change adaptation, or firefighting. Final compensation for regular full-time employees is determined by a variety of factors, including job-related qualifications, education, experience, skills, knowledge, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, regular full-time roles are eligible for equity. Benefits are tailored to local market standards and statutory requirements in the employee's country of employment, and may include health coverage, retirement or pension contributions, and paid time off. Specific benefit details will be shared during the interview process.