Staff Product Manager, Cameras & Sensors
San Mateo, California, United States - Full-time
Skydio is the leading US drone company and the world leader in autonomous flight, the key technology for the future of drones and aerial mobility. The Skydio team combines deep expertise in artificial intelligence, best-in-class hardware and software product development, operational excellence, and customer obsession to empower a broader, more diverse audience of drone users, from utility inspectors to first responders, soldiers in battlefield scenarios and beyond.
As Staff Product Manager for Cameras and Sensors, you will lead the strategy and execution for Skydio’s camera payloads and capture experience spanning photo and video. This includes camera modules and sensors, lenses and optics, stabilization and gimbal systems, and the embedded software and customer-facing workflows that turn raw data into actionable customer outcomes. You will work just as closely with customers as you will product and engineering to deliver best-in-class experiences across Skydio’s full family of flying robots.
How you’ll make an impact
Own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for Skydio’s drone imaging stack, spanning camera modules, sensors, gimbals/stabilization, and customer workflows across photo and video.
Deeply understand customer missions and workflows through field visits, ride-alongs, analytics, and hands-on testing, then translate those insights into clear product direction and priorities.
Define product requirements that connect real-world outcomes to measurable imaging performance, such as resolution, low-light performance, dynamic range, motion/stabilization, latency, reliability, and environmental robustness.
Partner with engineering leaders across hardware, optics, firmware, ISP/imaging pipelines, computer vision, and AI to make smart tradeoffs on architecture, performance, cost, size/weight/power, manufacturability, and schedule. You’ll need to be able to speak their language.
Establish clear success metrics and use usage analytics, captured media quality, and direct customer feedback to drive continuous improvement and ultimately own the outcome.
Collaborate with sales, solutions, and customer success to support deployments, understand adoption barriers, and ensure products meet the customer need throughout their lifecycle.
Partner with product marketing to develop launch plans, product positioning, and messaging to bring your products to market and drive meaningful customer impact.
What makes you a good fit
5+ years of experience defining and delivering complex hardware products with tightly integrated software, with clear ownership of roadmap and execution.
Deep technical understanding of IoT or camera/sensor product technologies, with a natural ability to translate into customer needs.
Ability to lead product decisions through ambiguity and technical tradeoffs, and to communicate clearly with engineers, executives, and customers at the right level.
A track record of launching robust, reliable, and end-user-facing products for enterprise, public safety, or national security customers.
Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to produce crisp PRDs, decision docs, and launch narratives.
Customer-obsessed mindset and a natural instinct to spend time with our customers in their day-to-day.
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or a related technical discipline (advanced degree and/or MBA is a plus, not required).
Bonus points for:
Experience with drone imaging payloads, robotics, or airborne sensing, with a sense for the tradespace when it comes to flying robots.
Expertise in optics and lens selection, image quality evaluation, and rich end-user facing photo and video capture experiences.
Experience building computational photography products.
Experience and/or passion for public safety, utilities, or federal ISR missions and the imaging requirements that drive those workflows.
Compensation Range: The annual base salary range for this position is $170,000 - $220,000. Compensation will vary based on factors, including skill level, proficiencies, transferable knowledge, and experience. In addition to base salary, Skydio full-time employees are eligible to enroll in our benefit plans and take advantage of a variety of incentives and stipends
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At Skydio we believe that diversity drives innovation. We have created a multidisciplinary environment that embraces the power of diverse perspectives to create elegant solutions for complex problems. We are committed to growing our network of people, programs, and resources to nurture an inclusive culture.
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by federal, state or local anti-discrimination laws.
For positions located in the United States of America, Skydio, Inc. uses E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit https://www.e-verify.gov/