Focal is a venture-backed seed stage startup that designs targeted heating systems that heat people, not spaces. Our autonomous system delivers targeted heat exactly where it's needed - keeping people optimally comfortable while cutting energy waste. We're launching our first product with the hospitality industry in Fall of 2025. You can learn more about the company's mission, founding team, and what they've been up to the last couple years here.
As Focal's first Product Manager you will quarterback the push from working prototype to shipped, certified product. You will own every build gate and risk burndown required to put heaters on real patios within the next 3-6 months. Because you'll hold the clearest system-level view, you'll also earn the right to influence everything that comes next: installation tooling, service flows, cost-down redesigns, and entirely new product lines.
What you'll work on the next 3-6 months- Own and drive the end-to-end product development process from prototype through manufacturing ramp
- Coordinate across mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software teams to ensure alignment on timelines, features, and dependencies
- Maintain and adapt the Product Requirements Document (PRD) in response to technical trade-offs, customer input, and evolving product goals
- Lead regular cross-functional execution syncs, flagging risks early and driving resolution of blockers
- Track and report progress on key milestones, including EVT/DVT/PVT builds, certification readiness, and launch timing
- Ensure product decisions stay grounded in customer needs, business priorities, and technical feasibility
- Support the team in managing certification processes (e.g., UL, FCC) by aligning specs with testable standards and coordinating sample readiness
- Keep everyone focused on what matters - distilling complexity, aligning priorities, and eliminating noise
Once we ship, the aperture widens - Product stewardship. Close the loop between field data and the next revision; own reliability, cost-down, and roadmap inserts
- Experience ownership. Extend your remit to installation workflows, service tooling, and the human + software touchpoints that surround the heater
- New verticals. We are clearly only getting started
- Team builder. Stand up lightweight program processes that keep speed while the org scales
What you bring- Critical: Previous experience at an early-stage hardware startup - you know how to operate with limited structure, shifting priorities, and high ambiguity
- 3+ years of experience in hardware product management or technical program management
- Strong working knowledge of how mechanical, electrical, and embedded systems integrate into physical products
- Proven ability to lead and align cross-functional engineering teams
- Sharp organizational instincts - you can track 100 moving parts without losing the thread
- Clear communicator who brings clarity and urgency to the team
- Bonus: Familiarity with hardware certification cycles and product development phases (EVT/DVT/PVT)
As cities grow and climates become more extreme, comfort shouldn't come with trade-offs. We don't believe in choosing between personal preferences and group needs, between energy efficiency and performance, or between staying warm and staying sustainable. At Focal, we leverage advanced technology - robotics, learning algorithms, and precision optics - to create something deeply human: meaningful, comfortable shared moments that let us be together, and be ourselves.
If this speaks to you, please apply. We look forward to getting to know you better!
