What You'll DoProduct Roadmap & Strategic Planning- Define and maintain product roadmaps aligned with company strategy, customer needs, and market opportunities.
- Own the product backlog, ensuring features are prioritized, clearly defined, and ready for engineering teams to execute.
- Provide executives with visibility into product progress, milestones, risks, and key decisions.
- Translate customer feedback, stakeholder needs, and business opportunities into clear requirements and user stories.
- Balance competing priorities, customer commitments, technical constraints, and mission requirements to deliver maximum value.
Technical Demonstrations & External Communication- Own and deliver product demonstrations to customers, government stakeholders, and partners with sufficient technical depth to address detailed questions.
- Prepare and present product briefings that translate complex technical capabilities into clear customer and mission value.
- Serve as a primary product point of contact for external stakeholders, ensuring communication is accurate, compelling, and aligned with product capabilities.
- Coordinate with engineering and contribute directly to demonstrations that showcase capabilities relevant to stakeholder priorities.
Internal Product Execution & Cross-Functional Leadership- Lead biweekly product reviews and demonstrations to ensure development progress is visible and aligned with strategic goals.
- Communicate product priorities, progress, and tradeoffs to executives, maintaining alignment between engineering and company strategy.
- Lead biannual product strategy workshops to align teams on roadmap priorities, strategic direction, and execution.
- Partner with engineering, business development, and program teams to define scope, resolve dependencies, and deliver products.
- Manage external subcontractor relationships as needed, tracking milestones and ensuring deliverables meet schedule and technical requirements.
- Define and track product success metrics, incorporating customer feedback and performance data into future priorities.
External Stakeholder Management & Business Development- Build and manage relationships with customers, government stakeholders, and partners, serving as a primary representative of the product.
- Gather customer feedback and validate product needs through regular conversations, demonstrations, and discovery sessions.
- Partner with business development to evaluate opportunities and align product capabilities with customer needs.
- Respond quickly to emerging opportunities, adapting roadmaps and priorities as market conditions and customer requirements evolve.
What We're Looking For- Technical Fluency - You can understand complex technical products, engage credibly with engineering teams, and quickly learn unfamiliar domains.
- Customer Focus and Presentation Skills - You uncover customer needs and deliver compelling demonstrations and briefings to technical, operational, and executive audiences.
- Comfort with Ambiguity - You thrive when requirements evolve, priorities shift, and information is incomplete.
- Strategic Thinking - You prioritize for impact with constrained resources and clearly articulate the reasoning behind product decisions.
- Ownership and Execution - You turn broad goals into actionable plans, align teams, and drive work through completion.
- Willingness to Travel - You are willing to travel approximately 25% to maintain stakeholder relationships, support demonstrations, and gather product feedback.
Your Ideal Background- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field.
- 3-5 years of product management experience with technical products, ideally in aerospace, defense, robotics, software, or another complex engineering environment.
- Experience taking products or major capabilities from discovery and requirements definition through development, launch, and iteration.
- Demonstrated ability to learn complex technical domains and translate customer needs into actionable product requirements.
- Experience working with government or DoD customers is preferred, including familiarity with acquisition processes and operational needs.
- Startup or fast-paced environment experience, with the ability to move quickly, work across functions, and navigate ambiguity independently.
- Experience with Agile/Scrum methodologies and product management tools such as Linear, Jira, Azure DevOps, or similar.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience presenting to technical and executive audiences.
Additional Requirements: Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
Compensation and Benefits: Your base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience. The anticipated salary range for this role is $120,000 - $170,000 annually.
Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at Katalyst. You will also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of the Employee Stock Option and Equity Plan, as well as a relocation bonus and other discretionary bonuses. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, and unlimited Paid Time Off.
