Product Manager

Location: Chicago, IL Headquarters

Type: Full-time, in office

Company Stage: Early-stage / startup

This role is a full-time opportunity to make a meaningful impact as we continue building and scaling our business. We believe this position offers strong ownership, growth potential, and the chance to contribute directly to Autopilot’s next phase of growth.

At Autopilot, our mission is to free people up to do what they do best by automating everything else. We are building the infrastructure layer that powers autonomy in motion across the physical world — including sports, fitness, logistics, healthcare, and more. Our systems help robots move, record, deliver, train, and connect in real-world environments that have historically lacked modern tooling. Our values are simple and non-negotiable: Do Good. Have Fun. Make Money. We believe these are mutually reinforcing, and we work hard to uphold them as we grow.

We move fast, operate scrappy, and care deeply about building something that works. Our and HQ is a large, active space that needs structure, ownership, and someone who can make it run like a machine.

You will be eligible to participate in company benefits and perks, which currently include:

• Base Salary Annual bonus potential  
• 100% Employer-covered Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k) – Company-administered plan
• Flexible PTO – Time off as needed, coordinated with your team
• Travel Reimbursement – Reimbursed in accordance with company policy, where role-related travel is required
• Team & Culture Events – Team offsites, social events, and company-sponsored activities

Benefits and policies may be updated from time to time at the company’s discretion.

We’re looking for a Product Manager to join Autopilot’s founding team and help define what we build and why.

You’ll own large parts of the product surface area, working closely with engineering, design, and leadership to turn ambiguous problems into shipped features. This role is deeply hands-on and requires strong judgment, systems thinking, and comfort operating without a playbook.

You will not be managing a large roadmap or a big team on day one. Instead, you’ll be shaping the product by talking to users, making tradeoffs, and helping the team focus on what matters most.

• What You’ll DoOwn product definition for core parts of Autopilot’s platform, from concept to launch
• Work closely with engineering and design to scope, prioritize, and ship features
• Translate customer needs and technical constraints into clear product direction
• Define workflows and experiences for agent-driven and robotics-related systems
• Gather and synthesize feedback from users, customers, and internal stakeholders
• Make prioritization decisions in an environment with limited data and high ambiguity
• Help establish Autopilot’s product culture, processes, and standards

Who You Are

Product & Execution

• 4 years of product management experience on technical or platform products
• Experience shipping complex features in collaboration with engineering and design
• Ability to break down ambiguous problems into clear, actionable plans
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Technical & Systems Understanding

• Comfort working with engineers on system-level discussions (APIs, workflows, constraints)
• Experience with or exposure to AI-powered products, automation tools, or developer-facing platforms
• Ability to reason about tradeoffs involving reliability, scalability, and user experience
• Not afraid to dive into technical details when needed

Customer & Business Mindset

• Strong user empathy and a habit of talking directly to customers
• Ability to balance short-term delivery with long-term platform thinking
• Product judgment rooted in real-world use cases, not just frameworks

Ideal Candidate Profile

You’re a builder PM who thrives early.

You:

• Prefer shaping products from first principles over maintaining mature roadmaps
• Are comfortable making decisions with incomplete information
• Enjoy working closely with engineers and designers day-to-day
• Can switch between strategy and execution without friction
• Care deeply about building products that actually work in the real world

You don’t need prior robotics experience, but you should be excited to learn and engage deeply with the domain.

Nice to Have

• Experience with robotics, hard tech, or industrial software
• Background in marketplaces, infrastructure, or developer tools
• Experience working in early-stage startups or zero-to-one products
• Familiarity with agent-based systems or LLM-driven workflows

Why Join Autopilot

• Define product direction for a category-defining autonomous systems platform
• High ownership and influence as an early team member
• Direct collaboration with engineering, design, and leadership
• Exposure to cutting-edge AI and real-world robotic systems
• Opportunity to shape both the product and the company as it grows
  

• Send your resume to takeoff@operationautopilot.com