Staff Product Manager

About Kodiak

Kodiak Robotics, Inc., established in 2018, builds autonomous ground transportation systems aimed at making freight movement safer and more efficient. Its AI-driven technology stack is designed for commercial trucking and public sector use. Kodiak moves freight every day for customers across the southern United States with its autonomous platform. In 2024, the company was the first known business to publicly state that it delivered a driverless semi-truck to a customer. Kodiak also applies its commercial self-driving software toward autonomous capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Role Summary

Kodiak is hiring a Staff Product Manager to act as a senior product leader for its Level 4 autonomous trucking platform across customer-facing applications. This is a high-impact individual contributor position with company-wide reach. You will own a key product area from end to end, help shape product strategy and customer deployment decisions, and influence how the company scales commercialization. In this role, you will be the most senior product perspective for your domain and a trusted partner to leadership at the VP level and above.

What You Will Do

• Set product direction and multi-year roadmap planning based on customer needs, market competition, and Kodiak’s commercialization goals, including clear recommendations on what to prioritize and what to exclude.
• Bring Engineering, Program Management, Operations, and Commercial teams into alignment around a single product vision, resolving uncertainty and driving timely tradeoffs.
• Manage the product lifecycle from identifying opportunities through deployment and ongoing iteration, while maintaining high standards for quality and measurable outcomes across several parallel efforts.
• Create prioritization approaches that become the standard for others and help steer engineering roadmap and staffing discussions toward customer-critical investments.
• Write detailed, high-quality product requirements and work closely with Design and Engineering leaders so that architectural choices support long-term product needs.
• Establish deployment readiness metrics and acceptance criteria, own the authoritative product health record, and communicate status clearly to customers, executives, and the board.
• Act as Kodiak’s top product contact for important customers, building trust, gathering strategic feedback, and turning on-the-ground operational complexity into actionable product direction.
• Support the growth of the product organization by mentoring senior PMs and helping shape product management practices, including how requirements and tradeoffs are communicated.
• Travel 10–20% of the time to commercial deployments and customer locations to stay close to operations and customers.

What You Need

• At least 10 years of product management experience, including several years as a senior individual contributor driving strategy independently in complex technical areas such as autonomous vehicles, robotics, logistics, or safety-critical systems.
• A strong track record of influencing product strategy and roadmap choices at the VP level or higher, with evidence that your judgment and communication changed program direction.
• Solid technical depth to discuss architecture, system design, and feasibility tradeoffs with engineering leaders; a background in engineering, computer science, or a related discipline is required.
• Experience creating structure and direction in ambiguous, first-of-its-kind problem spaces where there is no established playbook and the stakes are high.
• Experience managing important external customer relationships and connecting product decisions to fleet economics, operational results, and contractual obligations.
• Ability to lead cross-functional alignment without formal authority and keep teams accountable to shared outcomes.
• Clear executive communication skills, with the ability to present complex product and technical decisions to senior leaders, board members, and customers under pressure.

Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive pay package with equity and annual bonus eligibility.
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage through Kaiser Permanente, Cigna, and MetLife, including a medical plan that includes infertility benefits.
• MetLife Legal Services, identity and fraud protection, hospital indemnity, accident insurance, and critical illness insurance.
• Flexible PTO, 10 paid holidays, and generous parental leave.
• Office in central Mountain View, California.
• Workplace perks including a dog-friendly office, free catered lunch, a stocked kitchen, and free EV charging.
• Long-term disability, short-term disability, and life insurance.
• Wellbeing support through Headspace, Calm, One Medical, Gympass, Spring Health, and Rula.
• Fidelity 401(k) plan.
• Commuter benefits, FSA, dependent care FSA, and HSA.
• Additional incentive programs such as referral bonuses and patent bonuses.

Pay Information

The base salary range for this role in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area is $180,000 to $240,000 USD. Actual starting compensation depends on factors such as work location, experience, relevant training, education, skill level, and interview performance. Total compensation includes base salary, equity, bonus, and benefits.

Additional Information

Kodiak is committed to maintaining a diverse, safe, and collaborative workplace and prohibits harassment of any kind. The company provides equal employment opportunity regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Because of the nature of some roles, eligibility may depend on additional review related to residence, U.S. person status, and/or citizenship status. If a position is subject to export licensing or national security-related restrictions, Kodiak may consider alternative roles at its discretion or may choose not to move forward. Visa sponsorship may be available for qualified candidates if applicable.

Kodiak uses a third-party AI tool called Endorsed to support initial application screening. Candidate submissions and job requirements are shared with the tool during evaluation, but final hiring decisions are made by human recruiters. Some functionality may fall under Automated Employment Decision Tool regulations. Kodiak began using Endorsed on January 1, 2026. An independent bias audit report is available through the vendor. Applicants may request a separate review by emailing careers@kodiak.ai with the subject line “Separate Review Request.”