Product Manager, Hardware at Menlo Research in San Francisco, CA

About Menlo

Menlo Research is an Applied R&D lab building Asimov, an open-source humanoid robot platform, and the full software stack that powers it. Our mission is to make humanoid labor economically viable -- turning software into physical labor at scale. We build across the full stack: hardware architecture, locomotion, autonomy, simulation, and infrastructure. We move fast, ship to real robots, and open-source everything we can. If you want your work to matter beyond a paper or a demo, this is the place.

The Role

You will sit at the intersection of mechanical, electrical, and systems engineering teams, translating real-world deployment requirements into a hardware roadmap that ships. This is a hands-on, ground-floor role at a lab building one of the most technically ambitious robotics platforms in the world. You will be one of the first dedicated PMs on the team, which means you will have significant influence over how we build the function.

What You Will Do

• Define and own the hardware product roadmap for Asimov, covering mechanical structures, actuators, sensors, and power systems, and maintain a clear prioritisation of what ships next and why.
• Work directly with mechanical, electrical, and systems integration engineers to translate deployment requirements and field learnings into actionable hardware specifications.
• Partner with the locomotion and simulation teams to understand performance constraints, and feed those back into hardware design decisions.
• Drive the full hardware release lifecycle from concept through DVT and mass production readiness, owning milestones, dependencies, and risk management.
• Coordinate with supply chain, procurement, and manufacturing on BOM decisions, lead times, and cost targets as the platform scales.
• Define and track hardware quality metrics, working with field and operations teams to close the loop between deployment performance and design iteration.
• Build the processes and documentation needed to scale hardware PM work across a growing team.

What You Will Bring

• 5 or more years of product management experience, with a meaningful portion of that time on hardware or electromechanical products.
• Direct experience driving a hardware product through at least one full development cycle, from requirements through manufacturing.
• Fluency in reading mechanical and electrical documentation, enough to challenge tradeoffs in design reviews without needing a translator.
• Working knowledge of supply chain fundamentals as they apply to hardware products: BOM management, vendor qualification, lead time planning, cost modelling, and the tradeoffs between off-the-shelf and custom components. You understand how supply chain decisions constrain and shape hardware design, not just fulfillment.
• Strong instincts for managing scope and complexity under schedule pressure, with a track record of shipping at an early-stage company or equivalent fast-moving environment.
• Ability to work across engineering, operations, and commercial functions and synthesise competing inputs into clear product decisions.
• Comfort with ambiguity and an orientation toward first principles thinking rather than process for its own sake.

Nice to Have

• Experience with humanoid or legged robots, or other high-complexity mechatronic systems.
• Background in robotics hardware, servo actuators, or precision motion systems.
• Exposure to sim-to-real development workflows and the hardware constraints they surface.
• Experience scaling hardware from prototype to low-volume production.

Why Join Menlo

You will own consequential decisions on hardware that moves in the real world. We are a small, technical team that ships, debates ideas openly, and holds a high bar for craft. If you want to be the PM who helps define what a world-class humanoid hardware platform looks like, this is the role.

A Note on AI

You don't need deep AI expertise for every role, but we do expect everyone at Menlo to be intellectually curious, drawn to tinkering and discovery, and excited to use AI as a real collaborator in their work. For some roles, AI fluency is a core requirement. When that's the case, we'll say so explicitly in the qualifications. People who thrive here don't treat AI as a novelty. They use it to think better, and make their work easier for others to build on.

Equal Opportunity and Accommodations

We hire talented people from a wide range of backgrounds. If you're excited about a role but don't meet every bullet, we still encourage you to apply. Menlo Research is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any legally protected characteristic. Menlo provides reasonable accommodations during the application process. If you need one, please let your recruiter know.