Product Manager

Swarm Aero is at the forefront of redefining air power, developing the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network globally. We are rapidly progressing towards launching the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, along with the advanced Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of diverse autonomous assets, enabling human operators to achieve unprecedented results.

Our team boasts experience in building and exiting multiple startups, negotiating defense deals worth billions, and designing and constructing over 30 innovative aircraft. Our expertise spans top aerospace companies such as Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic.

Were building software that operators depend on in high-stakes, real-time environments where ambiguity is the norm and the cost of getting it wrong is high. We need a Product Manager who has been in the room when things go sideways and knows how to build systems that dont. This is not a role for someone learning the craft. Its a role for someone whos already done it under pressure.

What Youll Do

Product Strategy & Roadmap

• Create the future of large-scale drone swarm command and control for the most powerful military ever.
• Own the swarm software product roadmap at Swarm Aero. This includes C2 and autonomy across multiple domains. Define operational requirements and strategic priorities and process them into an optimal roadmap
• Drive alignment between product vision, engineering capacity, and real-world operator needs, resolving conflicts with data and judgement

Requirements & Delivery

• Author product requirements that engineering, QA, and mission teams can execute against without hand-holding, including edge cases, failure modes, and acceptance criteria
• Own the backlog : sprint planning and sequencing decisions made in active partnership with stakeholders
• Drive the release process from definition through deployment, including test planning, rollout, and post-release review

Customer & Operator Discovery

• Drive operator & customer understanding at Swarm Aero. Lead discovery sessions with operators, mission planners, and integration partners to surface needs and validate assumptions. Logically develop new and creative solutions to key challenges and anticipate expensive mistakes.
• Translate field observations and operator feedback into roadmap decisions with clear rationale

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as the connective tissue between engineering, QA, and executive leadership
• Identify and partner with strategic external vendors and partners. Define goals and interfaces and manage dependency risk

What You’ve Done

Core strengths:

• 5+ years as a Product Manager owning a complex, technically deep product and not a feature area within a product
• Shipped software in a mission-critical or operationally sensitive context where failure had real consequences (defense, aerospace, robotics, autonomy, industrial control systems, or equivalent)
• Written PRDs for distributed systems, hardware-integrated software, or real-time data pipelines that engineers shipped from without significant re-interpretation
• Managed competing priorities across multiple stakeholder groups in a high-ambiguity environment and made the call rather than deferred it
• Directly conducted operator or end-user discovery interviews and demonstrably changed roadmap direction based on what you learned
• Owned the post-release evaluation of features against defined success metrics and acted on what you found

Preferred Experience

• Direct experience with command-and-control systems, ISR platforms, autonomous systems, or multi-domain operational software
• Familiarity with systems architecture concepts, enough to pressure-test engineering estimates and spot integration risks early
• Experience working within or alongside government programs, defense contractors, or fielded operational environments
• Exposure to hardware/software co-development cycles and the constraints they impose on software delivery

What Sets You Apart

The best candidate for this role thinks in systems and operates with a bias toward rigor over speed. Specifically:

• You distinguish signal from noise. In a domain full of competing operator requests and shifting priorities, you know how to separate what users say they want from what the system actually needs.
• You write like an engineer reads. Your requirements documents are precise, complete, and free of ambiguity that gets resolved incorrectly downstream.
• You hold the line on scope. You can say no clearly, defend tradeoffs with structured reasoning, and dont let schedule pressure collapse your standards.
• You find the risk before it finds you. You treat dependency mapping, integration risk, and edge case analysis as first-class parts of your job and not afterthoughts.
• Youve shipped responsibly. You understand that in operationally sensitive environments, fast and right are not the same thing, and youve made that tradeoff consciously before.
• You stay grounded under pressure. Operational environments generate noise. You create clarity rather than adding to it.

What This Role Is Not

• This is not a role for a generalist PM looking to break into defense or autonomy. It is not a role where requirements are handed to you, where ambiguity is resolved by committee, or where "good enough" ships. If you need a lot of structure to do your best work, this environment will frustrate you.
• If youve built software that operators actually depend on and youve felt the weight of that, we want to talk.

Compensation Range

• $180,000- $240,000 + Equity

Candidates for this position must have the ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret security clearance.

As part of our commitment to maintaining a safe and trustworthy work environment, Swarm Aero conducts a thorough screening of prospective employees. Candidates will be subject to a comprehensive background verification process as a prerequisite for employment.

To conform to U.S. Government controlled technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

To conform to U.S. Government controlled technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.