Product Manager - Localization & Navigation (All genders)
STARK Berlin, Germany
Defense and Space Manufacturing · 201-500 employees
About the role
You will own the product roadmap for localization and navigation capabilities, translating complex operational needs into prioritized technical requirements for engineering. You will partner with engineering leadership to balance roadmap ambition with technical feasibility while tracking performance metrics for autonomous systems.
What they look for
Requirements
The role requires 5+ years of product management experience with a focus on technically complex roadmaps in robotics, autonomy, or defence. Candidates must possess strong technical fluency in localization or state estimation and the ability to communicate complex technical trade-offs to senior leadership.
Full description
About Us
STARK is a new kind of defence technology company revolutionising the way autonomous systems are deployed across multiple domains. We design, develop, and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are software-defined, mass-scalable, and cost-effective — providing operators with a decisive edge in contested environments.
We are focused on delivering deployable, high-performance systems — not future promises. In a time of rising threats, STARK is bolstering the technological edge of NATO Allies and their Partners to deter aggression and defend Europe, today
About the team
Your mission
You will own the product roadmap for one of the hardest and most consequential capabilities in our autonomy stack: how our platforms know where they are when GPS isn't available or can't be trusted. You won't be writing the estimation filters yourself, but you'll be translating deep technical complexity into a roadmap that ships, and making sure engineering effort lands on the problems that matter most. Success looks like a localization capability that improves predictably, release over release, with clear priorities that the technical team trusts. Responsibilities
- Own and drive the product roadmap for localization and navigation
- Translate platform-level requirements and operational needs into clear, prioritized technical requirements for engineering
- Partner closely with engineering leadership to balance roadmap ambition against technical feasibility, risk, and timeline
- Define and track success metrics for localization performance (accuracy, robustness, drift, time-to-reacquisition) in product terms
- Run the prioritization process: gather input from engineering, systems, and field/operations stakeholders, then make the call
- Represent the localization roadmap to the Head of Product and cross-functional leadership, including trade-off decisions and risk
- Maintain close visibility into technical constraints and emerging approaches without owning the technical architecture directly
- Write clear product requirement docs, acceptance criteria, and release narratives that engineering can build against
- Track competitive and technological landscape developments relevant to GNSS-independent navigation
Qualifications
- 5+ years of product management experience, with demonstrated ownership of a technically complex roadmap
- Strong technical fluency in localization, state estimation, or autonomy software — gained through close partnership with engineering (not necessarily as a hands-on engineer)
- Proven ability to translate ambiguous, technically dense problems into clear product requirements and prioritized roadmaps
- Track record of working directly with GNC, perception, or autonomy engineering teams to ship complex technical capability
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with experience presenting roadmap and trade-off decisions to senior leadership
- Excellent written communication: PRDs, requirements docs, and roadmap narratives that engineers can act on without a follow-up meeting
- Fluent English; German is a plus
Nice to have
- Background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, aerospace, or defence-adjacent product management
- Familiarity with SLAM, or sensor fusion concepts at a working (non-implementation) level
- Experience working on products where performance must hold under adversarial or degraded operating conditions
- Prior experience in a startup or fast-scaling engineering organization
- Technical degree (engineering, robotics, physics, or similar) even without a hands-on engineering career
If you're interested in building the future of European Defence with us, and you see yourself reflected on the description above, please send us your CV in English. We´re looking forward to meeting you!
About us
SECURITY CLEARANCE Due to the nature of our work in the defence sector, candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain the appropriate security clearance required for this position. Details will be provided during the recruitment process.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY We are an equal-opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
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