Sr Product Manager, Autonomy

We’re Blue River, a team of innovators driven to create intelligent machinery that solves monumental problems for our customers. We empower our customers – farmers, construction crews, and foresters - to implement safer and more sustainable solutions, driving increased profitability with less reliance on scarce labor. We believe that focusing on the small stuff – pixel-by-pixel and task-by-task - leads to big gains. 

Blue River Technology aligns with John Deere’s vision to “innovate on behalf of humanity” by quickly identifying and solving high-value, high-uncertainty challenges in AI, machine learning, computer vision, and robotics. BRT acts as a research and development flywheel, building not only new products but also new platforms that reliably create value for both Deere and its customers. From fully autonomous machines to highly precise farming equipment, BRT and Deere are partnering to create technical breakthroughs in industries like agriculture and construction. 

Our people are at the heart of what we do. Through cross-discipline collaboration, this mission-driven team is eager to define the new frontier of robotics. We are always asking hard questions, rapidly iterating, and getting our boots in the field to figure it out. We won’t give up until we’ve made a tangible and positive impact on the planet!

Blue River Technology is based in Santa Clara, CA. 

Summary

We launched our autonomous tractor for Large Agriculture at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2025 in collaboration with our parent company, John Deere. As our vision for the autonomous farm takes shape, our team is looking to expand by adding a senior product manager to collaboratively build the product roadmap to scale our fleet of autonomous tractors in partnership with our customers and dealers to many thousands of vehicles across the globe. In this role, you will develop and communicate a deep understanding of our customer and their needs through in-depth research, identify and assess opportunities to build products and features, define and prioritize product initiatives, and collaborate with engineering to deliver these to the market.

You will focus on technologies that scale deployment, support, analytics, infrastructure, and expansion for autonomy. It will ensure that we provide the best possible customer experience by enabling our teams and partners with the best possible data, infrastructure, tools, operational processes, and insights to support our fleet and bring it to more customers.

Job Responsibilities

The main job responsibilities are noted below. 

• Build a deep empathy and understanding of the customer, the business, and the market through qualitative and quantitative research.
• Develop a deep understanding of our technology stack to inform what is possible.
• Design and translate customer needs and opportunities into products and features with clear, concise requirements that bring the product to life.
• Identify, research, define, execute, and prioritize product development initiatives in collaboration with cross-functional engineering teams, balancing performance, complexity value, and speed to market.
• Lead product development initiatives through their full cycle, from ideation to lab and field testing, to customer validation and ultimately commercialization.
• Drive continuous improvement in the way we build products at Blue River.
• Enable and accelerate our teams to develop and deploy high-quality solutions to our customers.
• Define objectives and key metrics, then measure and track progress toward achieving those objectives.
• Collaborate with leadership on the long-term product vision and roadmap.
• Evaluate new market opportunities from the perspective of customer needs, product fit, and business opportunities. 

Required Experience and Skills

• 5 or more years of direct experience as a product manager in a technology company.
• Passion for creating impactful products that empower users.
• Proven track record to influence, collaborate, and engage with others from a diverse set of backgrounds ranging from engineers to computer vision researchers, agronomists, field technicians, to growers.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to communicate technical product information in a clear, concise, and creative manner.
• Delivery focus and a proven understanding of the software development challenges faced by cross-functional engineering teams.
• Strong organizational, planning, and problem-solving skills with an ability to resolve ambiguity and traverse between high-level strategy and low-level details.
• Growth mindset with the ability to quickly learn and apply experience to new technologies, domains, and problems.
• BA/BS degree in a technical or business equivalent.
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 25% of the time

Preferred Experience and Skills

• Experience with or knowledge of autonomous vehicles, robotics, or agriculture.
• Experience with products that apply Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
• Experience with large-scale data, analytics, and operations challenges.
• MBA or MS preferred.

At Blue River, we’re passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity.  While we have more work to do to advance diversity and inclusion, we’re investing in our programs, including recruiting, mentorship, career development, and learning & development to ensure they support our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals. We support each employee in living a full life, enabling a thriving career, and accomplishing a meaningful, challenging mission while collaborating with incredible people. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align completely with the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway.

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request an accommodation. 

The US annual base salary range for this position is $142,000 - $250,000, along with eligibility for Blue River’s bonus and benefit programs.

Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process. During the recruitment process, we may identify an alternative role or level to which you are more suited. If your ideal role at Blue River differs from the advertised position, we will provide an updated pay range as soon as possible during the hiring process.