Product Manager - Emergent Work

Product Manager, Emergent Work Location: Austin, TX At BusPatrol, we’re on a mission to make school transportation safer for children and communities. As a leader in AI-powered safety solutions, we bring cutting‑edge technology—AI, machine learning, and IoT—to school buses across North America. The Opportunity BusPatrol is expanding its Emergent Work team to find, qualify, and incubate the bets that will define our company and industry over the next five years. You will own the top of that funnel: intake, discovery, opportunity qualification, and early incubation. Key Outcomes Rapidly evaluate top‑of‑the‑funnel opportunities such as third‑party integrations, new partners, new states, strategic partners, and law changes. Deliver rigorous due diligence and initial business cases including commercial opportunity, technical requirements, market sizing, unit economics, competitive landscape, and recommendations enabling executive go/no‑go decisions. Leverage and continuously improve a repeatable intake and qualification framework for the Emergent Work team to drive visibility to key stakeholders. Responsibilities Run the Intake Pipeline Be the front door for opportunities flowing in from key stakeholders, sales, GovOps, partners, and leadership. Triage, frame, and qualify each opportunity against a structured quantification framework. Maintain an accurate, current view of every opportunity in flight and what it needs next. Diligently follow up to drive speed to decision while reducing cognitive load on stakeholders. Build Initial Business Cases Construct commercial opportunity, technical analysis, market sizing, competitive landscape, unit economics, build‑vs‑buy analysis, and a clear recommendation. Present objective evidence and state assumptions; use Fermi‑style estimation when data is lacking. Produce tight executive memos. Lead Discovery Sprints Conduct stakeholder interviews, customer conversations, and technical feasibility scoping with engineering and data. Synthesize findings into a structured opportunity brief. Move fast, focusing on outcomes; sprints should deliver a clear recommendation, not an open‑ended backlog. Drive Rapid Decisions Prepare materials, ask tough questions, and present findings to an executive audience. Defend recommendations, including those to kill initiatives and preserve capacity. Limit attention to critical ideas that deliver the biggest impact. Document passed opportunities: learnings, decisions, and what could change the answer. Incubate The Critical Few Stay with qualified opportunities through early validation, partner outreach, pilot scoping, and paid‑pilot conversations. Manage development capacity through prioritization and balancing responsibilities. Hand off viable opportunities to a product or enablement team when they’re ready to scale. What You Bring 3–5 years in product management, strategy, consulting, corporate development, or a comparable discovery and analytical role. Ability to build a business case from scratch, including market sizing, financial qualification, and a defensible recommendation presented to a senior audience. Strong written communication; can turn a messy problem into a one‑page memo for executives. Comfort with ambiguity and a bias toward structured and systems thinking. Ability to push through opinions to illuminate data and insights. Stewardship of company capacity and capital, not an advocate for every idea. Strong data and analytical skills—impact sizing, Fermi‑style estimation, proxy metrics, measurement. Rapid reading, adjusting, and communicating with executive audiences. Early adopter of AI tools (Glean, Claude, ChatGPT, or similar) for research, analysis, drafting, or prototyping. Bias for action, leading from front or back, and willingness to ask tough questions. Preferred MBA or Master’s degree in a closely related discipline. Experience in R&D, corporate development, venture, or new‑product incubation environments. Background in transportation technology, mobility, edge AI, or hardware + software platforms. Familiarity with Business‑to‑Government, municipal or public‑sector customers and procurement dynamics. Experience with financial modeling and formal business case methodologies. View on how AI changes the economics of a small R&D team. What We Offer A competitive salary and benefits package. Comprehensive personal time off, including volunteering and birthday days off. An opportunity to help build a company dedicated to children’s safety. The chance to join an innovative, dedicated team focused on leading‑edge technology. The ability to contribute to purpose‑driven work that makes a difference in real people’s lives. Travel Up to 20%. Competitive Package Enjoy a competitive salary, incentives, and benefits in a rapid‑growth company. The US salary range for this position is provided in this posting. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job‑related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your Talent Partner can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location and skill level during the hiring process. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, and/or commission (if applicable) or benefits. #J-18808-Ljbffr Buspatrol