FTEN Senior Product Manager

Job Description

Job Description

Who we are:

Fuse builds innovative communications, networking, and computing solutions that improve the sharing of information, video, text, and voice among operators distributed throughout the airborne, maritime, and ground environments. We are a Technology firm creating in-house software, network and hardware solutions that support our noble cause of advancing warfighter capabilities with elegant, user-focused communications, networks, and software systems. FTEN is the software environment that provides everything from the OS up to warfighting user applications in Fuse’s products.

About this role:

You set the product vision and ensure its execution. From shaping a multiyear roadmap to refining sprint-level stories, you translate mission needs, tech realities, and financial constraints into a coherent strategy—and drive cross-functional squads to deliver capability that matters. Your canvas spans market sensing, portfolio stewardship, agile backlog management, and go-to-market orchestration. You are both strategist and executor, toggling seamlessly between executive conversations and daily dev standups. 

What you’ll do:

Vision & Roadmap 

• Define and maintain a 3-year product vision aligned to mission impact and revenue goals. 

• Ideate new FTEN functions to support the warfighter (CRAD, IR&D, CRADA) and to increase FTEN market discrimination 

• Maintain a rolling 12-month roadmap with quarterly KPI/KPPs; ensure PI objectives trace back to strategy. 

Market & Mission Sensing 

• Track DoW capability gaps, SBIR trends, and competitor moves; translate insights into differentiated features and value propositions. 

• Engage directly with warfighters, acquisition offices, and partners to validate priorities. 

Design Thinking

• Exposure to design thinking methods such as problem framing, ideation, prototyping, and iteration.

• Ability to translate user needs, feedback, or pain points into practical solutions or improvements.

Communication

• Ability to explain ideas clearly, ask thoughtful questions, and share updates in a timely manner.

• Comfortable adapting communication style for different audiences, such as peers, managers, customers, or cross-functional partners.

• Experience presenting ideas, documenting decisions, and summarizing complex information.

Financial Stewardship 

• Own FTEN execution including cost and schedule of defined Initiatives/Epics/Jira Tickets 

• Contributes to the cost model for sustainment and feature development 

• Negotiate with Programs for Initiative definition and funding of Features within the Technology Jira Project 

• Report progress to stakeholders (cost/schedule) based on execution metrics/tools (IMS, JIRA, etc). Recommend COAs based on progress metrics. 

• Defend investment proposals and tradeoffs with executive staff. 

Lifecycle & Compliance Governance 

• Gatekeep epic approval through SAFe portfolio Kanban; shepherd MVPs from TRL 3 up. 

• Ensure compliance with Cyber and Zero Trust accreditation requirements. 

• Always have a functional fully featured FTEN system (Golden SUT) 

• Governance of 15 FTE matrixed engineers spanning software, network, cyber, design, and systems.

Backlog & Iteration Execution 

• Own and continuously groom the Team Backlog; balance new capability, tech debt, and compliance. 

• Author crisp Initiatives/Epics/User stories with clear acceptance criteria; approve/reject based on Definition of Done. 

• Lead iteration planning, daily syncs, demos, and acceptance to ensure alignment with PI objectives. 

Stakeholder Alignment 

• Run quarterly Product Syncs with executives, engineers, and finance leads. 

• Serve as first-line liaison with Systems Engineering, Cybersecurity, QA, and Ops to resolve impediments. 

Go-to-Market Enablement 

• Align capture plans, pricing strategies, and demo assets with Growth & Capture (G&C). 

• Empower teams to pitch coherent, compelling product stories that withstand source-selection scrutiny. 

Continuous Improvement 

• Track and act on metrics: velocity, lead time, defect escape rate, and portfolio ROI. 

• Drive Inspect & Adapt actions across teams and trains. 

Requirements

We are looking for:  

• Education: B.S. or higher in an engineering field (Computer Science, Software Engineering, Math, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or related technical discipline).

• Experience: 12+ years of progressive experience in technical leadership, program management, or technical product management.

• Mission-Driven Mindset – Passion for supporting national security missions and advancing warfighter capabilities through user-focused software design.

• Systems Thinking – Ability to translate complex operational requirements into scalable, maintainable software architectures.

• Agile Execution – Strong experience managing Agile development cycles, backlogs, and sprint planning within multi-disciplinary teams.

• People Development – Demonstrated success managing engineers and fostering career growth while driving accountability and performance.

• Cross-Functional Communication – Comfortable collaborating across engineering, product, and customer-facing teams to align vision and execution.

• Experience working with defense, aerospace, tactical communications, networking, C5ISR, edge compute, mission systems, or other mission-critical technology.

• Demonstrated ability to translate customer and operator needs into product requirements, roadmaps, and execution priorities.

• Clearance & Citizenship: * US Citizen. 

Nice to have: 

• Active US Secret or Top Secret clearance.

• Strong technical fluency with IP networking, software systems, RF communications, tactical data links, distributed systems, or network management concepts.

• Experience with tactical radios, MANETs, SATCOM, datalinks, software-defined networking, network orchestration, edge compute, or disconnected/degraded/intermittent/limited -bandwidth environments.

• Experience with AI/ML-enabled network optimization, autonomous network management, or decision-support tools.

• Experience with productizing capabilities that began as customer-specific engineering or R&D programs.

• 5+ years in a dedicated technical leadership or architectural role focused on software.

Must be a nimble self-starter who is excited about technology and has the ability to think out of the box and suggest powerful new ideas.

More about Fuse:

Founded in 2010, Fuse is a veteran-owned, rapidly growing small business. Our San Diego-based company has earned recognition as an emerging leader in airborne, maritime, and ground networking. Placing the warfighter at the center of every design process, Fuse delivers intuitive, agile, and resilient products that go beyond national security requirements—providing lasting utility and game-changing results. We take pride in our brilliant and talented team as well as our dynamic environment and collaborative, creative, environment. We build cutting-edge hardware and software products that solve complex national security challenges for our warfighters at the tactical edge.

Salary Range:  $145,000 - $200,000

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision

• Employee coverage is fully funded; a portion of dependents' coverage is funded as well

• 11 paid Federal Holidays

• Paid Time Off (PTO)

• Date of hire through second year: 10 days/year (accrued)

• After two years: unlimited

• 40 hours of paid sick leave per year 

• 401k with employer matching 

• Annual bonuses 

• Cell phone reimbursement: $100/month