Principal Product Manager, Technical

Robots & Pencils is an applied AI engineering firm building the next frontier of business architecture. We design and ship AI co-workers that integrate into enterprise operations and deliver measurable results for our clients. We're all in on AWS, combining deep UX capability with senior engineering talent to get AI into production fast and keep it there.


We've earned the trust of leaders across Consumer Products and Retail, Education, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing and more, and earned a reputation as the nimble alternative to traditional global systems integrators. Founded in 2009, with delivery centers in Canada, the United States, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, we are smaller, faster, and more senior by design. Our teams average 15+ years of experience. We move fast, sweat the details, and build things that actually ship.


About the Role

We're looking for a Principal Product Manager to drive product vision and strategy across the engagements they support. This role is ideal for a deeply experienced product leader who owns the hardest product challenges, serves as the senior product voice in client relationships, and shapes how product management is practiced at Robots & Pencils.


In this role, you will operate as the principal product authority on a cross-functional team, defining vision, setting delivery standards, and partnering with client executives on product direction. You'll mentor experienced PMs, contribute to practice growth, and bring the depth of experience to navigate complexity, ambiguity, and high-stakes decisions with confidence.


Key Responsibilities

Craft & Delivery

• Drive product vision and strategy on the engagements you support, owning direction for the most complex, high-stakes digital products
• Define product operating models, discovery practices, and delivery standards for the engagement
• Own the most difficult product challenges - framing problems, aligning stakeholders, and driving resolution at scale
• Define success frameworks and use data, research, and user insight to evaluate outcomes and shape product direction
• Identify opportunities to improve how product is practiced across the engagement and contribute those learnings back to R&P
• Bring an AI-forward mindset to your daily work, using tools like Claude to drive efficiency, research synthesis, and product thinking at scale

Collaboration & Communication

• Partner with senior leadership and client executives as the principal product advisor, shaping product vision and direction at the engagement level
• Represent product thinking at the leadership level, influencing how strategy, delivery, and technology decisions are made
• Lead the most complex stakeholder forums, workshops, and executive-level discussions

Leadership & Influence

• Define and champion product delivery standards and best practices on the engagements you support
• Mentor experienced PMs, helping them grow their product judgment, strategic thinking, and client impact
• Own the most difficult product decisions, serving as the senior product decision-maker on complex tradeoffs
• Contribute to business development, proposals, and the growth of R&P's product management practice

Required Skills

• 10+ years of experience in product management, with a strong record in consultative or enterprise environments
• Demonstrated track record of defining product vision and strategy for complex, high-stakes digital products
• Expert-level client advisory skills and experience influencing at the executive level
• Deep experience leading discovery, roadmapping, and delivery across large, multi-stakeholder organizations
• Track record of mentoring senior product managers and shaping team-level PM practices
• Strong cross-functional leadership and the ability to align engineering, design, strategy, and business at scale
• Experience defining product metrics, success frameworks, and iterative delivery models
• Some experience with AI tools to drive efficiency, research synthesis, and product thinking at scale (e.g., Claude)
• Experience contributing to business development, proposals, or practice growth is a plus

You'll Do Well Here if You Are

• A doer. You see something broken and fix it. You'd rather move on clarity than wait for certainty.
• A fast learner who knows you don't know everything. The AI landscape changes weekly. You're senior enough to know better and curious enough to keep learning anyway.
• Direct in a way that makes the work better. You give honest feedback. You'd rather have the hard conversation than blow smoke.
• Obsessed with craft. You know genius is in the details. You ship exceptional, not perfect, and you don't put your name on work you wouldn't stand behind.
• Built for ownership. You honor commitments, admit mistakes fast, and back your teammates when a decision costs something. No handoffs, no finger-pointing.
• All in. You treat clients' businesses like your own. You take the work seriously without taking yourself seriously.
• Resourceful when the budget, timeline, or team is tight. Constraints don't slow you down. They sharpen you.
• Glad to be in the room with people who care as much as you do. Our teams average fifteen-plus years of experience. We hire people who push each other to do better work.

An offer of employment may be conditional upon successful completion of a background check in accordance with local legislation and our candidate privacy notice. Your current employer will not be contacted without your permission. We are committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all job applicants and employees. Employment decisions are based upon job-related reasons regardless of an applicant's race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, marital status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other status protected by law.


The below range reflects the range of possible compensation for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, shift, travel requirements, sales or revenue-based metrics, any collective bargaining agreements, and business or organizational needs. The salary range for this role is $200.000USD - $270.000 USD. We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.


An offer of employment may be conditional upon successful completion of a background check in accordance with local legislation and our candidate privacy notice. Your current employer will not be contacted without your permission. We are committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all job applicants and employees. Employment decisions are based upon job-related reasons regardless of an applicant's race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, marital status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other status protected by law.