Product Manager (Hybrid- Aberdeen, Maryland)

Fairwinds Technologies is seeking a technically fluent, customer-focused Product Manager to own and manage the roadmap, requirements, and lifecycle for two strategic product families: the Mixed Signal product line and the xG product line. This role will translate defense customer needs, funded R&D outcomes, engineering capabilities, and market opportunities into clear product requirements, release plans, product packaging, and go-to-market readiness.

Responsibilities:

• Own and maintain product vision, roadmap, MRD/PRD, release definition, product requirements, value proposition, success metrics, and lifecycle plans across both product lines
• Translate military user needs, DoD modernization priorities, funded R&D objectives, field feedback, and business capture opportunities into prioritized product requirements and release plans
• Partner with Mixed Signal engineering on RF front ends, SDR hardware, DSP/FPGA firmware, embedded software, channel emulator applications, SATCOM/EW overlays, V&V, qualification, documentation, and product reuse
• Partner with xG engineering on secure 4G/5G/6G, NTN, RAN/core, MANET integration, SD-WAN, ruggedized terminals, mission modules, gateways, cyber requirements, deployment playbooks, and lab/field validation
• Define product configurations, minimum viable release criteria, acceptance criteria, security criteria, support model, training needs, documentation needs, and sustainment requirements before product launch
• Partner with Sales and Business Development Team for customer discovery with warfighters, program offices, integrators, primes, OEM partners, and internal capture teams to validate operational value and improve product-market fit
• Partner with Sales Engineering for field demonstrations, lab trials, beta releases, operational pilots, customer feedback loops, and transition plans from prototype or R&D artifact into repeatable SKU, service, or product package
• Prioritize IR&D and customer-funded product work based on mission relevance, business value, technical readiness, schedule risk, reusability, and return on investment
• Support pricing, licensing, packaging, product collateral, demo scripts, competitive positioning, proposal inputs, and sales enablement for defense and federal customers
• Maintain a disciplined product operating cadence with engineering, program management, capture, finance, quality, configuration management, cybersecurity, manufacturing, and support stakeholders

Requirements:

• 5+ years of product management, technical program management, systems engineering, product strategy, or product development experience in defense, communications, RF, electronic warfare, networking, or adjacent mission technology markets
• Demonstrated ability to write clear product requirements, capability statements, MRDs, PRDs, release plans, epics/features, acceptance criteria, and product decision briefs for technical and executive audiences
• Strong understanding of military communications use cases, including resilient communications, contested and congested environments, PACE planning, tactical networking, field deployment constraints, and operational user feedback
• Experience working with multidisciplinary engineering teams building hardware, firmware, embedded software, RF systems, networking systems, cybersecurity-sensitive products, or integrated defense technology solutions
• Ability to manage portfolio tradeoffs across technical maturity, customer urgency, program funding, engineering capacity, configuration control, launch readiness, supportability, and margin potential
• U.S. citizenship required
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance is preferred; active clearance is a plus
• Experience supporting government-funded product development, SBIR/STTR, OTA, IDIQ, BAA, prototype-to-production transitions, or defense customer demonstrations is strongly preferred
• MOSA/CMOSS awareness preferred
• MIL-STD-810/461 awareness preferred