Staff / Principal Hardware Product Manager

Alcatraz is on a mission to redefine access control with AI-powered facial authentication technology. They are seeking a Staff or Principal Hardware Product Manager to lead product strategy and execution for their hardware portfolio, ensuring alignment across cross-functional teams and driving the development of innovative security solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Own product strategy and the multi-year roadmap for Alcatraz's hardware portfolio, deciding how each product — compact multi-modal, ultra-compact face module, and ruggedized outdoor/government module — is positioned against the others and against the market
• Write and maintain detailed PRDs — scope, relevant leads, feature rationale, and requirements with P0–P3 acceptance criteria — that Engineering, Design, and QA build, design, and test from without re-litigating the spec
• Partner with Hardware Engineering, Industrial Design, ML/Face Pipeline, and Platform teams to drive programs from concept through EVT, DVT, PVT, and mass-production readiness, including system-on-module and key component trade-off decisions
• Define the roadmap and requirements for mobile credentials, including companion app experiences and physical/digital credential interoperability (NFC, BLE, PKI-based issuance)
• Own the requirements behind regulated and enterprise-grade use cases — government credentialing (PIV), cryptographic root-of-trust and certificate issuance, and the compliance work (e.g., FIPS 140-3) that gates the government vertical
• Translate customer discovery, competitive analysis, and market sizing into MRDs that justify new hardware programs and prioritize the roadmap
• Partner with Finance and Sales on commercial model decisions — pricing, packaging, and tiering — for hardware and platform software
• Drive structured program reviews and risk registers, and translate technical complexity into clear, decision-ready narratives for executive leadership
• Lead recurring cross-functional forums (weekly program and hardware syncs, working groups) and act as the connective tissue between Engineering, Product Marketing, Sales, Partnerships, and Customer Success — without direct authority over any of them

Requirements:

• 8+ years of product management experience, including 4+ years owning physical hardware products through a full lifecycle — concept through EVT/DVT/PVT to mass production and launch
• Demonstrated ownership of multiple concurrent hardware (and adjacent firmware/software) product lines in a fast-moving environment
• Fluency writing detailed, engineering-ready PRDs and driving cross-functional execution across Hardware, Firmware, ML, and Software teams
• Working knowledge of embedded systems, sensing hardware (3D sensing or camera pipelines a strong plus), and NPI/stage-gate processes
• A track record of shipping products in physical security, access control, IoT, or edge AI hardware
• Excellent written and verbal communication — comfortable moving between a component-level trade-off discussion and an executive roadmap review in the same day
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field
• Experience with biometric authentication, facial recognition, or computer vision products
• Familiarity with government and enterprise compliance standards (FIPS 140-3, PIV/PIV-I, PKI-based credentialing)
• Experience with mobile credentialing technologies (NFC, BLE, UWB) and companion mobile apps
• Experience in a Series B–D startup scaling hardware from pilot to commercial deployment
• PMP or equivalent program management certification