Ften Senior Product Manager

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.