Staff technical product manager

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.

Position Overview

We're looking for a Staff Product Manager to define product strategy and lead delivery across major client engagements. This role is ideal for a seasoned product leader who can own the full product lifecycle, build trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders, and bring both strategic vision and hands-on delivery discipline to the engagements they support.

In this role, you will work as the senior product voice on a cross-functional team, setting direction, driving alignment, and owning outcomes from discovery through delivery. You'll partner closely with client leadership, mentor other PMs, and bring the experience and judgment to navigate the most complex product challenges.

Why This Role Matters

At Robots & Pencils, we design AI systems for a human world. Our name says it all. Robots and pencils means engineering paired with creativity, because every agent we ship has to work for real people in real workflows. That balance is baked into how we operate.

Every role here contributes directly to that mission. Here, you shape how AI systems integrate into enterprise operations, how teams move at real velocity, and how products create measurable impact for clients and the people they serve. We ship production-ready AI in 30 to 45 days. That pace demands people who take ownership, lead with craft, and care deeply about what they put their name on.

What You’ll Do

Craft & Delivery

• Define product strategy and vision for major client engagements, setting direction in alignment with client goals and business outcomes
• Own the product roadmap end-to-end, driving prioritization across business value, technical constraints, and delivery timelines
• Lead complex discovery and problem framing with senior client stakeholders, ensuring the right problems are defined before solutions are built
• Define product success metrics and use data to evaluate outcomes, inform priorities, and drive continuous improvement
• Drive cross-functional alignment across engineering, design, delivery, and strategy to keep complex engagements moving
• Bring an AI-forward mindset to your daily work, using tools like Claude to drive product discovery, research synthesis, and documentation at speed

Collaboration & Communication

• Build and maintain trusted advisor relationships with client leadership, serving as a reliable strategic partner on product direction
• Communicate strategy, tradeoffs, and recommendations clearly and confidently at the executive level
• Lead complex stakeholder working sessions, workshops, and decision-making forums across large, multi-stakeholder organizations

Leadership & Influence

• Establish product delivery standards and practices on the engagements you support
• Mentor senior and mid-level PMs, helping them grow their product thinking, client skills, and delivery impact
• Act as a technical escalation point on complex product, scope, and prioritization challenges

What You’ll Bring

• 7+ years of experience in product management, with a strong consultative background
• Demonstrated ability to define product strategy and vision for complex digital engagements
• Deep experience leading discovery, roadmapping, and delivery across multi-stakeholder environments
• Strong executive communication and client advisory skills
• Track record of driving cross-functional alignment and influencing without authority
• Experience defining and tracking product success metrics
• High accountability, ownership, and follow-through
• Proficiency with product tools across discovery, roadmapping, and delivery (e.g., Jira, Productboard, Amplitude, Miro)
• Deep applied experience with AI tools to drive product discovery, research synthesis, and documentation at speed (e.g., Claude)
• Experience in a consulting or professional services environment, or exposure to AI/ML product development or data platforms, is a plus

Helpful Extras and Unique Skills

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.

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 $150.000 CAD - $190.000 CAD. 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.