Position: Senior Product Manager - Industrial Systems & Automation
Location: South San Francisco
Type: Full-time
Desired start date: ASAP
The Opportunity:
Ohalo is building the factory of the future for biology. To scale our technology, we must seamlessly integrate custom hardware, robotics, and operational software into our greenhouses and lab production facilities. We are seeking a Senior PM for Industrial Systems who thrives on physical constraints-throughput, cycle times, and floor-space optimization. This is a role for someone who wants to see their work move physical objects, not just pixels. You will solve for non-deterministic variables (like plant growth and biological health) that traditional manufacturing doesn't face. You should be comfortable designing the digital workflows that govern throughput, material flow, and real-time error handling in complex, non-deterministic environments. You will own the systems that move our "Boosted" plants from the lab into the world, solving the complex orchestration problems that arise when biology meets industrial-scale automation.
Responsibilities:
- Architect the Physical-Digital Loop: Own the product vision for how integrated hardware/software platforms work together to manage plant movement, sorting, and processing.
- Design for Scale: Work with Engineers to identify bottlenecks in our production lines and build the software and hardware/automation solutions to break them.
- Live in the Field/Factory: Spend time in the greenhouse and on the production floor; your best insights will come from watching a robot struggle with a specific plant geometry.
- Manage Multi-Disciplinary Trade-offs: Negotiate the grey area between mechanical hardware, electrical sensors, and software logic.
- Deliver Solutions, Not Just Features: Identify where a simple manual process is superior to a complex automated one-and vice versa.
- Focus on Uptime and UX: Your products must be reliable, safe, and intuitive for the operators who use them every day both from a digital and physical perspective.
- End-to-End Ownership: You own the outcome-from the first napkin sketch of a sorting workflow to its full-scale deployment in a commercial facility.
Requirements / Candidate Profile:
- Technical Foundation: Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, or Industrial Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
- Physical Systems Experience: 5–8+ years of product management experience in robotics, automotive, aerospace, or advanced manufacturing (e.g., Tesla, SpaceX, Rivian, Amazon Robotics).
- First-Principles Thinker: You start with the laws of physics and the constraints of the facility, not just what the software can do.
- Systems & Orchestration: Proven experience building or scaling industrial orchestration systems (e.g., modern MES, WMS, or Fleet Management) that bridge the gap between high-level logic and physical execution.
- Operational Grit: You are willing to get your hands dirty, troubleshoot hardware in the field, and work alongside technicians.
- Decisive Leadership: Ability to make fast, high-stakes trade-offs in an environment where reverting a deploy isn't always an option.
Nice to Have / Bonus Points:
- Experience with computer vision in a manufacturing context
- Background in agricultural automation or related high throughput production line (automated greenhouses, sorting, or irrigation).
- Experience with Digital Twin modeling and optimizing for industrial facilities.
- Experience scaling a physical operation from R&D to high-volume commercial production.
- Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, or PMP certifications a plus
The anticipated pay range for this role is $140,000 – $180,000 per year for our South San Francisco, CA location, though salary will be based on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, education, and location.
About Ohalo:
Ohalo™ aims to accelerate evolution to unlock nature's potential. Founded in 2019, Ohalo develops novel breeding systems and improved plant varieties that help farmers grow more food with fewer natural resources, increasing the yield, resiliency, and genetic diversity of crops to sustainably feed our population. Ohalo's breakthrough technology, Boosted Breeding™, will usher in a new era of improved productivity to radically transform global agriculture. For more information, visit www.ohalo.com.
Notes: If you previously applied for a job at Ohalo Genetics, we encourage you to restate your interest in the position by submitting your application.
Ohalo is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other factor protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. Ohalo is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the interview process.
No visa sponsorship is available for this position at this time.
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