Principal Product Manager (Robotics)

Company: Shadow Robot
Apply for the Principal Product Manager (Robotics)
Location: London
Job Description:

Shadow Robot has spent 30 years building the most advanced dexterous robotic hands in the world. Our customers include Google DeepMind, OpenAI and the frontier AI labs you’d expect.

We’re hiring our first-ever Product Manager to lead the move from research platforms into industrial products at scale. It is the single biggest commercial decision Shadow will make in the next five years.

This is for the founder, or zero-to-revenue builder, who has done 0 to 1 before – and now wants to step into a deep-tech company with real IP, real customers, and a transition that needs leading.

You will define the product strategy that will determine what Shadow develops over the next decade.

You will lead it.

You will work directly with our Managing Director, Commercial Director and Head of Product Development with a real seat at the leadership table.

Our Tech Lead owns how we develop; you own what we develop, why and for whom.

What you will spend your time on

  • Customer discovery – defining the industrial problems Shadow should solve, deciding which we are not chasing
  • Product strategy across hardware and software, including a multi-generation roadmap and the trade-offs underneath it
  • Being the in-house voice of the customer in engineering decisions – challenging defaults, defining MVPs
  • Translating market needs into curated work packages the engineering team can execute on
  • Bridging commercial and R&D, keeping the product roadmap and commercial reality aligned

What makes this worth your time

  • 30 years of dexterous robotics IP and customers, including Google DeepMind, OpenAI and the frontier AI labs you would expect
  • The genuine move from research platforms into industrial products at scale
  • Strategic ownership of Shadow’s product future across hardware, software, commercial and technical

This is not for you if

  • You have not founded a company or built a product from zero to revenue yourself
  • You have no interest in robotics / mechatronics / hardware+software
  • You want a corporate atmosphere with heavy process – Shadow is small, scrappy and bootstrap-y
  • You delegate customer discovery rather than do it yourself

The practicals

  • Salary: £85,000 – £100,000 per annum + a stake in our employee-owned business
  • Basis: PAYE, permanent. Office-based, Gospel Oak, London
  • Notes: We are unable to offer visa sponsorship

Apply through Helen at HFBAC.

Note: You may see this role advertised in more than one place – as a Senior Product Manager, as a Principal Product Manager, or as a confidential search through HFBAC. It is the same vacancy. If you have already applied to one version, you do not need to apply again. We are casting wide because the right person for this pivotal hire could come from either profile.

Principal Product Manager – Shadow Robot

Gospel Oak, London | Permanent | £85,000 – £100,000 + a stake in our employee-owned business

Recruiters: please liaise with Helen Wingrove-Sanders at HFBAC about our PSL.

Posted: May 25th, 2026