Product Manager | Automation & Robotics

Product Manager | Automation & Robotics

To fuel Swappie’s profitable growth and advance our mission of making refurbished electronics mainstream, we are looking for a Product Manager to join our Automation & Robotics team.

In this role, you solve the complex scaling challenges of high-volume, highly automated device processing lines and see your work come to life in practice, not just in theory. You own the product vision, roadmap, and value delivery of our automation and robotics solutions. This involves both maximizing the efficiency of our existing infrastructure to support evolving hardware demands and spearheading the design of entirely new, high-impact automation initiatives, as we expand into new product categories.

Your goal is to ensure these systems and software integrations solve the right operational problems and deploy efficiently across factories. To achieve this, you lead the collaboration between production operations, external suppliers, software development, data, and the business.

Why this role is unique

Physical reality and tech

• Direct Impact on Production: You work on systems that directly affect throughput, quality, and cost in real factories. When you make a product decision, the results are visible on the production floor immediately.

• Intersection of Robotics, AI, and Software: Grow as a "full-stack" industrial PM at the crossroads of robotics, diagnostics, AI/ML, and production data. While we leverage top-tier partners for hardware, we build our own software and AI capabilities in-house.

• Hands-on Factory Environment: You’ll work where the systems actually run and collaborate directly with operators and engineers to solve real-world challenges.

Ownership and influence

• Full Product Lifecycle Ownership: You own automation products from the initial business case and concept all the way to production deployment, ramp-up, and continuous improvement.

• Strategic Influence: You are trusted to make critical calls on direction and build business cases grounded in ROI and throughput to shape how automation evolves across the company.

• External Partner Management: You work closely with leading international automation suppliers and system integrators, influencing how their industry-leading platforms are delivered to meet our needs.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Strategy & Value Ownership: Own the automation vision and roadmap. You prioritize initiatives based on business impact (such as unit cost reduction, ROI, and production throughput) and make strategic trade-offs between in-house and third-party solutions. You take full ownership of outcomes, not just delivery, and have the courage to say no to ensure focus on the highest value and scalability.

• Requirements & Backlog: Translate production needs into clear requirements, covering user journeys, operational workflows, and system integrations. The goal is to manage the backlog in close collaboration with software and automation engineering.

• Vendor Steering & Operational Delivery: Act as the Product Owner for third-party systems. You lead partners from technical specification and acceptance criteria through to factory integration and successful operational handover.

• Stakeholder & Operational Performance: Act as the bridge between Engineering, Finance, and Operations. This involves defining success metrics (reliability, quality) and communicating technical rationale and financial business cases for CAPEX (investments in automation hardware) clearly as well as ensuring continuous improvement after deployment.

What you’ll bring to the team

• Experience in Industrial Product Management: A track record in product management (or as a PO/Technical PM) within technical, industrial, or operational environments.

• Technical Understanding: Background in automation, robotics, or industrial software. You can evaluate technical alternatives credibly with engineers and remain pragmatic during production incidents.

• Vendor & Partner Management: Experience working with third-party automation suppliers or system integrators, managing requirements throughout the delivery lifecycle.

• Decision-Making & Analytics: Ability to prioritize based on business impact (ROI, throughput, quality). You are comfortable making decisions with incomplete information in time-critical situations.

• Stakeholder Alignment: Ability to communicate complex topics clearly, align diverse stakeholders, and firmly prioritize to protect the roadmap.

• Hands-on & Curious Mindset: A genuine willingness to work on the factory floor and a natural drive for continuous improvement.

• Fluent English: Comfort in communicating complex concepts to an international team.

Bonus points if you have (or are eager to learn):

• Familiarity with MES, diagnostics systems, production data platforms, or industrial IoT.

• Experience with business case evaluation for automation or capital investments (CAPEX).

• Background in manufacturing, robotics, or industrial/automation engineering.

• Experience scaling automation systems across multiple sites or high volumes.

Education & Background

• Education & Background A degree in Engineering (e.g., Mechatronics, Robotics, Automation) is preferred, but not mandatory. We value practical problem-solving in real production environments at least as much as formal degrees. Extensive hands-on experience is a valid path to this role.

Practicalities

📍 Location: Tallinn, Estonia (Hybrid – regular site presence required). Flexibility: Balance office and remote work; on-site during deployments, remote during planning. Travel: Visits to our sites (e.g., Leipzig) approx. 1–4 times per quarter. 📆 Start Date: As soon as possible (negotiable) 📝 Contract: Full-time and permanent 💰 Salary: Based on comprehensive market data and industry benchmarks to ensure fair pay for all experience levels. ⏰Application Deadline: 8.3.2026 ♻️Ready to make a sustainable impact? Apply now! We will begin reviewing applications immediately and move quickly to introductory calls with potential candidates. 🤔Questions? recruitment@swappie.com will happily reply. Please note that we only accept applications through our recruitment system.

Recruitment Process

Our recruitment process is conducted online, with the exception of a final on-site visit for our finalists.

1. Intro with Talent Acquisition (45 min): Background, career aspirations, and thriving in our culture.

2. Technical Interview with Hiring Manager (90 min): A deep-dive into automation & robotics, systems thinking, and operational challenges.

3. Product Management Discussion (45 min): Focused exploration on prioritization frameworks and problem-solving with our Staff PM.

4. Collaboration & Culture (60 min): Discussion with the Head of Product Development on cross-functional influence and values.

5. Ops Tour: Finalists visit our factory to see the device processing lines in action and meet the team.