Hardware Product & Program Manager
Owns Salient Systems' recording-hardware portfolio (PowerProtect, Vantage) behind its CompleteView video management platform — setting roadmap, lifecycle policies, validated specs, and pricing/margin — while building a certified-manufacturer licensing program. Onsite in Mc Neil (Austin area), TX; no visa sponsorship.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Mc Neil, Travis County
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- C level
- Employment
- Contract
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Hardware
- Posted
Must have
- ~5+ years managing networked or appliance-class hardware products (servers, recorders, gateways) through launch, revision, and end of life
- Firsthand accountability for platform cost, price, and margin
- Experience with product qualification, performance evidence, component substitutions, and lifecycle decisions
- Experience working with OEMs, ODMs, or contract manufacturers
- Comfort with server architecture and storage; able to turn test results into a product recommendation
- Experience building or running a partner, certification, licensing, or other commercially accountable program (or strong evidence you can take it on)
- Writing and communication that make a roadmap, policy, or business case useful to executives and technical teams
Nice to have
- Video security experience
- Familiarity with channel sales
- Experience guiding a hardware portfolio through a structural change
Full description
Good video security software still needs somewhere reliable to record. At Salient, that means making thoughtful choices about the hardware underneath CompleteView: what we offer, how it performs, what it costs, and how long a customer can count on it.
We’re looking for a Hardware Product & Program Manager to own our recording-platform portfolio and help shape a new way of bringing those platforms to market. This is a role for someone who likes both the product decision and the operating model that makes the decision stick.
Why Salient, and why this roleSalient Systems makes CompleteView, an open video management platform for organizations managing security across many sites. We don’t require customers to buy our recording hardware, but we offer it for those who want a validated platform. Today that portfolio includes PowerProtect, based on Dell platforms, and Vantage, built with a contract manufacturer.
The job has a clear progression. At first, you’ll spend most of your time on hardware product management: the roadmap, platform configurations, performance and cost tradeoffs, lifecycle decisions, and a dependable source of product specifications. Over roughly the next two years, more of your work will be building a certified-manufacturer program: a model in which qualified partners can build and sell Salient-certified platforms under license, with commercial terms and reporting that work in practice.
That progression is the opportunity. Not many roles let you steward a live hardware portfolio and design the partner-led program that changes its economics in the same seat. It is a way to broaden from strong platform product management into commercial and program leadership, with outcomes you can point to on both sides.
RequirementsWhat you’ll do
- Set the platform direction. Own a rolling roadmap for PowerProtect and Vantage, including platform tiers, configurations, and when to add, consolidate, or retire a SKU. Work with Engineering to identify the performance questions worth testing, interpret the results, and make product calls that balance workload, reliability, availability, and margin.
- Make lifecycle predictable. Establish clear policies for support windows, end-of-life notice, last-time buys, spares, and migration paths. Stay ahead of component and operating-system changes, and give Sales, Support, OEM partners, and customers time to act. A hardware change can mean a visit to a customer’s site, so the notice matters as much as the spreadsheet.
- Create one reliable product record. Own validated specifications for shipping configurations and help turn the current source of truth into a structured system. Keep datasheets, price books, quoting tools, the website, and sizing guidance aligned with it. We appreciate a good spreadsheet; we just don’t want it to be the only thing that knows which configuration is current.