Head of Product

RIVR is a Swiss robotics company pioneering Physical AI and robotic solutions to revolutionize last-mile delivery, giving 1 human the power of 1000. Through the combination of artificial neural networks and innovative robot designs with wheels and legs, RIVR aims to enhance efficiency, sustainability, and scalability in last-mile delivery. Founded as Swiss-Mile, the company rebranded to RIVR in 2025 to better reflect its mission of driving the future of intelligent robotics. Join our innovative team, renowned for pioneering robotic design and neural network applications in robotics that improve environmental understanding and decision-making. With a robust research foundation and notable contributions from ETH Zurich, we are leaders in translating artificial intelligence and robotics into practical, real-world applications.

RIVR is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team that values every perspective. If you’re passionate about driving innovation in robotics and creating meaningful impact, we encourage you to apply and bring your unique self to our team.

Job Description

The Head of Product will serve as the strategic architect behind our product vision, bridging the gap between cutting-edge robotics research and scalable commercial success. You will move beyond managing features to owning the entire product lifecycle, reporting directly to the executive team (Founders/CEO).

At RIVR, we build products the only way that works in the real world: experience first, assumptions second. No statistic or video replaces being outside with our robots, which is why everyone, from engineering to design to leadership, participates in ride-alongs and field tests.

Our product development approach is inspired by the world’s best tech companies, with clear PRDs, architecture-first thinking, rapid iteration loops, and narrative-driven decisions, adapted to the complexity of outdoor autonomous robots. Requirements are never a handover, they are a shared, evolving understanding shaped continuously through observation, testing, and discovery in the field. We treat operations as part of the product itself, integrating real-world data, customer interactions, and daily route performance directly into product decisions.

And above all, we design for scale, not demos: reliability, safety, manufacturing discipline, and cost-performance constraints are core to our goal of deploying millions of robots and enabling billions of deliveries per year.

What you’ll be doing:
• Own the Product Vision: Define and execute the long-term product strategy and roadmap, ensuring tight alignment with company vision, commercial goals, and market demands.
• Executive Leadership: Serve as a key voice within the leadership team, influencing company-wide strategy, resource allocation, and business modeling.
• Drive Product-Market Fit: Move beyond early adopters by gaining a deep, empathetic understanding of customer pain points; translate these insights into technical requirements that bridge the gap to the mainstream market.
• Orchestrate Cross-Functional Success: Unify hardware, software, and commercial teams to propel product development from R&D concepts to successful market launches.
• Scale the Organization: Lead and mentor an exceptional team of Product Managers, fostering a culture of ownership, data-driven decision-making, and customer obsession.
• Commercial Strategy: Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Operations to define go-to-market strategies that maximize value capture.
• Process & Structure: Establish the frameworks, documentation, and best practices required to scale product operations as the company grows to 100+ employees.
• Share Product Mindset: Our robots operate in a highly dynamic, unpredictable real-world environment. Every department needs to understand the challenges, risks, and opportunities of this use case. We ask you to help foster a strong customer-focused mindset across the entire organization so that everyone deeply understands the product and its realities.

What you must have:
• Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., Engineering, Business, Design, or Computer Science).
• 8+ years of experience in Product Management within the technology industry, with at least 4+ years in a leadership capacity.
• Deep technical fluency in robotics, AI, or hardware-software integration, with the ability to distill complex architectures into clear value propositions for commercial and operational stakeholders.
• Proven success in bringing complex technology products to market, specifically guiding products from "tech-push" (R&D) to "market-pull" (Mainstream adoption).
• Demonstrated ability to thrive in a fast-paced, unstructured startup environment, capable of switching between high-level strategy and hands-on execution.
• Experience in driving product strategy during rapid scaling phases, building robust frameworks capable of supporting mass deployment and thousands of active users.

Get some bonus points:
• Direct experience in the robotics, autonomous systems, or logistics industries.
• Proven history scaling and managing a product management team.

RIVR is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team that values every perspective. If you’re passionate about driving innovation in robotics and creating meaningful impact, we encourage you to apply and bring your unique self to our team.

We believe the best work is done when collaborating and therefore require in-person presence in our office locations.