Staff Product Manager

Mariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company on a mission to supply the critical minerals powering modern energy, AI, and defense technologies. We’re reimagining the minerals supply chain by combining deep industry expertise with advanced software, automation, and data-driven decision-making.

We’re hiring a Staff Product Manager to own a critical domain within MarianaOS. This is a single posting because we recruit for the strongest PMs first and then place them where the fit is best. Through the interview process, we’ll figure out together which part of the system is the right match for your background and instincts.

The scope of what we can touch is enormous. Mining is the last major industrial sector that hasn’t been rebuilt with modern software. The opportunity set isn’t a feature gap on an existing product — it’s entire workflows and systems that don’t exist yet. The problem space spans micron-scale chemistry to kilometer-scale infrastructure.

Ship a feature and you can watch the needle move — recovery rates, reagent consumption, construction timelines, equipment uptime. These aren’t proxy metrics. They’re the actual physics of making metal.

MarianaOS is the digital nervous system for mineral projects. It spans the full lifecycle — from capital project execution through autonomous operations. The four domains we are staffing for right now are:

• PlantOS

Our autonomy platform for mineral processing — lithium refining, SX-EW, flotation, copper recycling and beyond. It uses the same reinforcement learning toolkit powering self-driving vehicles and humanoid robots, except we’re using it for autonomous control of minerals refining circuits.

• MineOS

Integrates geologic block models, short and long-range mine plans, fleet management systems, and industrial control systems into a single optimization layer. We’re accelerating autonomous fleet deployment and building an accurate digital twin of the site to maximize the lifetime value of the mine.

• CapitalProjectOS

The integrated operating system that lets Mariana build in half the time, at half the cost — and deliver 10+ projects over the next decade. Fragmented data and spreadsheet-driven coordination are replaced by a unified environment for project deliverables, data and workflows which drives visibility, traceability, rapid decision-making and AI-driven execution.

• AssetOS

Everything we do at Mariana involves tracking and maintaining physical assets across their lifecycle. The assets we design in CapitalProjectOS, can only be used to their full potential by mine and plantOS if we can keep them in service. That’s where AssetOS fits, this OS supports a world-class maintenance function that turns every PM into an F1-style pit stop.

• Own a product domain end-to-end — from uncovering the right problems and setting the strategy and roadmap through shipping software that runs in real operations where consequences are physical and feedback is immediate

• Define what to build by analyzing performance data and talking to domain experts — including figuring out what metrics and instrumentation need to exist in the first place

• Spend meaningful time at construction sites, processing facilities, and mines to understand how work actually happens — prioritization comes from deep operational knowledge, not market research

• Work at the intersection of hardware, software, and AI — translating what models can do into what operators will trust, and what robotics can deliver into what sites need

• Drive clarity in ambiguous situations: break down complex problems, define scope, make tradeoffs explicit, and keep teams focused on what matters most

• Help build the PM function — this is a small, early PM team where you’ll help establish how we work, how we prioritize, and how we develop PMs behind you

We’ve seen two profiles excel in this kind of environment. You likely see yourself in one of these:

• The AI-Forward PM

  You’ve worked with ML and AI in production — agents, reinforcement learning, process control, optimization. You know how to bridge the gap between what a model can do and what an end user will actually trust. You’ve translated research into shipped products in high-stakes environments.

• The Autonomy-Forward PM

  You’ve shipped products where hardware and software meet and where software failure has physical consequences. You think in fleet coordination, sensor fusion, and operational reliability. You may have started as an engineer and moved into product because you wanted to own the outcome, not just the component.

• Technical Generalist

  You have strong PM fundamentals, are technically deep and have worked in complex, data intensive environments. You operate well in high ambiguity environments and earned trust of engineers. You don’t start on day one with all the domain expertise needed, but rapid learn and soon own outcomes.

• Don’t fit neatly into one of these?

We’re also drawn to people with strong PM fundamentals who’ve operated in complex, high-ambiguity environments — or people from industrial backgrounds (manufacturing, energy, construction, logistics) who have genuine product instincts even if “PM” has never been in your title.

Must Have

• 7+ years of experience in product management, ideally with meaningful time in environments where software intersects with physical systems, industrial operations, or safety-critical applications.

• Demonstrated ability to understand users and their problems, prioritize systematically, set clear metrics and deliver products which deliver impact at scale.

• Clear and concise communicator; you connect across a huge range of technical literacy from PhD engineers and scientists to field operators with no software background

• Demonstrated ability to go deep on technical domains and build credibility with engineers.

• Experience leading cross-functional teams through ambiguous, complex projects with competing constraints

• Intellectual curiosity. You want to understand how the domain works, not treat it as a black box

• Experimentation and growth mindset / desire and ability to learn. Software development and product management has and will continue to change; you are excited to apply the latest and greatest technology and techniques to improve Mariana and the product management team.

• High agency. You own the outcome.

Nice to Have

• Experience with autonomous systems, robotics, or fleet-scale operations

• Has been part of a team delivering capital projects of meaningful scale as part of engineering, procurement, project management, construction or other functions

• Hands-on work with ML-powered products — especially RL, process control, or optimization in production settings

• Background in industrial software, digital twin systems, or process automation

• Track record of digital transformation work in traditional industries

• An engineering or technical degree (not required, but the instincts it builds are valued)

Most senior PM roles are narrowly scoped — you own one product, one feature set, one customer segment. This role is different.

At Mariana, you don’t need to validate product-market fit because we are the market. If you identify a real problem and build a real solution, adoption is a conversation, not a sales cycle. The constraint is building the right thing, not convincing someone to buy it.

The number and diversity of problems is unusual: you might work across agentic LLM systems for engineering workflows, RL-based process control, and autonomous fleet optimization in the same quarter.

This is not SaaS. This is software that runs mines and refineries. If you’re a strong PM looking for something more substantive than another enterprise software product, we’d love to talk.

Things move fast. The distance between “we should build this” and “it’s running in a real facility” is short — and you’ll feel that pace. You’ll work with an unusually diverse set of collaborators: geologists, metallurgists, chemical engineers, construction managers, plant operators, ML engineers, and software developers. There’s no translation layer between you and the domain experts. They’re your direct collaborators.

Everyone Gets Home Safe. We never put speed or cost ahead of people.

Extreme Ownership. We take full responsibility for outcomes, relentlessly driving toward solutions.

Engineer Out Requirements, then Automate. We simplify, optimize, and then automate for scale.

Share Your Legos. We collaborate openly, share knowledge, and empower each other to build bigger, better solutions.

Join us as we build the future of responsible mineral sourcing and supply!