Product Manager - Digital Proving Grounds
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 1, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 27, 2026. Applied Intuition scores B on the Alion truth index.
Applied Intuition, Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion, the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure, operating systems, and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers, as well as the United States military and its allies, trust the company’s solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in Washington, D.C.; San Diego; Ft. Walton Beach, Florida; Ann Arbor, Michigan; London; Stuttgart; Munich; Stockholm; Bangalore; Seoul; and Tokyo. Learn more at applied.co.
We are an in-office company, and our expectation is that full-time employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments. This in-office expectation does not apply to contractor positions
About the role
Applied Intuition's Digital Proving Grounds (DPGs) give the Department of War a vendor-neutral place to test autonomous systems from many companies together, against a real mission, before they reach the field. A DPG covers the full path from software-in-the-loop (SIL) simulation to hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), live-virtual-constructive (LVC), and live exercises. Teams find integration problems in simulation, where fixes take hours, instead of at a live event, where they take weeks.
DPGs run on Axion, Applied's defense toolchain, with Axion Sim at the core. Applied ran VREX for the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, a DPG that put air, surface, and undersea vehicles from different vendors on one mission. CDAO then selected Applied to build the platform for Autonomy Factory, which brings this approach to programs across the Department of War on autonomy.mil.
The technology works in programs. The next step is a product that program offices, test organizations, and mission engineers choose, adopt, and come back to, without Applied engineers supporting events. As the Product Manager for Digital Proving Grounds, you will own the product strategy, roadmap, and requirements for DPGs and Axion Sim. This is an individual-contributor role. You will work as the product peer to the engineering lead for Axion Sim and drive outcomes through influence across engineering, design, business development, and delivery.
At Applied Intuition, you will
Own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for DPGs and Axion Sim. Decide what becomes repeatable product and what stays program-specific work.
Find product-market fit. Run discovery with program offices, test and evaluation organizations, mission engineers, and autonomy vendors. Learn who buys, what they need to prove, and what brings them back for the next event. Work with business development and capture to turn what you learn into offers that win programs.
Define the sim-to-live workflow. Shape how a team goes from a mission and its concept of operations to test scenarios, then to SIL at scale, HIL rig checkout, LVC, and live events, with results that carry across each stage.
Set the simulation roadmap with engineering. Make the calls on fidelity versus speed, sensor and communications modeling, scale to hundreds or thousands of agents, co-simulation with government tools, and a self-serve experience in the cloud and on accredited networks.
Build on shared platform components. Work with other Axion product leads so DPGs use common pieces (simulation, campaigns, metrics, jobs) instead of separate versions.
Write clear requirements and define success metrics. Make the scope trade-offs that keep engineering on the work that matters most for upcoming programs and events.
Shape the experience with design. Partner with design on the tools that test planners, vendors, and government evaluators use every day.
Represent the product. Communicate strategy, status, risk, and trade-offs to Applied leadership and to customers. Present at test events, program reviews, and industry events. Expect to travel about 25% of the time to customer sites, test ranges, and events.
We're looking for someone who has
A bachelor's degree in a technical field (Computer Science, Engineering, or related) or equivalent experience.
8+ years of product management experience shipping complex technical products, including end-to-end ownership of a simulation, test, or engineering platform used by technical teams.
Deep technical fluency in simulation. You can discuss fidelity, sensor models, determinism, distributed sim at scale, and HIL with engineers, and you know when a sim result is good enough to trust.
Strong customer research skills. You have learned a new domain by talking to users and watching how they work, including users who are hard to reach (regulated industries, cleared environments, field teams). You turned what you learned into a prioritized roadmap.
A track record of taking a technical product from custom, per-customer deployments to a repeatable product that customers adopt and renew.
Comfort as an IC who owns a whole product and drives cross-functional outcomes through influence, not direct reports.
Excellent written and verbal communication, with engineers and with senior government and industry leaders.
Nice to have
Experience with modeling and simulation standards and government tools, such as DIS, HLA, AFSIM, NGTS, or co-simulation frameworks.
Experience planning or running LVC, range, or large-scale test events.
Experience with multi-agent or collaborative autonomy, swarms, or communications modeling.
Familiarity with DoD test and evaluation, mission engineering, or acquisition processes.
An active US Secret or Top Secret clearance.
Security Requirements:
Must be a U.S. Citizen
Must hold or be eligible for a U.S. Secret security clearance
For more information about U.S. security clearances: click here.
Don’t meet every single requirement? If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Applied Intuition is an equal opportunity employer and federal contractor or subcontractor. Consequently, the parties agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-1.4(a), 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and that these laws are incorporated herein by reference. These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities, and prohibit discrimination against all individuals based on their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin. These regulations require that covered prime contractors and subcontractors take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status or disability. The parties also agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of Executive Order 13496 (29 CFR Part 471, Appendix A to Subpart A), relating to the notice of employee rights under federal labor laws.
FOR US-BASED ROLES:Applied Intuition is committed to providing an accessible and inclusive application and interview experience to applicants who are disabled veterans and other applicants with disabilities or medical conditions. Reasonable accommodations are available, requesting an accommodation will not affect your candidacy in any way, and you are not required to disclose the nature of your disability or medical condition in order to make a request. If you require an accommodation please contact [email protected]. We will work with you!