Product Marketing Lead

About Nominal

Engineers today are building some of the most ambitious machines humanity has ever seen. They should have AI that's purpose-built for them.

Nominal is building the Hardware Intelligence Platform that gives engineers increased visibility into complex physical systems, helps them make better decisions, and ultimately gets their products into the real world faster. It brings together the systems, data, intelligence, and applications hardware engineering requires to meet the AI moment. Hardware engineering teams use Nominal to simulate, test, manufacture, and operate the physical systems that keep the world moving, from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation energy systems and robotics.

Our customers span aerospace, defense, manufacturing, transportation, energy, and robotics. They include Anduril, Shield AI, Wisk Aero, Pratt Miller Motorsports, Antares, and Shinkei Systems, amongst others, alongside programs within the U.S. Air Force and Navy. Our team draws from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, Tesla, and other leading companies, united by a common mission: giving hardware engineers the tools to build the future with speed, safety, and confidence. Were a fast-moving team that owns problems end-to-end, works across disciplines, and thrives at the intersection of hardware and software.

Some of the world's leading technology investors, including Sequoia, Lightspeed, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, and Insight Partners, are backing Nominal's ambition to change how machines are built and operated.

About the role

Product Marketing owns how the world understands the our Hardware Intelligence Platform, and why Nominal leads it. Its a category were creating, so the job is less about competing for space on someone elses map and more about drawing the map engineers will use for the next decade. As our first Product Marketing Lead, youll define the category, launch what we ship, and write the technical content that shows engineers what a modern hardware stack can be. Youll report to Bryce Strauss, co-founder.

This role is ideal for an engineer who discovered theyd rather explain the system than build it, or a product marketer who has earned a seat in design reviews. Youll set the narrative standard for Nominal and spend as much time with customers as with our product team, sometimes embedded with our Strategic and Enterprise account teams to help them go further. Youll prove ideas by building them: a positioning thesis becomes a working mini site, and a launch story becomes a live demo, before anyone debates a slide. Four things are non-negotiable: technical depth, taste, time in the field, and building with AI.

What Youll Do

• Create the category. Define hardware intelligence: what it is, what it isnt, and why it matters, until engineers, buyers, and analysts use our language to describe their own problem.
• Own every launch. Partner with Product and Engineering from the first spec, so each release ships with a clear answer to what an engineer can do now that they couldnt before.
• Map the modern hardware stack. Build reference architectures, teardowns, and technical guides that show engineers what best-in-class looks like, including the partners and tools we work alongside.
• Turn releases into customer value. Work with Sales Enablement to translate what we ship into demos, talk tracks, and proof that hold up under a skeptical technical evaluation.
• Own our personas. Spend real time with customers, from test engineers to program executives, and keep a living picture of their workflows, objections, and what moves them to change.
• Go forward-deployed. Embed with Strategic and Enterprise account teams on the deals and expansions that matter most, and bring what you learn back to Product.
• Build, dont just brief. Use agents and AI tools to prototype positioning as mini sites, demos, and interactive explainers, and turn sales calls and field notes into a living system that shows what customers value.

Were looking for someone with

• An engineering background or equivalent technical depth: you know the tools of the trade today, and words like "frequency domain" and "FMEA" and "hardware-in-the-loop" are in your wheelhouse.
• AI-native working habits: youd rather ship a mini site that tests a positioning thesis than argue for it in a deck. Or, better yet, you have built an agent knowledge base so the team can self serve positioning to a new vertical. Well ask what youve built!
• A track record of product marketing for complex technical products sold to technical buyers, with launches you can point to and the adoption or pipeline they drove.
• Experience creating or redefining a category and setting the narrative others build on, with results felt across Sales, Product, and Marketing. You're willing to go deep to understand the "why" behind any product decision and customer need.
• Writing that engineers respect: precise, specific, and free of hype / jargon. Bonus points if you can bring something you wrote that taught a technical reader something new.
• Taste in how technical stories look as well as read, from a reference architecture to a demo storyboard to a one-pager that is both beautiful and correct.
• Comfort in front of customers, from a working session with test engineers to a briefing with a program executive.

Skills that accelerate us

• Experience in aerospace, defense, automotive, or industrial engineering, as an engineer or working closely alongside them.
• Background in solutions engineering, developer relations, or technical product management.
• Experience with ecosystem or partner marketing, positioning a platform alongside the tools it connects to.
• Experience marketing data infrastructure, observability, simulation, or developer platforms to engineering teams.

Benefits/Perks

• 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
• ️ Unlimited PTO and sick leave
• ️ Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
• Professional Development Stipend
• ️ In-office hardware lab with a $250 project stipend
• ️ Annual company retreat
• 12 weeks parental leave
• Fertility and family planning ($15,000 lifetime)
• Wellness stipend ($100/month)
• ️ $500/year hardware sensor stipend
• 401(k)
• Employee-friendly equity terms
• In-office 5 days per week

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.