Technical Product Manager, Hardware Product Development

Technical Product Manager, Hardware Product Development

Full-time on-site, Calgary, Alberta

Own the technical product thread from ambiguous client need to manufacturable product direction.

At Tangent Design Engineering, we help clients turn complex technical ideas into real hardware products. Our work spans discovery, concept development, detailed engineering, prototyping, testing, manufacturing readiness, commercialization, and support.

We work on products where the technical choices matter, the details matter, and good judgment makes the difference between an interesting idea and something that can actually be built, tested, certified, supported, and used.

We’re looking for a Technical Product Manager who can sit at the centre of that process.

This role is for someone who understands hardware product development deeply enough to ask sharp questions, translate business and client needs into clear technical direction, and help multidisciplinary teams make practical decisions under real-world constraints.

You’ll work directly with clients, engineering leads, project managers, and business development to shape product strategy, define requirements, manage trade-offs, and keep product intent clear as projects move from uncertainty to execution.

You will not be expected to have every technical answer. You will be expected to create clarity, surface risk early, and help teams converge on smart, defensible decisions.

This is not a pure software product role, and it is not a coordinator role. It is a hands-on product leadership role for someone who has worked close to engineering delivery and understands what it takes to move physical products through design, validation, manufacturing, regulatory, and support realities.

What You’ll Do

As a Technical Product Manager, you will own product definition and technical product direction across hardware-driven development projects.

Your work will include:

• Leading discovery with clients and internal teams to understand product goals, user needs, business drivers, constraints, risks, scope, and phase deliverables.


• Owning product roadmaps and technical product direction that balance client priorities, engineering realities, regulatory expectations, manufacturability, serviceability, and commercial value.


• Translating ambiguous client needs into clear product requirements, technical specifications, acceptance criteria, decision records, and project deliverables.


• Guiding projects through Tangent’s product development framework, from discovery and concept selection through detailed design, prototyping, verification, manufacturing readiness, commercialization, service, and support.


• Working closely with mechanical, electrical, firmware, software, industrial design, quality, operations, manufacturing, and regulatory teams.


• Partnering with project managers and discipline leads to align technical priorities with schedules, budgets, resourcing, risks, blockers, and client commitments.


• Facilitating design reviews and product decision points, including peer reviews, discipline-specific reviews, system-level reviews, risk reviews, and design transfer readiness.


• Creating and maintaining product documentation, including requirements, traceability, quality management inputs, test and validation expectations, project reports, and phase-gate deliverables.


• Helping ensure project work aligns with relevant standards, including ISO 9001, ISO 13485, ISO 27001, and applicable regulatory expectations.


• Identifying technical and product risks early, framing trade-offs clearly, and supporting client conversations around scope, cost, schedule, performance, quality, and approvals.


• Working with project management, CRM, and business development to identify follow-on opportunities and turn product roadmaps into credible future project proposals.


• Contributing technical analysis, engineering judgment, or discipline-specific work when it helps move the product forward.

What Strong Candidates Will Bring

• A bachelor’s degree in engineering, such as Mechanical, Electrical, Computer, Systems, or a related discipline, or an equivalent technical background.


• 5+ years of experience in engineering, technical product management, product development, systems engineering, technical project delivery, or a related hardware product role.


• Eng is preferred.


• Experience helping physical products move through uncertainty, technical definition, design, prototype builds, testing, manufacturing readiness, and support.


• Strong product judgement, including the ability to make trade-offs across performance, cost, schedule, usability, regulatory constraints, manufacturability, reliability, and serviceability.


• The ability to write clear requirements, specifications, acceptance criteria, decision records, technical documentation, and client-facing deliverables.


• Comfort working across mechanical, electrical, firmware, software, industrial design, quality, operations, manufacturing, and regulatory functions.


• Familiarity with quality systems, regulated environments, or standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 13485, ISO 27001, or similar.


• Exposure to regulated industries such as medical devices, industrial controls, oil and gas, or similarly technical environments.


• Understanding of design reviews, technical risk, requirements traceability, and product development decision-making.


• Exposure to DFx principles, including design for manufacturing, testability, serviceability, or reliability.


• Excellent communication skills, sound technical judgment, and the confidence to create clarity without pretending every answer is obvious.

What We’ll Want to Learn in the Interview

We’ll be curious about how you think, how you communicate, and how you help technical teams make strong product decisions.

Expect to talk about:

• How you take an ambiguous product idea and move it toward technical clarity, validation, and manufacturing readiness.


• Your experience with discovery, requirements, concept development, detailed design, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing readiness.


• The design reviews you believe are critical during product development.


• How you work with mechanical, electrical, firmware, software, quality, and regulatory teams.


• A project where you turned a client need, user problem, or business goal into clear technical product direction.


• How you manage scope, trade-offs, risk, and client expectations.


• How you communicate when something is unclear, delayed, over budget, or technically messy.


• Your experience in regulated or quality-driven environments.


• How you balance innovation, accountability, client service, and teamwork when projects get complicated.

Why This Role Is Worth Your Attention

• A base salary of $115,000 to $140,000, based on experience.


• Health and dental benefits.


• Meaningful ownership over real product direction, not just task tracking or roadmap maintenance.


• Values-based culture: Innovation, Accountability, Client Service, and Teamwork.


• Hands-on exposure to technically interesting products from early uncertainty through engineering definition, prototype builds, validation, manufacturing readiness, and support.


• Direct client exposure and the opportunity to influence both technical decisions and future product phases.


• A team of practical engineers who value quality, clear thinking, technical depth, and doing the work properly.


• A collaborative environment that values problem-solving, quality, wellness, and getting the details right.


• The chance to help clients build products that are meaningful, practical, technically challenging, and intended to survive contact with the real world.

How to Apply

If you’re a technical product leader who understands hardware, likes working close to engineering teams, and knows that great products need more than a polished roadmap, we’d love to hear from you.

Please apply by uploading your resume online. We thank all applicants for their interest. While we appreciate every application, only candidates whose qualifications closely align with the role will be contacted.