Sr. Product Manager – Product Innovation

SanDisk’s Product Innovation Team operates at the front end of product innovation—identifying emerging technology opportunities and transforming them into validated product concepts ready for incubation within Product, Engineering, and Go-To-Market (GTM) teams. As the Director of Product Management for Product Innovation, you will lead the innovation portfolio and operating rhythm that converts emerging technologies and consumer insights into evidence-backed product opportunities. You will guide concepts from early exploration through incubation readiness by combining consumer insight, technical experimentation, ecosystem collaboration, and rapid prototyping.

Responsibilities

Define and maintain the innovation roadmap and concept pipeline aligned with long-term company growth priorities; Identify emerging technology opportunities and frame them into clear product opportunity areas and concept briefs; Establish disciplined entry/exit criteria and evidence thresholds to prioritize, advance, pivot, or terminate concepts; Partner with research teams to identify unmet consumer needs and emerging use cases through qualitative and quantitative research; Translate insights into testable hypotheses, product strategies, and value propositions; Define measurement frameworks and success criteria for concept validation; Define early product requirements (PRD-Lite), user journeys, and architectural direction; Lead cross-functional prototyping efforts with Engineering and Technical Applications Engineering to validate desirability, feasibility, and viability; Produce technical proof points and working prototypes that demonstrate differentiation and system feasibility; Collaborate with technology partners including platform providers, silicon vendors, startups, and ODMs to explore joint innovation opportunities; Evaluate emerging standards, interfaces, and platform ecosystems that could shape future product architectures; Identify partnerships or technology opportunities that accelerate time-to-market and differentiation; Develop decision-ready incubation packages including value proposition, early product requirements, GTM hypotheses, user journeys, and risk analysis; Lead concept reviews and executive discussions to guide incubation decisions; Ensure clean handoffs into Product, Engineering, and GTM teams for development and commercialization; Lead cross-functional discovery sprints and innovation programs across engineering, design, and product teams; Establish operating mechanisms that accelerate learning cycles and reduce uncertainty; Foster a culture of experimentation and evidence-based decision making

Requirements

10+ years of experience in product management, innovation, or systems architecture within consumer electronics, storage, semiconductor, or related industries; Proven experience leading early-stage product discovery, concept development, and feasibility validation; Strong system-level understanding of technologies such as embedded systems, storage, wireless connectivity, sensors, edge AI, or spatial computing platforms; Experience collaborating with engineering, industrial design, UX/UI, and ecosystem partners to develop new product concepts; Ability to drive structured experimentation from concept hypothesis through prototype validation; Strong strategic thinking and ability to translate technology trends into product opportunities; Excellent communication and storytelling skills with the ability to present innovation concepts and recommendations to executive leadership; Experience leading product managers or cross-functional innovation teams

Nice to have

Familiarity with Edge AI frameworks, wearable platforms, wireless protocols, or AR/VR ecosystems; Experience working in innovation labs, advanced development teams, or incubation organizations; Background collaborating with industrial design, UX/UI teams, or system architecture groups; Experience evaluating emerging technology ecosystems, startup partnerships, or early-stage technology platforms

Benefits

Eligibility to participate in Sandisk's Short-Term Incentive (STI) Plan; Eligibility to participate in the annual Long-Term Incentive (LTI) program, consisting of restricted stock units (RSUs) or cash equivalents; RSU awards available to eligible new hires; Paid vacation time; Paid sick leave; Medical/dental/vision insurance; Life, accident and disability insurance; Tax-advantaged flexible spending and health savings accounts; Employee assistance program; Voluntary benefit programs such as supplemental life and AD&D, legal plan, pet insurance, critical illness, accident and hospital indemnity; Tuition reimbursement; Transit; Applause Program; Employee stock purchase plan; Sandisk's Savings 401(k) Plan