Product Manager, Network Platform

About this role

Product Manager, Network Platform

Reports to: Head of Product | Peer Partner: Engineering leadership (Network, Software, and Systems Engineering) Location: Goleta, CA (local preferred); hybrid with regular travel considered

Job Overview

The Product Manager, Network Platform owns the product strategy, roadmap, and requirements for the Network connectivity that makes remote robotic surgery possible. You will turn clinical, customer, and regulatory needs into clear network product requirements: latency and jitter budgets, availability targets, security posture, and deployment models for hospitals worldwide.

You will work as a peer and close partner to Sovato’s Engineering leadership, including the Director of Network Engineering and the leaders of Software Engineering. Engineering owns how the platform is designed, built, and operated; you own why and what: the problems worth solving, the priorities, and the definition of success. Together you will deliver a network platform that surgeons, hospital IT teams, and patients can trust.

This role suits a product manager who has worked closely with networking products, customers, or teams, and understands how networks behave in the real world. You don’t need to have been a network engineer, but you should be comfortable discussing SD-WAN, routing, cloud connectivity, and security with engineers and customers. You will collaborate daily with Engineering, Operations, Clinical, Quality/Regulatory, and Executive teams.

Primary Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Roadmap

• Own the multi-year vision and roadmap for Sovato’s global surgical network platform
• Define product requirements for SD-WAN, VXLAN, Cloud connectivity, edge/site deployments, and network security• Set measurable targets for latency, jitter, packet loss, failover time, and availability that support safe remote surgery
• Prioritize the backlog across customer commitments, platform reliability, security, and cost
• Track the market (SD-WAN, SASE, 5G/private cellular, LEO satellite, cloud networking) and translate trends into roadmap bets

Customer & Clinical Discovery

• Engage hospital IT, network, and security teams to understand their environments, constraints, and approval processes
• Work with surgeons and clinical staff to translate the procedure experience into network requirements
• Capture site-readiness needs and turn them into repeatable onboarding standards and checklists
• Represent the network platform in customer engagements, technical deep dives, and security reviews

Requirements & Delivery (with Engineering)

• Write clear PRDs, user stories, and acceptance criteria that Network and Software Engineering can build against
• Partner with Engineering leadership, including Network Engineering, on architecture trade-offs, build-vs-buy decisions, and release planning
• Define the product experience for network monitoring, observability, and self-service tooling
• Drive launches and deployments from requirements through validation, pilot, and general availability

Vendor & Ecosystem Management

• Evaluate carriers, SD-WAN, security, and cloud networking vendors (e.g., Fortinet, Arista, AWS against product requirements
• Align vendor roadmaps with Sovato’s needs and influence partners’ feature priorities
• Support commercial decisions on connectivity costs, bandwidth tiers, and service levels

Reliability, Metrics & SLAs

• Define the product KPIs and customer-facing SLAs for network performance and uptime
• Partner with Operations on incident reviews and turn learnings into roadmap items
• Build dashboards and reporting that show network health to internal teams and customers

Compliance, Security & Documentation

• Ensure network requirements meet healthcare security and privacy obligations (e.g., HIPAA) and medical device expectations
• Work with Quality/Regulatory on design controls, traceability, and documentation within the

QMS

• Own product documentation: requirements, release notes, customer network guides, and site-prep specs

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 5+ years in product management, ideally for networking, security, connectivity, or infrastructure products (e.g., at Fortinet, Cisco, Arista, Juniper, Palo Alto Networks, or a service provider)
• Background in or alongside networking, such as product management, solutions or sales engineering, technical program management, or network operations; hands-on engineering experience is a plus, not a requirement
• Track record of taking technical products or features from concept through launch
• Experience with products that must be highly available and perform reliably
• Experience working with geographically distributed engineering and customer teams

Networking Knowledge

• Working experience with the following, enough to understand customer needs, weigh trade-offs, and hold credible conversations with engineers:
• How networks work end to end (TCP/IP, the OSI model)
• SD-WAN (Fortinet SD-WAN preferred; Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN or others valued)
• Routing and WAN connectivity (e.g., BGP, OSPF, MPLS, VPN)
• Network performance: what latency, jitter, and packet loss mean for real-time video and control traffic
• Cloud networking, ideally AWS
• Network security basics: firewalls, segmentation, zero trust, secure access
• Network vendors and platforms such as Fortinet and Arista
• Network monitoring, observability, and automation concepts

Product Competencies

• Excellent written requirements: PRDs, user stories, and acceptance criteria
• Data-driven prioritization using customer input, telemetry, and business impact
• Comfort with ambiguity in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Business, or equivalent experience

Leadership Competencies

• Leads through influence: aligns Engineering, Operations, Clinical, and Sales around shared priorities without direct authority
• Excellent written, verbal, and executive communication; explains technical trade-offs clearly to engineers, hospital executives, and clinicians
• Sets a clear vision and connects day-to-day work to Sovato’s mission and patient outcomes
• Makes sound, timely decisions with incomplete information and owns the results
• Builds trusted partnerships with Engineering leadership, customers, and vendors
• Drives accountability for commitments, timelines, and quality across teams
• Handles competing priorities and disagreement constructively, escalating when needed
• Models a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement

Preferred Qualifications

• Healthcare, medical device, life sciences, or other regulated-industry experience
• Product experience with real-time or latency-sensitive systems (video, robotics, telemetry, industrial control)
• Exposure to SASE, 5G/private cellular, or LEO satellite connectivity as primary or backup transport
• Kubernetes and container networking knowledge
• FortiAuthenticator and 802.1X authentication architecture experience
• Familiarity with Quality Management Systems (QMS), design controls, and IEC 62304 / ISO 13485 concepts
• Networking certifications such as Fortinet NSE 4–7, CCNP/CCIE, JNCIP, or AWS Advanced Networking Specialty

Why Join Sovato?

• Shape the future of surgery by enabling remote access to life-saving care.
• Be part of a pioneering team at the intersection of healthcare and technology.
• Competitive compensation and benefits package, including medical, dental, vision coverage, and travel opportunities.

Environmental ConditionsSovato is an equal opportunity employer & prohibits unlawful discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin/ancestry, age, disability, marital & veteran status. Because being on a Sovato product team requires visits to health care providers, some vaccinations may be required to fulfill your work here.

About Sovato Sovato is a team of healthcare leaders, innovators, and clinicians passionate about shaping the future of surgery. We are fueled by a profound mission to create unprecedented access to high-quality surgical care, delivering scarce surgical resources to new markets and new patients—transcending the geographic boundaries that exist with surgery today.

Advancements in enabling technology, such as robotic surgical systems, virtual care, and the global telecommunication infrastructure, offer a unique moment in time to deliver remote robotic surgery. For patients, remote surgery creates ample access to the right surgeon, the right care and at an affordable price, driving consumer choice and decreasing the need for travel and delayed care. For healthcare systems and organizations, Sovato offers a novel solution to optimize clinical capacity, capture new surgical revenue, and create greater access to high-quality surgical care for all.

Remote surgery will forever change how surgery is received, delivered, and accessed. Our comprehensive solution brings together the people, systems, tools, and data in an integrated ecosystem––addressing the full scale of requirements to ensure a safe, scalable, and sustainable remote surgery program. The Sovato platform will manage every facet of the surgical journey from coordination, communication, connectivity, and system integrations when the patient is not in the same location as the surgeon––from the point of referral to surgery all the way through post-op care. Sovato offers a competitive benefit package including medical, dental and vision coverage and a 401k.