Senior Technical Product Manager (Navigation)
Tokyo Office
Product /
Full-time /
Hybrid
Our Mission:
Driving technology always feels old. Not by a little bit. We believe vehicles can be a thousand times smarter, safer, and more connected to the world around us, and our mission is to see it happen. In 2019, we joined forces with Honda as their first startup acquisition, and now we’re expanding our vision into building the future of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and internal combustion engine vehicles (ICE) for millions of people around the world.
Why Drivemode:
Join Drivemode for an exciting startup environment and a vibrant culture that combines impactful work, competitive compensation, and excellent benefits. By becoming a part of our team, you'll contribute to a crucial mission that revolutionizes the way people engage with vehicles, addressing both business needs and the world's environmental challenges. This presents an exceptional opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation and drive Honda's success in the connected software.
About the Role:
You will own the end-to-end navigation experience for 2-wheel riders, shaping a product that is accurate, intuitive, and differentiated in the market. This includes collaborating closely with internal teams (engineering, design, QA, and product management) and external partners (Honda stakeholders, map data and service providers, positioning and navigation consultants, hardware suppliers). You will be responsible for ensuring our navigation product delivers precise positioning, a rider-friendly and engaging UI, and a fast, reliable UX. Beyond near-term feature delivery, you will also define and drive a clear long-term vision that sets our navigation product apart from competitors.
What you will do:
- Navigation & positioning expertise – Apply knowledge of map-matching, dead reckoning, GPS quality, IMU/sensor fusion, and map construction to guide product direction and evaluate solutions.
- Testing & validation – Design and oversee vehicle setups and data collection environments to assess positioning accuracy, reliability, and performance.
- Vendor & partner collaboration – Work with Honda stakeholders, map providers (e.g., ZDC, Mapbox), hardware vendors, and navigation consultants to resolve product issues and identify opportunities.
- Data pipelines – Partner with engineering to define ingestion and processing strategies using mass telemetry data to improve accuracy and reliability.
- Success metrics – Define KPIs for accuracy, latency, coverage, and UX reliability, ensuring analytics are in place to measure progress.
- Requirements & documentation – Translate technical needs into clear requirements, trade-offs, and decision artifacts for internal and external stakeholders.
- Roadmap ownership – Build and maintain at least a 1-year navigation roadmap that balances near-term delivery with long-term product vision.
- Stakeholder communication – Translate complex technical details into clear, non-technical language.
What we are looking for:
- 5+ years of experience in navigation, positioning, geospatial systems, or related technical domains (e.g., GPS, IMU, sensor fusion, map construction).
- Hands-on technical expertise in map-matching, dead reckoning, positioning quality, and navigation algorithms, with experience working with map/data providers (e.g., ZDC, Mapbox, HERE, TomTom, OpenStreetMap) and ability to engage vendors at a technical level.
- Experience collecting and using data to evaluate navigation performance, including setting up test environments or processes that generate the evidence needed to improve product accuracy and reliability.
- Systems thinking and strategic mindset to make the right trade-off decisions and build a prioritized 1-year backlog and roadmap that align with broader product and business goals.
- Strong communication skills to translate technical details into non-technical terms and present evidence of product performance using data.
- Proven stakeholder management with cross-functional teams (engineering, QA, design) and external partners.
- Proficiency in business-level Japanese for stakeholder interactions and conversational or higher English for effective collaboration with internal engineering teams.
Nice to have:
- Background in engineering, computer science, or systems/business analysis (or equivalent technical experience).
- Working knowledge of Agile and iterative release process.
- Motorcycle license, preferred but not required.
EEOC Statement: Drivemode is proud of a very diverse team with employees coming from 5 continents as of today. Diversity in our workplace has played an important part in our success; we recognize each employee’s unique background, knowledge, experiences, ideas, and viewpoints which are all critical in developing a product that has the greatest impacts on drivers all over the world. Drivemode provides equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other characteristics that make you unique.
