---
title: 'Senior Product Manager  - Audio Interface Hardware & Software at Universal Audio'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-manager-audio-interface-hardware-software-universal-audio-6k1k2gpzb6cs'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Senior Product Manager  - Audio Interface Hardware & Software at Universal Audio

- **Company:** Universal Audio
- **Location:** Domestic, United States / Scotts Valley, CA
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-08-20
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/universalaudio/jobs/4725924005

## Job description

Department: Product Management

Reports to: Director of Product Management (Hardware)

Location: Scotts Valley, CA or Remote (United States)

We are hiring for a Senior Product Manager.  This is a dual-mandate role, and both halves are equally weighted. Roughly half your time is spent as the Product Owner of a dedicated Agile software team — you own its backlog, write its specifications, and are accountable for what it ships and when. The other half is spent as the Senior Product Manager for a line of professional audio interface hardware — you own the roadmap, the business case, and the launch.

These are not two jobs bolted together. The software team you run exists largely to support the hardware you define, so the person in this seat is the single point where hardware requirements become software commitments with real dates attached. We are looking for someone who is as comfortable ranking a sprint backlog and reproducing a driver bug on a nightly build as they are presenting a BOM cost trade-off to leadership.

We are open to candidates in the United States.  Candidates located in commutable distance to our HQ, Scotts Valley, CA are a plus.

## Responsibilities

Product Owner for an Agile software team (~50%)

- Backlog and sprint ownership — You are the single accountable owner of one scrum team's backlog: you rank it, keep it groomed, and decide what enters a sprint. Ambiguous or under-specified work stops with you, not the engineers. You run the product side of two-week sprints — planning, mid-sprint review, refinement, demo — and partner with the Scrum Master and Engineering Manager on capacity and sprint goals that survive contact with parallel initiatives.
- Specifications and acceptance criteria — Translate hardware and business requirements into written software specifications detailed enough for an engineer to build from and QA to test against, decomposed into initiatives, epics, and sprint-ready stories. Every spec goes to the software architect and QA leads before development starts, and every story has agreed-upon acceptance criteria. This is a requirement, not a nice-to-have.
- Software delivery schedules tied to hardware milestones — Given a hardware ship date, work with the Project Manager to determine what part of the software stack must deliver which functionality and by when, across application, driver, firmware, and DSP disciplines. Publish and defend feature-complete, beta, release-candidate, and release-to-marketing dates.
- Bug triage and release management — Own defect priority: write reproducible bug reports yourself, decide what blocks a beta or release, and make the go/no-go call with QA and engineering. Own the release plan and its artifacts — release notes, known-issues lists, compatibility test matrices, and documentation handoffs to Customer Care and Technical Publications.
- Prioritization and instrumentation — Maintain an explicit, defensible method (e.g. WSJF) for weighing stability, performance, tech debt, and customer-care-driven fixes against new feature work. Define the analytics events and reporting needed to know whether a feature is actually being adopted, act on what the data shows, and work with the Data team to keep that pipeline scalable for future releases.

Senior Product Manager, audio interface hardware (~50%)

- Product requirements — Author complete requirement sets spanning hardware, mechanical, electrical and audio specification, connectivity, driver support, software behavior, packaging, and documentation.
- Supply, lifecycle, and vendor management — Track component lifecycle and last-time-buy exposure, drive cost-down opportunities, and plan transitions before availability forces them. Manage the product relationship with silicon and driver vendors, technology partners, and contract manufacturers, including requirements, schedules, and license terms.
- Customer discovery and go-to-market — Run research with working professionals and enthusiasts, and own the activation and onboarding funnel — where new users get lost or disengage, and how you fix it. Partner with commercial, marketing, sales, and operations on SKU structure, pricing, bundling, launch readiness, channel and inventory planning, and EOL execution.

## Qualifications

- Demonstrated Product Owner experience on a scrum team — not "worked with Agile teams," but personally owned a backlog, has written the stories, run the ceremonies, and been accountable for the release. Expect to be asked for specifics.
- Technical fluency sufficient to hold your own with systems engineers: operating-system-level device drivers, firmware, installers and software deployment, high-speed connectivity (USB, Thunderbolt, networked audio), and licensing or entitlement systems. You do not need to write the code; you do need to understand the trade-offs and ask the right questions.
- Hands-on by instinct — you install the nightly build, reproduce the bug, read the installer log, and run the test pass yourself when it matters. Candidates who manage exclusively through documents will not be successful here.
- Excellent written communication. Most of your output is written specifications, and their precision directly determines what gets built.
- Power-user command of Jira and Confluence (or close equivalents), including plans, filters, dashboards, and reporting.
- Proven ability to make decisions and hold a schedule in ambiguous, multi-stakeholder situations.
- Fluency in music production and audio recording — you are a musician, engineer, or producer, and you use this class of product yourself.
- Willingness to travel occasionally, including to trade shows and manufacturing partners.

## Preferred

- Experience with a major platform or driver architecture migration and its long tail of installation and compatibility edge cases.
- Analytics instrumentation experience — defining event schemas and using product data to drive prioritization.
- Experience working with overseas contract manufacturers through DVT and mass production.
- Go-to-market, retail, or e-commerce experience.

Education and Experience

- 5+ years of product management experience shipping consumer or professional hardware and the software that drives it.
- Bachelor’s Degree (or equivalent experience).

UA Salary Range of Pay:  $145,000 - $155,000

Base salary pay will be based on the cost of labor for the city/state in which the new hire resides, at the time of hire.

UA offers competitive benefits:  Profit sharing, Medical/Dental/Vision, 401K Safe Harbor Contribution, Stock Options, Flexible time-off (PTO/Sick Leave/Company Holiday Time-off), etc.

UA Mission:  We exist to thrill and inspire music makers everywhere with timeless sound and impeccable craftsmanship, freeing the songs inside and allowing you to sound like the records you love.

UA Vision:  In the future, music makers around the world will trust Universal Audio as a friend and creative partner, inspiring them to craft amazing records as naturally as playing their first instrument or singing their favorite song. The best home, project, and professional studios will feature most of the UA equipment from floor to ceiling — ranging from audio interfaces and guitar gear to microphones and software — all of it working together to deliver unrivaled sonics and operational symphony. Our customers will eagerly await each new UA product like a hit record or blockbuster movie, trusting that it may spark them to create the best music of their lives. In doing so, UA will become revered worldwide as the way that music is made.

Universal Audio is an equal employment opportunity employer. Our policy is not to discriminate against any applicant or employee based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, mental or physical disability, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law. UA also prohibits harassment of applicants or employees based on these protected categories.

## About Universal Audio

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Universal Audio designs and manufactures professional audio interfaces, analog hardware, and DSP-powered UAD plug-in software for music recording and production.
- **Entity Type**: Private
- **Headquarters**: Scotts Valley, California, USA
- **Founded**: 1958 (as a studio equipment brand; re-founded in its modern form by Bill Putnam Jr. in the late 1990s)
- **Founders**: Bill Putnam (original founder of the brand); Bill Putnam Jr. (modern era)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Professional Audio Equipment & Software (Music Technology)
- **Target customers**: Musicians, recording engineers, producers, sound designers, and audio post-production professionals (B2C and B2B)
- **Mission statement**: "To thrill and inspire music makers everywhere with timeless sound, allowing you to free the songs inside you and sound like the records you love."

## Products & Services
- **UAD Audio Interfaces**: Hardware devices (e.g., Apollo, Volt series) that combine high-quality analog conversion with real-time UAD DSP processing for low-latency recording.
- **UAD Plug-Ins**: A vast library of software emulations of classic analog hardware (compressors, EQs, reverbs, preamps) that run on UAD DSP hardware or natively.
- **Analog Hardware**: Reissues and modern versions of classic analog studio gear (e.g., 1176 compressors, LA-2A, Teletronix) built under license from original brands.
- **UAD Spark**: A subscription service offering native (hardware-free) access to a selection of UAD plug-ins.
- **LUNA Recording System**: A free, deep-integration DAW (digital audio workstation) designed specifically for Apollo interfaces, offering tape-style recording and summing.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed (private company).
- **Key Metric**: Estimated annual revenue in the hundreds of millions; widely considered the market leader in high-end audio interfaces and DSP plug-in ecosystems for project and professional studios.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly disclosed; company is independently owned.
- **Growth Signals**: Strong brand loyalty with a passionate customer base; continuous product line expansion (Volt interfaces, UAD Spark subscription); ongoing hiring across engineering, product, and sales roles.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Brand Legacy & Trust**: Over 60 years of heritage in audio recording, with a reputation for craftsmanship and authentic analog emulation.
- **Ecosystem Lock-In**: Deep integration between Apollo hardware, UAD plug-ins, and LUNA DAW creates a sticky, high-performance workflow for users.
- **DSP Technology**: Proprietary real-time DSP processing in hardware interfaces enables near-zero latency monitoring with plug-ins, a key differentiator.
- **Authentic Analog Emulation**: Licenses and meticulously recreates iconic vintage gear (e.g., Neve, API, SSL) that professionals trust.

## Strategic Focus
- **Hybrid Hardware/Software**: Continuing to bridge analog authenticity with modern digital convenience (e.g., native plug-ins, subscription models).
- **Expanding Accessibility**: Growing the user base beyond high-end professionals with more affordable hardware (Volt series) and software subscriptions (UAD Spark).
- **Deepening the Ecosystem**: Enhancing the LUNA DAW and integrating it more tightly with Apollo hardware to offer a complete recording solution.
- **Talent Acquisition**: Actively hiring software, hardware, and algorithm engineers to maintain technical leadership.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Emphasizes creativity, kindness, learning, and craftsmanship. Described as a place where "super quality" people work and contribute to a "special" mission.
- **Remote/Hybrid**: Offers remote positions (domestic USA and Europe) as well as on-site roles at the Scotts Valley, California headquarters.
- **Benefits**: Includes healthcare benefits, 401(k) plan, flexible paid time off, bonus incentives, learning & development opportunities, and a focus on music & wellness.
- **Engineering Focus**: Actively seeking Senior Software Engineers, Principal Hardware Engineers, Principal Algorithm Engineers, and Quality Engineering Managers — a strong signal of deep technical investment.
- **Diversity & Inclusion**: Committed to equal employment opportunity and creating an inclusive environment for all applicants and employees.

## Sources
1. [uaudio.com](https://www.uaudio.com/pages/careers)
2. [uaudio.com](https://www.uaudio.com/pages/about)
3. [uaudio.com](https://www.uaudio.com/)
4. [job-boards.greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/universalaudio)
5. [job-boards.greenhouse.io](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/universalaudio?gh_src=be2e56a55us)

## Other roles at Universal Audio

- [Director of Procurement and Strategic Sourcing](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-procurement-and-strategic-sourcing-universal-audio-domestic-vdjgrdzn4158) — Domestic, United States / Scotts Valley, CA
- [Executive Administrative Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-administrative-assistant-universal-audio-scotts-valley-pyx6fz1f5n9x) — Scotts Valley, CA
- [Senior Software Product Marketing Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-product-marketing-manager-universal-audio-domestic-45bdc7ct3xed) — Domestic, United States / Scotts Valley, CA
- [Manager, Business Systems (Finance)](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-business-systems-finance-universal-audio-scotts-valley-8c9n1anta8b6) — Scotts Valley, CA