Chief Product Officer - Arctic Research & Development

Published 21 January 2026 · Source: Personal/Job-Hunting/arcticrd-cpo.md

Chief Product Officer - Arctic Research & Development

Company Overview

Arctic Research & Development (ARD) builds mission-critical technology for the world’s most extreme operating environment - the Arctic. Founded in 2025 by record-breaking polar explorer Ben Saunders, ARD operates at the intersection of autonomy, climate resilience, and national security.

  • Website: arcticrd.com
  • Location: Gloucestershire, UK + Arctic field operations
  • Stage: Early-stage (15-25 employees)
  • Industry: Defence and Space Manufacturing
  • Customers: Government agencies, research institutions, logistics companies, energy firms

What ARD Builds

  • Software designed for Arctic conditions and autonomous operations
  • Hardware engineered for months of extreme cold and darkness
  • Operational frameworks built on decades of polar experience

Leadership

Ben Saunders (CEO/Co-founder) holds the record for the longest human-powered polar journey in history (2,888 km) and has skied more than 6,000 km on polar expeditions. His TED talks have been viewed over 5 million times.

The Role

As Chief Product Officer, you will define and execute ARD’s product strategy during a critical growth phase. This is a founding-level product leadership role - you’ll build the product function from the ground up while shaping technology that operates where few others can.

Why This Role Exists

ARD has moved beyond pure R&D - with one product already in active field trials and a growing team of 15-25. The company needs a product leader who can:

  • Scale from first product in trials to a broader product portfolio
  • Translate an ambitious vision into a repeatable product roadmap
  • Build product management capability as the company grows
  • Navigate the complexities of government, defence, telecoms, and energy sector customers
  • Capture learnings from field trials and feed them back into product development

Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Vision

  • Define the multi-year product roadmap spanning software platforms, hardware systems, and integrated solutions
  • Prioritise ruthlessly given resource constraints of an early-stage company
  • Balance commercial opportunities against R&D investment in foundational technology
  • Identify adjacent markets and expansion opportunities beyond initial customer segments

Customer & Market Development

  • Develop deep understanding of government, defence, research, and energy customer needs
  • Own the voice of customer - translate field requirements into product specifications
  • Work with sales/BD to shape proposals, RFPs, and pilot programmes
  • Build relationships with key stakeholders in target organisations

Product Development Leadership

  • Lead the full product lifecycle: discovery, definition, development, deployment, iteration
  • Establish product management practices appropriate for hardware+software products
  • Define success metrics and build systems to measure product-market fit
  • Own the prioritisation framework balancing customer requests, technical debt, and innovation

Team Building

  • Build and lead the product management function as the company scales
  • Hire product managers with relevant domain expertise (defence, autonomy, hardware)
  • Foster collaboration between engineering, field operations, and commercial teams
  • Create documentation and processes that scale with the organisation

Cross-Functional Collaboration

  • Partner with Engineering on technical feasibility and architecture decisions
  • Work with Field Operations to ensure products perform in real Arctic conditions
  • Collaborate with BD/Sales on go-to-market strategy and customer success
  • Support the CEO with investor communications and strategic planning

Candidate Profile

Essential Experience

  • 10+ years in product leadership with at least 5 years at senior/executive level
  • Hardware+software product experience - ideally integrated systems, not pure SaaS
  • Government/defence sector exposure - understanding of procurement cycles, security requirements, and stakeholder complexity
  • Deep-tech or R&D-intensive environments - comfort with technical ambiguity and long development cycles
  • Early-stage company experience - ability to operate with limited resources and ambiguity

Highly Desirable

  • Background in autonomy, robotics, or sensor systems
  • Experience with extreme environment operations (offshore, space, polar, military)
  • Understanding of climate/earth observation technology
  • Security clearance eligibility (UK SC/DV or equivalent)
  • Exposure to dual-use technology (civil/defence applications)

Personal Qualities

  • Field-ready mindset - willing to deploy to Arctic conditions to understand product reality
  • Systems thinker - can connect hardware constraints, software capabilities, and customer outcomes
  • Comfortable with ambiguity - thrives when the playbook hasn’t been written yet
  • Mission-driven - genuinely motivated by climate resilience and frontier technology
  • Credible with technical teams - can earn respect of engineers without being an engineer

What Makes This Role Unique

  1. True frontier technology - Building for conditions where most technology fails
  2. Founding-level impact - Shape the product function as the company scales
  3. Mission alignment - Climate resilience and national security are core, not CSR
  4. Expedition culture - A CEO who has literally walked to both poles
  5. Real-world validation - First product already in active field trials, not vapourware

Compensation & Logistics

  • Location: UK-based with likely significant Arctic travel
  • Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity (early-stage upside)
  • Benefits: Field deployment support, expedition-grade gear, flexible working
  • Security: Role will likely soon require UK security clearance

Research Sources

Created: 2026-01-21