Executive Search

DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

CONDUCTED BY

MALINHUGHES
COMPANY OVERVIEW

Headquartered in Kitchener, ON, Canada, Avidbots is a full-stack robotics company that designs
and manufactures all aspects of their hardware and software solutions. Their flagship product
is a robot named Neo - an autonomous floor scrubbing robot designed to clean hard surface
floors with minimal human intervention. Avidbots offers comprehensive sales, service and
support to their customers on four continents. Avidbots is bringing robots to everyday life in an
effort to expand human potential. Their robot, Neo, is widely deployed and trusted by the
world’s leading facility management companies as well as global organizations.

Avidbots’ founders, Pablo Molina and Faizan Sheikh began working on prototypes under their
new company’s name. Before long, they took their operation to a hardware incubator in
downtown Kitchener, where they worked through prototypes that leveraged existing floor
cleaners, including a retrofitted floor scrubber named Scrubby.

Their engineers soon discovered that the best way to create a commercial robotic floor scrubber
was from the ground up, with tightly integrated features and components. Molina and his team
began seeking out the best form factors, cleaning heads, water systems, wheels, batteries, and
other features to build their robot.

Several prototypes and countless late nights later, Neo was born in 2016. Now in its 8th
generation of product design, the Neo commercial floor cleaning machine from Avidbots is
automating cleaning tasks and freeing cleaning staff around the world to focus on more value-
added and higher margin services.

The Avidbots headquarters now sits in its own 40,000-square-foot industrial manufacturing and
R&D space in Kitchener, where it employs more than 140 people. Avidbots’ robotics experts
form a world-class engineering team, training at leading technology institutions such as M.I.T.
and the University of Waterloo.

THE FOUNDERS

Avidbots co-founders, Pablo Molina and Faizan Sheikh were passionate about robotics long
before their days at the University of Waterloo School of Engineering. As children, they were
fascinated by “The Jetsons” and Japanese shows like “Jiban”. But it was not until they graduated
and pursued engineering careers in Ottawa that Molina and Sheikh joined forces to brainstorm
ideas form their own robotics company.
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Years after they first hatched the idea for Neo, Pablo Molina and Faizan Sheikh continue to be
passionate about the future of robotics. The founders and their team at Avidbots are working hard
to bring robots into the real world on an unprecedented scale in order to maximize human
potential at commercial facilities across the globe

Faizan Sheikh

CEO & Co-Founder

Faizan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Avidbots. Faizan has helped develop the Avidbots vision and
mission, and he plays a key role with investors and business partners.

Avidbots’ fearless leader was born in Pakistan and moved to Canada at the age of 14. He graduated
with a Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of
Waterloo. After working on a robotics startup in his final year at Waterloo, Faizan would go on to
found Avidbots in 2014 with Pablo Molina – a classmate and friend from his university
days. Together with Pablo and the team, Faizan has built Avidbots into one of Canada’s fastest
growing robotics companies.

When Faizan isn’t working on all-things Avidbots, he’s a green tea connoisseur, indoor gardening
buff and loves playing board games with family and friends.

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Pablo Molina

Chairman, CTO, VP of Product & Co-Founder

Pablo’s vision is to live in a world where robots and humans work together in everyday life. He
has been building robots since the early days of his undergraduate program at the University of
Waterloo. After graduating with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechatronics Engineering
(+Physics option), Pablo received his Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Carleton
University (Space Robotics). He quickly applied his space robotics know-how working as an
autonomous navigation designer at NepTec Design Group before co-founding Avidbots with
Faizan Sheikh in 2014.

When Pablo isn’t working with robots or thinking about tasks to automate, he enjoys playing
keyboards in music bands, working out, and playing soccer.

VISION AND MISSION

VISION: Avidbots’ vision is to bring robotic solutions into everyday life to increase
organizational productivity and to do that better than any other company in the world.

MISSION: Avidbots’ mission is to create the best robotic solutions in the world, while
growing annually and taking ownership for everything they do.

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POSITION OVERVIEW

DIRECTOR OF PROCUCT DEVELOPMENT

The Avidbots’ product team is in charge of their product roadmap in both of their software and
mechatronics groups. The product team is expanding, and they are in need of a Director of Product
Development to work alongside their product managers in further developing their offerings in a
“player-coach” role.

The ideal candidate has a strong background in hardware-enabled software products (robotics
ideally), bringing products to market in a B2B environment and scaling organizations. They also
enjoy working with people: coaching, and mentoring product owners and managers at all levels.

They are seeking a director to act in a “player-coach” - the director will be an active product
manager in the “add-on” modules program. In addition, the director will act as a “coach” to the
other product managers and help them to further develop in their roles.

The “add-on” program is a developing program that will introduce add-on modules (hardware
extensions) to their Neo platform - the add-ons will extend the services that Neo can provide and
turn it into a multi-application robot platform. This program is early on development and requires
market research, strategic analysis and early discovery to see which add-on opportunity is the
most attractive as well as running an MVP process to test its value and fitness for a new product.
Once the MVP is completed, the NPI stage starts and the product is finally released to the market
(examples of add-ons are Disinfection add-on, among others)

The director will assist the product managers on the quarterly presentations to the rest of the
organization as well as be responsible for performance analysis of our products - win-loss and
product-market-fit analysis.

As they continue to ramp up production, experience in product management for the development
of small/medium scale (less than 1000 units a year) products would be ideal. This individual will
work with the product managers and owners to foster an inclusive, high-performance culture and
enable our team to hit our ambitious goals.

He/she will be working alongside an experienced team of software and robotics engineers and
together revolutionize commercial cleaning and robotics!

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Responsibilities

• Take a “player” role as product manager of their add-on module program (define the
product strategy and roadmap for the add-on products).
• Lead the strategy for market launch, positioning and messaging for the add-on program as
well as tracking the performance of this products in the field to make strategic decision on
the roadmap.
• Ability to work through the entire product life cycle from inception through delivery.
• Ability to prioritize projects
• Act as a coach for the other product managers in the product team who are responsible for
the different sections of our offering (Neo product line, Autonomy, Customer applications
(web and robot GUI)).
• Lead the development of internal communications/presentations to other departments.
• Help with the recruitment of world-class product owners and product managers by
conducting interviews and selecting talent.
• Provide input to product strategy by being heavily involved in product direction discussions.
• Lead win/loss analysis as well as product-market fit analysis for the product portfolio.
• Conduct customer interviews and work closely with customer success team to learn our
customer path and ensure success and satisfaction.
• Roll-out improved product management practices, metrics, and tools while spearheading
their adoption.
• Manage, coach, and mentor the product owners and product managers, and be a role
model for the Avidbots Product team.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Commerce, Engineering or equivalent

• 10+ years of experience working in product management
• 3+ years of experience in managing product teams
• Experience with software and hardware development methodologies
• Strong communication, presentation and leadership skills
• Strong business acumen
• Proven track record of leading products from inception to revenue positive value streams
(experienced full product lifecycle)
• Proven experience in B2B products
• Experience in the robotics industry (ideally mobile robotics)

Ideal Requirements:

• Experience with product management for small-medium scale products (< 1000
units per year).

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 • Demonstrated track record of product excellence and innovation in large
hardware/software development teams.
• Ability to see and drive the “big picture” strategy while also being capable of
providing product and managerial guidance.
• Strong desire to be part of and influence the future of the entire robotics industry.

Nice to Have:

• A passion for robotics and hardware development

• Certified product owner
• Pragmatic marketing certification
• Experience with a hardware product End of Life process

KEY ATTRIBUTES

CUSTOMER CHAMPION: Align the organization around customer centricity. Utilize

data and analytics to deliver superior, personalized customer experiences and
measurable business results.

INNOVATION CATALYST: This individual must be scrappy and entrepreneurial yet

methodical and able to build strategies to achieve the long-term goals of the
organization.

GROWTH DRIVER: Play an instrumental role in creating and managing a plan that
will contribute to stainable, profitable growth. This individual will have experience
building industry leading products.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT: Deep understanding of rapidly changing environments.

This individual will embrace change and works/leads effectively during change. The
ability to pivot in order to stay in front of industry trends.

VISIONARY: Provide insight into the latest strategies, technologies, approaches and tools
that will continue to elevate Avidbots within the highly competitive Robotics industry.

STRATEGIC: Play a leading role in strategy formation within the department. Initiates
and implements measurable strategies that align with the business's revenue goals.

TRUSTED ADVISOR: Understands the unique opportunity of working with senior

leadership; builds close working relationships and is aligned to Avidbots’ values, mission
and vision.

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CULTURE INFLUENCER: Builds credibility and trust across the organization to drive
change by challenging conventional thinking; increase cross functional coordination and
reduce repetition.

THOUGHT LEADER: Is viewed as an industry expert. Brings a deep technical

understanding of cutting-edge technologies and products to the organization. Has the
ability to translate abstract concepts into actionable plans.

CULTURE CHAMPION: Embraces Organic Valley’s Mission, Vision and Core Values.
Works to bring these visions and values to life.

LEADERSHIP AND CAPABILITY BUILDER: Inspires, coaches, and develops individual

and team capabilities by championing strengths and collaboration, aligning teams around
strategies and decisions, and empowering leaders to elevate and inspire their teams, solve
problems, and navigate conflict, all while having fun.

THE OPPORTUNITY

This is an outstanding opportunity for a strong product development professional to make

a significant impact on an industry leading robotics company.

According to the Robotics Industry Association, 2020 saw a surge in robot orders across
many sectors. With the onset of COVID and the lack of highly trained facilities personnel,
Avidbots finds itself in the position of unlimited growth potential.

The Director of Product Development will have a platform to work directly with internal
staff and leadership as well as with external customers. He/she will help develop the
road map of products that will help drive the future growth of the organization as well as
the industry.

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PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand, sit,
talk, hear, and use hands and fingers to operate a computer and telephone along with
reaching. Specific vision abilities include close vision requirements due to computer
work. Moderate noise, ability to work in a confined area, and ability to sit at a computer
for an extended period of time are also included. Ability to effectively communicate and
work in a dynamic environment.

Nothing in this job description restricts our client’s right to assign or reassign duties and
responsibilities to this job at any time. This position description is designed to outline
primary duties, qualifications and job scope, but not limit their employees nor the
organization to just the work identified. It is Avidbot’s expectation that each employee
will offer his/her services wherever and whenever necessary to ensure the success of
the company.

The policy of Avidbots is to hire, train, and promote all persons in all job groups in
accordance with law, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age,
marital or military status, national origin, gender identity, the presence of any sensory,
mental or physical disability, genetic information, or any other status or characteristic
protected by local, state, or federal law.
ABOUT THE SEARCH FIRM MALINHUGHES
MalinHughes is a professional services company that specializes in working with its
valued customers on strategic talent acquisition initiatives. We focus on helping our
clients achieve their growth strategies through the acquisition of critical talent.

MalinHughes goes above and beyond the traditional executive search model with a suite
of services that help its clients address a single or multiple hiring challenges. We believe
that we are here to serve both of our valued customers- our clients and candidates.

CONTACT INFORMATION

This executive search is being conducted by Brad Newpoff, President and Mark Amelio,
Managing Director of MalinHughes. For confidential consideration or to make a referral
please contact Mark Amelio directly at mark@malinhughes.com or his mobile at: 312-
871-9989 or Brad directly at brad@malinhughes.com or his direct line at 312-404-6400.

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NOTES