Staff Technical Program Manager

About the Role:

The Technical Program Management (TPM) staff is a close-knit team with broad experience across robotics/AI including self-driving cars, government robotics, startups, and commercial robot deployments. Led by a former founder of a successful robotics company, the team is passionate about partnering with technical teams to launch AI and autonomy products by leading cross-functional internal and external workstreams.  These workstreams are the backbone of Stack’s forward progress as a company.  This is a chance to work with industry leaders taking self-driving trucks to commercial scale.

Responsibilities:

• Partner with technical leads to manage end to end workstreams for the core autonomy capabilities and the tools and infrastructure that support driverless operations. 
• Develop a detailed tactical schedule as well as high level long term plans for the workstreams assigned balancing execution to the current priority needs while making progress towards the long term vision.
• Keep granular track of and report on the progress toward product milestones.  Ask tough questions to keep the team focused and on track.
• Identify bottlenecks / limitations in team deliverables and partner closely with cross functional teams on any dependencies to architect solutions.
• Maintain and track risks as well as uncertainties and develop contingency plans to ensure the workstreams do not stall. Be prepared to handle multiple workstreams as part of your scope (adjusted by level hired).
• Drive teams to understand scope and schedule details to accomplish demanding timelines efficiently.
• Constantly evaluate tradeoffs that need to be made in a resource constrained environment, and flag issues where a decision is required. Facilitate buy in across teams and make recommendations when needed to get the team out of a stalemate.
• Develop relationships with your cross functional stakeholders that will allow you to push on a technical path forward as needed through constructive discussions and brainstorming.
• Report out on behalf of the workstreams assigned in various forums e.g. standups, exec reviews, all hands etc. Help the teams pull together relevant information needed to present to the broader org from time to time.
• Work with leadership on engineering process improvements.
• Dive into new technical areas, learn the lingo, and fill leadership and process gaps as discovered to promote project success.

Qualifications: 

• Strong experience as a hands on engineer prior to becoming a TPM in automotive, aerospace, or other appropriate technology domain.  Self-driving and robotics experience is NOT required.
• Understanding of complex systems integration in one or more domains mentioned above. Able to adapt and learn new technologies quickly.
• Familiarity with standard TPM tooling like JIRA, Google Slides, Sheets or equivalent.
• Familiarity with typical SW development lifecycles.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills to build trusting relationships across all levels and departments. 
• Hyper organized mindset with an acute focus on details required. Must bring structure to where there is not.
• Must be able to listen to complex discussions and accurately summarize the conclusions and action items.

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