Technical Program Manager- ML

This role is the connective layer between customer needs, company commitments, and the research and engineering teams building AI/ML systems. You will own the program-level picture across concurrent workstreams, translate customer requirements into prioritized internal work, and serve as the program-level point of contact for customer deployments. You will surface risks and blockers early, run re-prioritization conversations, and build lightweight reporting that engineers will maintain. Reporting to the VP of Perception & AI/ML, you will partner with senior technical leads without directing the technical approach.

Responsibilities

• Own the program-level picture across concurrent research and engineering workstreams: what is in flight, who owns it, what is due, and what is slipping.
• Translate customer and product requirements into prioritized internal work, and keep delivery timelines honest against what has been committed externally.
• Serve as a program-level point of contact for customer deployments — carrying their needs inward, and carrying status, tradeoffs, and timelines back out.
• Surface risks and blockers before they become schedule problems, and drive them to resolution across teams.
• Run the re-prioritization conversations when commitments change: what continues, what pauses, what gets reassigned, and who needs to hear about it.
• Build reporting and tracking that engineers will actually maintain — enough signal to steer by, light enough to survive a fast quarter.
• Partner with senior technical leads and the leadership team without directing the technical approach.

Requirements

• 4–7 years as a Technical Program Manager or equivalent, supporting AI/ML or data-driven engineering teams.
• Experience across the AI/ML lifecycle — data collection and labeling, model training, evaluation, and deployment.
• Experience working directly with customers or external stakeholders, turning their needs into internal priorities and timelines.
• A demonstrated track record of bringing structure to ambiguous, fast-moving technical programs.
• Bachelor’s degree in a technical discipline (Computer Science, Engineering, or related), or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to have

• Experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, drones, embedded systems, or another autonomy domain.
• Experience supporting AI/ML programs at scale inside a larger technology organization — recommendations, ranking, ads, or consumer AI.
• Background in data operations, data security, or systems integration.
• Experience supporting field operations or production customer deployments.
• Comfort acting as a trusted technical point of contact for customers in mission-critical deployments.
• Fluency with Notion, Slack, and Google Workspace — and the judgment to keep tooling minimal.
• PMP, Certified Scrum Master, or equivalent Agile certification.
• Startup or high-growth experience, with a strong bias toward ownership and urgency.