12+ years in Technical Program Management or a related role
Track record managing concurrent, cross-functional programs in a fast-paced environment
Expertise in translating business commitments into engineering capacity
Technical fluency in hardware, embedded, cloud, and AI domains
Strong executive communication skills for distilling complex information
Responsibilities
Own the company-level program portfolio with a single source of truth
Translate business commitments into actionable engineering capacity plans
Maintain dashboards and reporting frameworks for senior leadership
Partner with engineering leads for real-time capacity versus demand visibility
Drive end-to-end delivery of strategic programs across multiple functions
Benefits
Collaborative work environment with executive engagement
Opportunity to influence cross-functional strategies
Visibility into engineering and business portfolio
Work across a range of innovative technical domains
Possibility to define processes in a high-growth setting
Full Job Description
What the job involves
The Principal Technical Program Manager will own cross-functional visibility and delivery accountability across Hayden's full engineering and business portfolio. Working directly with executive leadership and business partners across Engineering, Growth, Finance, and Operations, this role translates competing business commitments into a coherent, executable plan, holding the line when capacity and demand diverge. They operate across the full technical stack: hardware, embedded software, edge AI, cloud, computer vision, fleet systems, and government deployment - fluent enough in each domain to surface the right risks and drive the right conversations.
Responsibilities:
Portfolio Governance: Own the company-level program portfolio - maintaining a single source of truth for commitments, capacity, dependencies, and status across all active lines of work.
Business-Engineering Translation: Serve as the primary interface between executive leadership and engineering teams, translating business commitments (contracts, growth targets, customer deployments) into engineering capacity plans and surfacing tradeoffs before they become misses.
Executive Reporting: Design and maintain the dashboards, cadences, and reporting frameworks that give the senior leadership clear, accurate visibility into portfolio health without noise.
Capacity Planning & Demand Management: Partner with engineering leads across Hardware, Perception, Platform/Cloud, and Eng Ops to maintain a real-time view of capacity versus committed demand, and drive prioritization decisions when they conflict.
Cross-Functional Program Delivery: Drive end-to-end delivery of strategic programs that span multiple engineering pillars and business functions, including customer-facing deployments, new product launches, and operational scaling initiatives.
Required Qualifications:
B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in an engineering discipline
12+ years in Technical Program Management, Engineering Program Management, or a related role
Demonstrated track record managing a portfolio of concurrent, cross-functional programs in a fast-moving environment
Experience navigating business-engineering tension: translating contracts, revenue commitments, or customer obligations into engineering capacity and sequencing decisions
Technical fluency across multiple domains - enough to engage credibly with hardware, embedded, cloud, and AI engineering teams without domain specialists present
Strong executive communication skills: structured, direct, and able to distill complex program status into clear decisions
Preferred Qualifications
Experience with on-vehicle, edge-deployed, or ruggedized systems (hardware, embedded, edge AI)
Background in computer vision, autonomous systems, robotics, or AI/ML programs
Experience delivering technology to government or municipal clients (procurement cycles, compliance requirements, deployment constraints)
Familiarity with fleet management, secure transaction systems, or sensor hardware platforms
Experience in a high-growth startup or scale-up environment where process didn't exist before you built it
About Hayden AI Technologies
Hayden AI Technologies is a San Francisco-based company that develops AI-powered traffic management systems for smart cities. The company's technology uses computer vision and machine learning algorithms to analyze traffic patterns and optimize traffic flow in real-time. Hayden AI's solutions are designed to reduce congestion, improve safety, and enhance the overall quality of life in urban areas. The company was founded in 2019 by Chris Carson and is backed by investors such as Urban Innovation Fund and 8VC.
