About the roleThe company is seeking a hands-on, execution-focused
Senior Engineering Program Manager (EPM) to drive operational efficiency and process rigor across our engineering teams. In this role, you will bridge the gap between high-level project goals and daily execution. Your primary focus will be optimizing our execution frameworks, managing the product life cycle (PLC), enforcing configuration management, and tracking critical operational cycles. This is a heavily tactical, high-impact role for an independent operator who thrives on building efficient workflows, eliminating bottlenecks, and productizing complex technical systems without needing a script to follow.
What you'll do- Project Planning & Execution: Partner with engineering leads to build and execute project plans. Implement metrics and KPIs to monitor project health, track progress, and ensure predictable delivery timelines
- Operational Execution & Roadblock Removal: Own the schedule and progress tracking for critical, repetitive technical operations (including system cooldown and testing cycles). Proactively identify friction points in the "cooldown-to-cooldown" loop, clear technical or operational roadblocks, and implement process fixes to minimize downtime
- Process Architecture & Tooling Optimization: Partner with engineering leads to design, implement, and iterate on engineering workflows to improve team velocity. Optimize our project management tooling (including Jira, Confluence, or equivalent frameworks) by designing functional workflows, automation rules, clean analytics, and leadership dashboards
- Product Life Cycle (PLC) & Configuration Management: Coordinate the PLC process from development to productization. Establish and enforce robust configuration management practices to ensure system integrity, documentation, and change control are executed flawlessly
- System Productization: Partner with engineering leads to transition complex, R&D-heavy systems into stable, scalable, and reproducible products
- Stakeholder Communication & Coordination: Act as the central point of alignment across hardware, software, and operations teams. Provide clear visibility on project status, risks, and dependencies through technical documentation, reports, and executive presentations-ensuring stakeholders are informed without creating administrative burden for engineers
About You- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or equivalent practical experience
- 4 plus years of experience as an Engineering Program Manager or Technical Project Manager in a complex hardware/software engineering environment (e.g., semiconductors, aerospace, deep tech, or advanced test systems)
- 2 plus years of experience as an Engineer in a complex hardware/software engineering environment (e.g., semiconductors, aerospace, deep tech, or advanced test systems)
- Proven ability to estimate effort, build and manage detailed project plans, and deliver programs on time while balancing technical risk and operational constraints
- Strong judgment in ambiguous environments, with the ability to independently research issues, evaluate options, and recommend sound solutions
- Demonstrated success working cross-functionally, removing roadblocks, and influencing stakeholders without formal authority
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including technical documentation, operational reports, and executive presentations
- Strong organizational skills with sharp attention to detail and a systems-level mindset
- Tooling Proficiency: Deep experience with project tracking and documentation tools (such as Jira, Confluence, MS Project, or Smartsheet) with the ability to customize workflows, build automated rules, and construct custom reporting dashboards from scratch
- Proven experience managing product lifecycles, Bill of Materials (BOMs), change orders (ECOs), and document control systems
- Strong background dealing with physical systems, hardware integration, or operational facilities
- A track record of operating independently; You are someone who identifies a broken process, designs the solution, wins team buy-in, and rolls it out with minimal supervision
Our Compensation Philosophy is Simple but Powerful:We believe providing D-Wavers with company ownership, competitive pay, and a range of meaningful benefits is the start of creating a culture where people want to give the best they've got - not because they're simply making money, but because they've fallen in love with our vision, mission, values, and team.
During the interview process, your Recruiter will review our total rewards (base, equity, bonus, perks, benefit, culture) offerings. The final offer is determined by your proficiencies within this level. Inclusion: We celebrate diverse perspectives to drive innovation in our pursuit. Our employees range from distinguished domain experts with decades of experience in their respective fields, to bright and motivated graduates eager to make their mark. Our diverse and innovative team will make you feel appreciated, supported and empower your career growth at D-Wave.
The base pay range for this role is: $110,000- 152,000 USD (New Haven)
