Technical Program Manager, Central OperationsAbout the RoleThe Technical Program Manager connects Central Operations, our engineering team, and the hardware, robotics and automation vendors we bring into our depots. You will own the technology programs that let Central Operations monitor, standardize and automate depot work from one place.
This is not a coding role, and it is not a traditional program management role. You will understand system design well enough to troubleshoot issues yourself, speak the language of both engineers and vendors, and decide whether a solution is worth deploying.
What You'll Do- Central Operations hub. Partner with engineering to consolidate our operational tools into one hub covering KPIs, scorecards, benchmarks, safety, security and training, including an AI layer that answers routine operational questions.
- Connected depot systems. Own live programs such as AI-enabled camera and video analytics (staffing heat maps, KPI capture, and real-time alerts when vehicles are not plugged in on time) and automated vehicle log and data offload.
- Issue triage. Log and triage issues reported by depots, determine whether each is a one-off or systemic, resolve what you can, and escalate the rest to engineering or partners with clear reproduction details.
- Capability discovery. Identify features our current platforms offer that we are not yet using, and bring prioritized recommendations to Central Operations.
- Automation pipeline. Scope and pilot new automation, including vehicle charging plug-in, cleaning and other depot robotics, from requirements through trial, measurement and multi-depot rollout.
- Vendor evaluation. Join robotics and hardware vendor meetings, run time-boxed trials (often 30 days), and make a go/no-go recommendation based on performance, cost, capacity and integration effort.
- Cross-team translation. Turn depot pain points into technical requirements for engineering and vendors, and turn technical constraints into plain-language decisions for operations leaders.
- Travel: Approximately 20-30%
Technical Requirements- Experience with AV operational systems, such as AV fleet management software, AV depot operations software, AV safety systems and AV workforce management platforms, or comparable fleet and operations systems.
- Working knowledge of system design and architecture: how hardware, software, networks, cloud services and data pipelines connect, and where they fail.
- Ability to troubleshoot deployed systems (logs, configurations, connectivity and integrations) before escalating to engineering.
- Experience deploying or supporting connected hardware in live environments, such as cameras and video analytics, sensors and IoT devices, charging infrastructure, or robotics and automation.
- Familiarity with APIs, system integrations and data flows between vendor platforms and internal tools.
- Ability to query and analyze operational data using SQL, a BI tool or equivalent, and to define KPIs such as uptime, throughput, intervention rate and cost per task.
- Ability to weigh capacity, bandwidth and cost trade-offs and build a clear ROI case for a technology investment.
Program Management Requirements- 5+ years in technical program management, engineering program management, or a technical operations role in hardware, robotics, automation, AV, manufacturing, logistics or a similarly complex physical environment.
- A track record of taking technical programs from problem definition through structured pilots (with defined success criteria and measurement) to deployment and scaled rollout.
- Experience writing technical requirements for engineering teams and external vendors, and holding vendors accountable to them.
- Ability to manage several cross-functional workstreams at once with minimal oversight in a fast-moving startup.
- Clear written and verbal communication with both engineers and frontline operations teams.
Preferred Qualifications- Experience in autonomous vehicles, EVs, fleet operations, mobility or warehouse automation.
- Experience with autonomous mobile robots, machine vision, automated inspection or charging automation.
- Experience with AI-enabled operational tools or workflow automation.
- Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, industrial or systems engineering, or equivalent experience.
