Technical Program Manager, Vehicle Development

TL;DR

LOCATION

Foster City, CA, United States

WORK ENVIRONMENT

In-person

SCHEDULE

Full time (usually 30+ hours/week)

ASSIGNMENT LENGTH

Contract

OPPORTUNITY END DATE

12/02/2025

Basic information

JOB DESCRIPTION

*** is helping an on-demand, autonomous ride-hailing company find Technical Program Managers - Vehicle Development to support the ongoing development, validation, and performance of its autonomous vehicle fleet.

In this role, you'll coordinate cross-functional engineering efforts that span sustaining engineering and fleet support engineering, ensuring that new vehicle designs are successfully integrated, tested, and supported in production. You'll manage documentation, track deliverables, and facilitate communication between engineering, operations, and service teams to keep programs aligned and on schedule.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on program manager with an engineering background, someone who understands diagnostics, feasibility, and tooling, and can translate between design, service, and operations teams. You're detail-oriented, proactive, and equally comfortable addressing day-to-day fleet issues or driving long-term design improvements.

As a Technical Program Manager, you'll:

Manage project schedules, deliverables, and risks to ensure successful execution across sustaining and fleet programs.

Work closely with engineering, service, and operations to identify issues, align priorities, and drive timely resolution.

Support sustaining engineering (design release engineers) by coordinating design improvements, validating updates, and integrating new components based on fleet learnings.

Partner with fleet support engineering to track on-the-ground issue resolution, diagnostics, and tool development, helping ensure vehicle reliability and uptime.

Coordinate feasibility studies and tooling activities for new service processes or part implementations.

Develop and manage JIRA ticketing structures, dashboards, and reports to track metrics, documentation status, risks, and mitigations.

Communicate program status, risks, and outcomes clearly to cross-functional stakeholders and leadership.

Support continuous improvement by refining PM processes, documentation, and reporting standards.

ABOUT AN ON-DEMAND, AUTONOMOUS RIDE-HAILING COMPANY

N/A

Role specifics and target candidate profile

IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE

Top Skills: Service mindset Feasibility, service center experience Diagnostics, tool development Strong PM fundamentals as a core Experience in these areas in their past is required 2 major subsets of engineers within their scope: Fleet Support/Field Engineering -Managing on the ground issue resolution -Ensure the operational fleet performs reliably day-to-day. Diagnose and resolve vehicle-level issues quickly to minimize downtime and maximize uptime. Sustaining Engineering -DREs (design/release engineers) Drive long-term design improvements and component updates based on fleet data and failure modes. Feed learnings back into design, validation, and manufacturing for future releases. In other words, FSE is reactive and operations-facing, SE is proactive and design-facing. Someone who came up through one of these groups as an Engineer but moved into Program Management with 2-3 years under their belt would be a fit Taking through the whole development lifecycle Ability to cross-functionally communicate, present to executives #1948 for Sustaining Engineering focus #2113 for Fleet Support/Field Engineering focus Not too senior, someone leading 20-30 person teams in the past is too senior for this role

DAILY TASKS

Responsibilities: Program Management Manage project schedules, deliverables, and resources to ensure projects are delivered on time and within scope. Work cross-functionally with engineering, operations, and procurement teams to ensure project deliverables are executed successfully. Track project progress, identify any potential risks or issues, and develop and execute mitigations. Facilitate regular meetings and communication with cross-functional stakeholders to keep everyone informed. Manage project documentation, including status reports, meeting minutes, and action items. Prepare and manage project reviews for internal teams at all project phases. Serve as the primary point of contact for all relevant sustaining engineering and/or fleet support engineering programs. Drive both internal and external stakeholders to meet deadlines as required per the project schedule. Sustaining Engineering Collaborate closely with engineers, procurement, 3rd party vendors and other stakeholders to understand the specific needs and requirements for new designs. Support the development process by managing any sourcing, testing, feedback, and implementation activities. Manage the deployment of new designs and track their performance and impact Collaborate with cross-functional teams to manage ongoing designs, integrations, implementations to support a healthy fleet Fleet Support Engineering Work closely with fleet support engineers and external engineering teams to own ticket management and reporting status of vehicle issues for various fleets Create, update and maintain JIRA ticketing structures Report out on documentation status, metrics, risks, mitigations and escalations Prioritization and Reporting Work with the team to prioritize tasks and resources based on project needs and business goals. Prepare regular reports on project progress, status, and key metrics. Identify opportunities for improvement in the project management process and support solutions

REQUIRED SKILLS

Qualifications: Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Project Management or equivalent experience 6-8 years of experience as a program manager or a similar role Ability to produce and maintain project schedules and manage risk Ability to successfully manage multiple programs at one time while maintaining priorities Ability to understand program interdependencies and the impact of decisions across stakeholders Ability to work independently with minimal direct supervision Ability to identify risks and develop risk mitigation plans Demonstrates awareness and upholds the highest standard for all environmental, health, and safety protocols Strong organizational and time management skills Excellent communication and interpersonal skills Proficient in project management tools and methodologies (e.g., JIRA, Agile, Smartsheet) Proficient in data visualization & dashboarding tools (eg. JIRA, Looker, DataBricks) Strong analytical and problem-solving skills Preferred Qualifications: Masters Degree in Engineering, Project Management or equivalent experience 5-7 years of experience as a program manager or a similar role 3+ years of experience in the transportation or automotive industries Expert in JIRA, Smartsheets, Google Suite, Lucid Charts, and Slack Passion for self-driving technology and its potential impacts

BUSINESS DRIVER OF ROLE

With a safety-first mindset, the Vehicle Development team supports maximizing fleet availability and utilization for our customers as we build toward a scalable mobility service. The Vehicle Development Technical Program Manager will work closely with the Vehicle Development Leadership team and cross-functional partners to ensure our current and future operational vehicle fleets are reliable. We will enable short term contaminants and long term correction designs in order to meet our efficiency goals. The team is seeking a highly organized and motivated Technical Program Manager to join our team and play a pivotal role in the development and implementation of our sustaining engineering and fleet support engineering programs. You will be responsible for - but not limited to - coordinating various deliverables, managing documentation, and ensuring seamless communication and reporting throughout the entire lifecycle of our development programs.

CONVERSION LIKELIHOOD

unlikely

CANDIDATE SELL

Chance to join at a critical time as client's transitions from an R&D company into their commercial launch and help shape the future of rideshare

Employment information

FULL-TIME/PART-TIME

full_time

ADDITIONAL CONTEXT ON REMOTE HIRES

TIMEZONE PREFERENCES

Hiring logistics and due diligence

WORK SCHEDULE

Schedule: Monday - Friday; 9am - 5pm (fully onsite in Foster City)

INTERVIEW PROCESS

30-minute Manager Zoom 1.5 hour panel interview