Staff Technical Program Manager

Join Apptronik, a cutting-edge robotics company, as a Staff Technical Program Manager in our new Sunnyvale, CA office. In this high-autonomy, high-visibility role, you will lead complex, cross-functional programs spanning ML operations and perception for humanoid robotics. You will serve as the primary program interface to one of our most important strategic AI partners, ensuring clear communication, aligned priorities, and delivery against shared goals. You will also establish program management structure for the new site, drive ML and perception program execution, and shape how Apptronik collaborates with external AI teams.

• Establish program management structure, cadences, and operating rhythms for a new and rapidly growing site, while staying tightly connected to Austin-based engineering and program leadership.
• Own end-to-end execution of ML infrastructure and operations programs — including data pipelines, training and evaluation infrastructure, model release processes, and the tooling that enables rapid, reliable iteration on robot learning systems.
• Act as the primary program conduit to a key strategic AI partner. Ensure clear, proactive, bidirectional communication; translate partner needs into internal execution plans; track joint milestones and deliverables.

• Partner & External Stakeholder Management — Proven success serving as the program interface to external technical partners: managing joint roadmaps, resolving cross-org dependencies, and building trust through consistent, transparent communication
• Comfort with Ambiguity & Breadth — Willingness and ability to wear many hats as one of the initial hires at a new site: program execution, site operations, partner management, and function building, often in the same week
• Program Execution & Results Orientation — Strong track record of driving measurable outcomes at scale, managing critical path and interdependencies across portfolios, and delivering against company roadmap goals
• New Technology Introduction — Demonstrated success maturing novel technologies from prototype toward scalable deployment, including subsystem qualification, reliability, and supplier/partner co-development models
• Hands-On Technical Partnership — Deep ability to engage with engineering and research teams on architectural decisions, interface definition, and complex technical problem-solving — operating as a peer to engineering leadership, not just managing schedules
• MLOps & ML Infrastructure Program Leadership — Deep experience running programs across the ML lifecycle: data collection and curation, training and evaluation infrastructure, edge inference and model deployment, and the data pipelines that enable robot skill learning at scale. Fluency in the tooling, workflows, and failure modes of modern ML systems spanning cloud and edge
• Cross-Disciplinary System Integration — Expert-level experience coordinating AI/ML, software, firmware, controls, and hardware teams to deliver fully integrated, sophisticated systems
• Perception Systems Experience — Demonstrated ability to lead programs for perception and sensing teams (computer vision, sensor fusion, tactile and multi-modal sensing, state estimation, scene understanding), ideally for robotics or other real-world embodied systems
• System-Level Product Development Leadership — Experience leading hardware + software product life cycles from concept through deployment, across multiple concurrent programs
• Strategic Thinking — Ability to translate company strategy into actionable program plans and influence roadmap decisions through data-driven insight
• Influence in Resource-Constrained Environments — Proven ability to align product, engineering, research, and executive teams, prioritize across competing demands, and execute successfully in fast-paced, limited-resource settings
• 10+ years of experience in technical program management or engineering management, including leading cross-functional teams across ML/AI and software, with demonstrated experience operating at a senior or staff level
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Computer, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or Applied Physics required
• Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen
• Hearing and speech to communicate
• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times
• Preferred: Experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or embodied AI
• Preferred: Direct experience with robot learning, manipulation/dexterous systems, VLA models, or large-scale ML data and training programs
• Preferred: Experience with edge AI inference platforms and embedded systems integration
• Preferred: Master's degree in Engineering or Computer Science