Lead Technical Program Manager, Reference Platforms

The Role:

We're hiring the person who makes Ixana's silicon tangible — the Lead TPM for Reference Platforms, owning complete customer-ready reference designs and dev kits from product definition and prototypes through validation, pilot manufacturing, release, and shipment.

Accountability spans chip boundary to reliable customer use: boards, sensors, firmware, SDKs, host software, mechanical systems, power, test infrastructure, documentation, supply chain, and manufacturing. This isn't schedule-tracking — you need system-level depth to spot integration risks, frame tradeoffs, drive decisions, and help engineering close hard issues. At Ixana, a demo isn't a release: a release is reproducible hardware, stable firmware/software, validated performance, complete developer docs, and a repeatable build/test process.

What You’ll Do

• Own the integrated roadmap, requirements, milestones, critical path, resource dependencies, and release criteria across multiple concurrent programs
• Translate product objectives and silicon capabilities into system-level requirements spanning electrical hardware, firmware, embedded software, mechanical design, applications, test, and operations
• Coordinate silicon, board revisions, firmware, SDKs, sample apps, enclosures, accessories, documentation, and manufacturing builds into one executable plan
• Define and run development gates (architecture closure, prototype builds, EVT/DVT/PVT or equivalent) per platform

Establish configuration and change control across hardware, firmware, software, SDKs, manufacturing files, and customer docs

• Lead build readiness with suppliers/CMs — BOM readiness, component availability, DFM/DFT, assembly, programming, calibration, fixtures, end-of-line test, unit traceability
• Own system verification and release criteria: functionality, power, performance, reliability, usability, interoperability, manufacturability
• Drive cross-functional issue resolution with clear owners, root-cause plans, decision deadlines, and escalation paths
• Ensure every release ships the full developer package: validated hardware, firmware, SDK/API, host tools, sample apps, schematics, BOM, build info, test results, release notes, known issues, troubleshooting
• Partner with applications engineering and customer-facing teams on early feedback, demos, design-ins, and real-world platform readiness
• Run concise program/exec reviews covering status, risks, decisions needed, schedule exposure, and recovery plans

Build a repeatable reference-platform process that scales Ixana's launches without adding unnecessary overhead

What We're Looking For

Preferred:

• 8+ years developing complex hardware/embedded systems, with substantial cross-functional program execution responsibility
• Track record taking multiple hardware products from definition/prototype through validation, manufacturing introduction, and external shipment
• Strong technical foundation in EE, computer engineering, embedded systems, systems engineering, test engineering, or related discipline
• Able to read and reason through schematics, block diagrams, interface specs, power budgets, BOMs, validation data, manufacturing reports, and failure analyses
• Experience coordinating hardware, firmware, software, mechanical, test, manufacturing, and supply-chain deliverables within one program
• Direct NPI experience: prototype/pilot builds, DFM, DFT, contract manufacturers, suppliers, test fixtures, calibration, production-line validation
• Experience with tightly coupled hardware/firmware products, not independent HW/SW schedules
• Strong technical judgment on when issues need deeper investigation, a tradeoff, a process change, more resources, or escalation
• Clear written/verbal communication with engineers, suppliers, customers, and senior leadership
• Comfortable in early-stage environments — evolving requirements, constrained resources, building the operating system rather than inheriting one
• Willing to travel to supplier, manufacturing, partner, and customer locations as needed

Most successful candidates will have started their careers in an engineering role before moving into technical program leadership

Required:

Experience in one or more of the following areas would be valuable -

• Smart glasses, AR/VR systems, wearable cameras, or spatial-computing hardware
• Smart rings, earbuds, watches, patches, or other highly constrained wearable products
• Electrophysiology or biosensing products, including ECG, EMG, EEG, or EOG systems
• Low-power wireless systems, sensors, battery-powered devices, or camera data pipelines
• Semiconductor evaluation boards, developer kits, reference designs, SDKs, or applications engineering
• Medical, consumer-electronics, robotics, automotive, or other multidisciplinary hardware programs
• Test automation, data acquisition, Python-based validation, or manufacturing diagnostics

What Success Looks Like:

Within your first year -

• Ixana operates from a single, credible, integrated roadmap across all reference designs and developer kits
• Every program has clear requirements, named technical owners, defined release gates, decision deadlines, and measurable acceptance criteria
• Reference platforms ship as complete, customer-ready products — not isolated engineering demos
• Hardware, firmware, software, documentation, test, and supply-chain readiness converge at release, rather than being tracked as separate, disconnected efforts
• Critical risks surface early, decisions get made fast, and engineering spends less time firefighting avoidable integration surprises
• Ixana has a repeatable, scalable system for developing and releasing its next generation of reference platforms

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $180,000 - $250,000 per annum ≈ $340k - $480k Bay Area equivalent after cost of living
• Equity: Early-stage equity package
• Cash Bonus: 8–30% performance-based bonus
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match
• 5 days/week in office with flexible work arrangements and generous PTO
• Relocation support for qualified applicants
• Professional development opportunities and conference attendance
• Patent development and technology leadership opportunities
• Immigration and work visa support (for those already in the U.S. on a valid work permit)

Why Join Us

• Sits at the intersection of semiconductor innovation, wireless systems, wearables, biosensing, and physical AI
• Unusually broad ownership — end-to-end accountability rather than a narrow slice of the program
• Direct collaboration with engineering and company leadership to define what products built around a new communication platform should look like
• The products you release will be the first way many developers, customers, and partners experience Wi-R

Keywords:

Technical Program Management, Hardware Development, NPI, Embedded Systems, Wearables, Hardware Validation, Manufacturing, Firmware, Wireless Systems, Reference Platforms, Supply Chain