Technical Program Manager

Our client, an autonomous vehicle company, is looking for someone to join their team as a Technical Program Manager in Foster City, CA! This is a 6-month W2 contract What You Will Be Doing Lead end-to-end program management for large-scale, multi-team engineering initiatives, from strategy and planning through execution and delivery. Partner with VP- and Director-level Engineering and Product leaders to influence roadmaps, resource planning, priorities, and execution strategy. Drive alignment across multiple engineering teams, systems, business lines, external partners, and complex dependencies. Identify, anticipate, and proactively manage program risks, escalations, dependencies, and trade-offs. Establish and improve program management frameworks, processes, tools, and best practices across the engineering organization. Communicate complex technical concepts and program status clearly to executive and cross-functional audiences, translating between technical details and business impact. Participate in architectural and technical scoping discussions, providing input on feasibility, sequencing, dependencies, and delivery risk. Bring structure and clarity to ambiguous problems and drive teams toward timely decisions and outcomes. Use AI tools to evaluate technical designs, code changes, implementation approaches, and technical risks. Incorporate AI chatbots and agentic AI capabilities into program planning, technical analysis, and execution workflows. Required Skills & Experience 7+ years of experience in Technical Program Management, with a proven track record of delivering complex, multi-team engineering programs. Deep experience managing software programs across the full SDLC, including platform, infrastructure, and/or product engineering initiatives. Strong technical foundation with the ability to engage effectively in architectural discussions, understand system design trade-offs, and assess technical risk. Exceptional communication and executive presence, with the ability to influence without authority and work effectively across organizational boundaries. Experience developing or improving program management processes, operating models, and tooling at an organizational level. Strong ability to manage ambiguity, drive clarity, prioritize effectively, and make sound decisions in fast-paced environments. Demonstrated ability to use AI tools to make informed technical decisions related to system designs and code changes. Understanding of agentic AI models and how to effectively execute technical programs using AI-powered tools and chatbots. Strong problem-solving, troubleshooting, and debugging skills. Technical understanding of wireless, networking, data pipeline, and cloud infrastructure technologies, including: Wireless: 4G/5G, Multi-WAN, load balancing Networking: UDP/TCP, NAT traversal, network security, mTLS Data & Infrastructure: Kafka/KafkaJS, Protobuf serialization, AWS cloud infrastructure, API Gateways Preferred Skills Experience at a software company working on infrastructure, platform, or product engineering programs. Familiarity with AWS, GCP, or Azure cloud services. Understanding of distributed systems and large-scale software architectures. PMP, PgMP, Agile, or Scrum certification. Prior experience as a software engineer or in another hands-on technical role. Experience working with AI/ML platforms, agentic AI systems, or AI-assisted software development. Experience driving programs involving highly distributed, networked, or real-time systems. #J-18808-Ljbffr