Senior Technical Program Manager - Vehicle System Integration
Zoox · Foster City, United States · 3mo ago
As the Technical Program Manager for the Systems Engineering team, you will act as the operational engine and technical coordinator behind the vehicle’s functional architecture. This is not a passive task-tracking role; you will own the cross-functional alignment and execution required to take high-level product definitions and drive their translation into technically sound, safe, and traceable system-level implementations.
You will partner closely with Systems Architects, Safety Specialists, Validation, and other cross-functional teams to drive the authoring of System Technical Specifications (STS), manage System Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (SFMEA) lifecycles, and align diverse stakeholders from industrial design to test track validation. Additionally, you will support systems engineers in defining test asset configurations and mapping exactly which requirements are validated across which test environments.
In this role, you will:
- Manage the release train, maturity lifecycle, and governance for all System Technical Specifications (STS) across all program gates from PI to OKTB. You don’t write the specs, but you ensure the Systems Engineers have the cross-functional inputs they need from all stakeholders in order to meet strict vehicle milestone deadlines.
- Act as the operational owner of the System Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (SFMEA) lifecycle. Schedule and facilitate multi-disciplinary workshops, track open action items to strict closure dates, and ensure safety mitigations are integrated into downstream hardware/software schedules.
- Build and maintain the master dependency matrix linking Studio (styling/packaging), Product, SDMA (Safety), VSE, VI and Validation. Proactively identify and resolve timeline disconnects before they stall engineering progress.
- Lead the program management of Engineering Change Requests (ECRs) at the system level. Ensure that when a requirement changes, all affected downstream stakeholders (from firmware to validation teams) are brought to the table to evaluate timeline and resource impacts.
- Define and track the health metrics of the Systems Engineering team’s deliverables (e.g., requirement stability, SFMEA action item burn-down, verification progress). Provide clear, high-density status visibility to executive leadership.
Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience as a Technical Program Manager or Systems Engineer in an aerospace, autonomous vehicle, or advanced automotive setting, with a proven track record of driving complex, cross-functional projects from requirements through validation.
- Deep, practical familiarity with the systems engineering "V-model" lifecycle, fail-operational architectures, and requirements management frameworks.
- Proven experience tracking and driving complex safety workflows, specifically SFMEAs, DFMEAs, FTAs (Fault Tree Analyses), and ISO 26262 / MIL-STD-882 compliance.
- Strong background in vehicle E/E system design, electrical integration, or managing complex hardware/software interfaces.
- Expertise using standard project, change, and configuration management stacks (e.g., JIRA, Smartsheet) alongside requirements management tools and processes (such as Jama, Polarion, or DOORS).
- Demonstrated ability to command a room of highly specialized domain experts (hardware, software, safety, manufacturing), facilitate both technical and non-technical discussions, and drive consensus without direct authority.
- Self-motivated and proactive with a strong ability to identify risks before they become blockers; thrives in rapid design cycles, remaining flexible and highly organized in the face of uncertainty.
- B.S. or M.S. in Mechatronics Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
Bonus Qualifications
- Prior experience developing Automotive Systems in Body or Motion Domains (e.g., Brakes, Steering, Suspension or Body Controllers).