Technical Program Manager (Autonomous Vehicles)

Own end-to-end program execution, from early prototype development through production, with the authority to drive priorities, resolve blockers, and influence critical decisions.

About Foundation

• Foundation is developing the future of general purpose robotics and electric mobility with the goal to save lives and augment human labor.
• Our mission is to create an autonomous, crewless ATV built to be truly all-terrain.
• Designed for commercial and defense use, it can save lives and take on heavy transport across mining, agriculture, construction, and more.
• We’re looking for people with solid industry experience that also have the ability to take a step back and innovate.
• We expect that many of our team members will bring diverse perspectives from various industries and fields.
• We are looking for individuals with a proven record of exceptional ability and a history of creating things that work .
• You deeply believe that this is the most important mission for humanity and needs to Happen Yesterday You care about aesthetics and design inside out.
• If it's not the best product ever, it bothers you, and you need to “fix” it.
• You don't need someone to motivate you; you get things done.

Responsibilities

• Help define what we build, not just how we build it, contributing to product requirements, performance targets, engineering tradeoffs, and strategic direction.
• Drive high-impact technical and business decisions, balancing performance, cost, schedule, risk, and manufacturability to determine the best path forward.
• Lead cross-functional execution across Mechanical, Electrical, Software, AI, Operations, and Leadership, aligning teams around a shared vision and measurable outcomes.
• Play a central role in resource allocation and strategic planning, influencing engineering investments, development priorities, supplier strategies, and build-versus-buy decisions.
• Own the transition from prototype to production, defining development milestones, validation strategies, manufacturing readiness, and the processes required to scale.
• Work directly with company leadership on the program's biggest challenges, with the autonomy to identify opportunities, propose solutions, and drive meaningful organizational change.

Requirements

• Kind of person are we looking for 3 (minimum for Senior) to 10+ years spanning hands-on engineering and technical leadership (TPM, engineering management, or equivalent) on complex multidisciplinary products.
• Proven track record delivering integrated hardware-electronics-software systems from concept through manufacturing release.
• Strong technical fluency grounded in real build experience — able to recognize when a decision requires more rigor vs when to move fast.
• First-principles thinking with sound instincts for strategic tradeoffs (e.g., buy vs. build, specialization vs. generalization).
• Experience with mechanical systems involving motion, kinematics, sensing, and closed-loop control, and software for embedded or hardware-adjacent systems.Strong bias for ownership and clarity in ambiguous environments.
• Experience with iterative, incremental hardware development in fast-moving or startup contexts.
• Demonstrated ability to structure ambiguous programs — breaking them down into fundamental components, dependencies, and a fast cycle-time execution model.
• Strong executive presence and communication — trusted by both technical teams and leadership.
• High EQ and sound judgment navigating complex people dynamics across technical organizations.
• BS or higher in relevant engineering field, or equivalent experience Experience driving reliability growth, scaling readiness, and manufacturing release processes.

Pay

• The annual compensation is expected to be between $150,000 - $280,000.
• Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location.

Benefits

• We provide market standard benefits (health, vision, dental, 401k, etc.).
• Join us for the culture and the mission, not for the benefits.

Why You Should Join You like working in person with a team in San Francisco. You are highly technical - regardless of the role you are in. We are building technology; you need to understand technology well.