Job Type: Contract
Contract Length: 6 months
Pay Range: $60-68/hr
Start Date: ASAP
Location: San Diego, CA
About the Opportunity:
Our client, a leader in Autonomous Vehicle Technology, is looking for a skilled Technical Program Manager to join their team for a 6 months engagement. This project involves leading the development and execution of the "Communication Backbone" of their autonomous fleet, focusing on high-stakes teleoperation links that span RF (LTE/5G), distributed middleware (DDS), and cloud orchestration (Kafka/AWS). This is a high-impact role that requires a self-motivated professional who can hit the ground running and deliver results quickly.Key
Responsibilities & Deliverables:
This role is focused on the successful completion of specific tasks and deliverables. Your responsibilities will include:
- Lead end-to-end program management for large-scale, multi-team engineering initiatives with significant business impact, from strategy through delivery.
- Serve as a strategic partner to VP- and Director-level engineering and product leaders, influencing roadmaps, resourcing decisions, and organizational priorities.
- Define and evolve program management frameworks, processes, and best practices across the engineering organization.
- Drive alignment across complex dependency landscapes involving multiple teams, external partners, and competing priorities.
- Anticipate and proactively manage risks, escalations, and trade-offs at a program and portfolio level.
- Communicate clearly and confidently to executive audiences — translating technical complexity into business impact and vice versa.
- Actively participate in architectural and technical scoping discussions, providing informed input on feasibility, sequencing, and delivery risk.
We are looking for someone with a proven track record of successful contract engagements. The ideal candidate will have:
- 7+ years of experience in technical program management, with a proven record of delivering complex, org-wide engineering programs.
- Deep expertise managing multi-team software programs across the full SDLC, including large-scale platform, infrastructure, or product initiatives.
- Strong technical foundation — able to engage credibly in architectural discussions, understand system design trade-offs, and evaluate technical risk.
- Exceptional communication and executive presence — skilled at influencing without authority and navigating organizational dynamics.
- Experience building or improving program management processes and tooling at an organizational level.
- Proven ability to manage ambiguity, drive clarity, and make sound decisions under pressure in fast-paced environments.
- Ability to use AI tools to make informed technical decisions regarding a given design or code changes.
- Knowledge of how agentic AI models work and how to execute programs with AI chatbots.
- Technical expertise in understanding the following technologies:
- Wireless Technologies - 4G/5G/Multi-WAN Load Balancing
- Networking Technologies - UDP/TCP, NAT Traversal, Network Security (mTLS etc.)
- Data Pipelines - Experience with Kafka (kafkajs), Protobuf serialization, and AWS cloud infrastructure (API Gateways)
- Demonstrated ability to work autonomously and manage your own time effectively to meet project goals.
- Experience at a software company working on infrastructure, platform, or product engineering programs.
- Familiarity with cloud services (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and distributed systems concepts.
- PMP, PgMP, or Agile/Scrum certification is a plus.
- Prior background as a software engineer or in a technical role is advantageous.
- Excellent problem-solving and debugging skills.
- W2 only (No C2C or 1099 contractors)
