Technical Program Manager - Perception

Who We Are

Aurora (Nasdaq: AUR) is delivering the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly. Founded in 2017 by experts in the self-driving industry, Aurora is revolutionizing transportation – making it safer, increasingly accessible, and more reliable and efficient than ever before. Its flagship product, the Aurora Driver, is a platform that brings together software, hardware, and data services, to autonomously operate passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, and heavy-duty trucks. Aurora is partnered with industry leaders across the transportation ecosystem including Toyota, Volvo, PACCAR, Uber, Uber Freight, FedEx, and U.S. Xpress. Aurora tests its vehicles in the Bay Area, Pittsburgh, and Texas and has offices in those areas as well as in Bozeman, MT; Seattle, WA; Louisville, CO; and Detroit, MI. To learn more, visit www.aurora.tech.

Aurora hires talented people with diverse backgrounds who are ready to help build a transportation ecosystem that will make our roads safer, get crucial goods where they need to go, and make mobility more efficient and accessible for all. We’re searching for a Technical Program Manager - Perception.

At Aurora, we’re on a mission to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly. It all starts with the Aurora Driver, a platform created from industry-leading hardware and software and designed to adapt across a variety of vehicle types and industries.

We’re led by a team of self-driving luminaries, and we’ve forged strategic partnerships with leading transportation companies—including ride-hailing network Uber, truck-manufacturers PACCAR and Volvo Trucks, and the world’s largest automaker Toyota—setting us up to deliver the Aurora Driver in both trucks and passenger vehicles. We are funded by Amazon, Uber, T Rowe Price, and some of Silicon Valley’s best venture capital firms, including Sequoia, Greylock, and Index Ventures.

Aurora is in the best position to lead the self-driving space with a team of unparalleled depth and expertise, the technology to deliver, and the partnerships to build a transformative business for the long-term.

In this role, you will

• Partner deeply with Perception leads and engineers and drive to help develop requirements and roadmap for future needs in collaboration with adjacent teams, covering topics such as:
• Onboard perception system performance
• Offboard training, evaluation, and debugging tooling
• New sensor specifications and integration
• Collaborate closely with other autonomy software and hardware teams, policy leads, operations, and triage specialists on technical matters to ensure the Perception team’s work is aligning to broader organizational development.
• Assess requirements for software systems, facilitate selection of the best options, and coordinate the team to successfully evolve tools and operational processes to achieve them.
• Track progress, resolve dependencies, evaluate risks and communicate status to upper management and project stakeholders, and engage and energize the project teams to achieve aggressive goals.
• Manage complex projects at a large scale, spanning many functional teams and cross-functional initiatives. Instill an efficient project management mindset and workflow across the team, and function as a go-to resource for project management mentorship
• Remove obstacles to drive momentum and progress, identify gaps in communication or schedule, manage issue escalations and provide support to teams balancing competing priorities, and drive results proactively.
• Understand technical implementation at the architectural level and propose technical alternatives when necessary; ask questions that clarify priorities and push the team to be effective.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years experience as a Technical Program Manager, Product Manager, or Engineering Manager, or Engineer in an autonomous systems, robotics, data science, machine learning, computer vision, or software development environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Math, Data Science, Information Systems or a related area, or the equivalent in experience with evidence of exceptional ability preferred. 
• A strong familiarity with machine learning models, robotics or computer vision systems and their architecture.
• Direct, measurable impact through the design, development and launch of groundbreaking products or delivery of significant and novel technology programs.
• Solid technical aptitude and an ability to understand technical designs, software development lifecycle, challenges and risks; ability to work closely with en