Engineering Program Manager

Fellow began as a Kickstarter campaign and has grown into a global brand with distributors and customers in more than 50 countries. We bring the specialty coffee experience to people's homes via beautifully designed coffee ware that marries form and function. We currently have a small, passionate, and committed team that loves to see coffee tools come to life.

Position Overview:

Fellow is seeking an Engineering Program Manager to be an integral member of our Hardware Operations team and make a big impact on our future products. The ideal candidate loves details, schedules, and making products.

They will deliver timely launches by providing the technical guidance and project management skills to move a project from the concept phase, through prototype development, and into production. They will uncover and mitigate the obstacles to achieve each project’s goal.

A successful hire will proactively search for potential technical, logistical and communication issues before they arise and possess an arsenal of proven methodologies for mitigating each in a time-effective manner.

The Engineering Program Manager will accomplish all of this while living out Fellowship Thinking, our leadership principles:

• Fellowship Thinking centers our customers, always.
• Fellowship Thinking views all goals as shared.
• Fellowship Thinking never stops improving.
• Fellowship Thinking says “yes, if”.
• Fellowship Thinking deliberately seeks equity. 

This role is based in our office in San Francisco, CA and is required to be in-office 3 days per week. Availability for regular calls with team members and partners in Asia is required as well as occasional travel to these locations (once a quarter).

Responsibilities:

Project Management: Develop and manage project plans, including scope, schedule, resources, budget, and quality. Track progress, manage risks, and adjust plans to meet objectives.

Cross-Functional Coordination: Act as a liaison between PD, EE, FW, Category, Quality, Marketing and Ops as well as external partners to ensure alignment on goals, timelines, and requirements.

Technical Oversight: Provide technical guidance, ensuring engineering solutions meet project goals and technical specifications are clearly understood and align with the PRD.  Monitor the technical progress of the project and ensure that engineering solutions align with project goals.  

Risk Management: Identify potential risks that could impact the project timeline, budget, or quality. Develop risk mitigation strategies and contingency plans. Monitor and manage risks throughout the project lifecycle to minimize impact.  

Resource and Quality Management: Allocate resources effectively (personnel, tools, and equipment), manage team workloads, and ensure projects meet quality standards and regulations through testing and validation.  Coordinate testing and validation activities to verify that the product meets technical requirements.

Stakeholder Communication and Change Management: Communicate project status (progress, risks, and issues), manage changes to scope, schedule, and resources, and ensure all stakeholders are informed and aligned.  Prepare and present project reports and documentation to senior management. Facilitate decision-making by providing clear, concise information and analysis.

Performance Monitoring and Leadership: Track key performance indicators (KPIs), analyze data to identify trends, areas for improvement, and opportunities.  Lead and develop teams, and foster a positive work environment.

Post-Project Review: Conduct reviews to evaluate project outcomes, document lessons learned, and incorporate feedback into future project planning.

Requirements:

• 5+ years of experience in program management and/or engineering in consumer facing industries
• Hands on experience with hardware development using outside supplier teams
• Direct experience working directly with engineering teams
• New product introduction (NPI) experience in CM and JDM models 
• Strong understanding of technical requirements for technology integration
• Proficient at creating and tracking complex and rapid development schedules, managing issues, and tracking bugs
• Exposure to system/device development, build and planning
• Excellent verbal and written communications, with attention to detail
• Ability to multitask and manage multiple programs efficiently
• Experience managing projects across cross functional teams, building sustainable processes and coordinating release