Senior Staff Technical Program Manager, OEM Vehicle Programs

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, OEM Vehicle Programs.

This candidate will manage cross-functional programs to integrate the new generations of the Aurora Driver with a number of vehicle platforms at various stages of maturity. In doing so, s/he will be responsible for setting milestones with a high level of cross-department dependencies, tracking progress and maintaining accountability against those milestones, and identifying and mitigating risks from early requirements definition phases to integrated vehicle deployment.

S/he will report to the Director of Vehicle Programs and will work closely with Product, Hardware Engineering, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering and Operations teams within Aurora.

In this role, you will

• Manage and be accountable for complex projects at a large scale, spanning functional teams and cross-functional initiatives, including hardware and software engineering, legal, safety and security, business and commercial development, finance, supply chain and operations 
• Create cohesive work plans to track and drive partnership product deliverables, both internal and external to Aurora, across all phases of the program to ensure timely completion, resolve dependencies, evaluate risks and effectively communicate status to upper management project stakeholders
• Solicit, aggregate and track product and technical requirements for integrated vehicles to ensure alignment with high level company roadmap and satisfaction of the broader organization
• Define, communicate, and track key performance indicators for OEM programs at various stages of maturity across multiple functions and departments
• Identify, catalog, and report on risks to OEM programs across multiple teams. Manage burndown of these risks through the program lifecycle.
• Understand technical implementation at the architectural level and propose alternatives when necessary, ask questions that clarify priorities and push the team to be effective
• Proactively remove obstacles to drive momentum and progress, identify gaps in communication or schedule, provide support to teams balancing competing priorities and drive results
• Run programmatic meetings with appropriate level of detail for the respective audience - from working level to executive level. Proactively schedule meetings or discussions with cross-functional partners to address roadblocks. Ensure meetings are action-oriented, and result in clear notes covering outcomes/decisions, and next steps have identified DRIs and due dates
• Build and maintain relationships with Aurora’s partners, understand their needs and drive alignment with Aurora’s product vision
• Coordinate and drive workshops with partners; build agenda, track progress and be responsible for outstanding items and next steps
• Suggest and implement process improvements to OEM vehicle programs.
• Create and maintain guidelines and procedures to protect the confidentiality of all program documentation and material

Required Qualifications

• Based near an Aurora office, preferably Mountain View, San Francisco, or Pittsburgh.
• Ability to travel.
• Experience in program management and operations of highly technical initiatives
• Ability to break complex projects down to manageable milestones and deliver them in a successful and timely manner
• Strong ability to communicate (verbal and written) succinctly and effectively to various global audiences at all levels, from line engineers to partners to C-level executives 
• Master collaborator -- unflappable with impeccable attention to detail and organization, ability to