Technical Program Manager

Title: Technical Program Manager
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.

Required Skills & Experience:

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.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 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)

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