Staff Technical Program Manager

The posting, as Apptronik wrote it

Apptronik is a human-centered robotics company developing AI-powered robots to support humanity in every facet of life. Our flagship humanoid robot, Apollo, is built to collaborate thoughtfully with people, starting with critical industries such as manufacturing and logistics, with future applications in healthcare, the home, and beyond.

We operate at the cutting edge of Applied AI, applying our expertise across the full robotics stack to solve some of society's most important problems. You will join a team dedicated to bringing Apollo to market at scale, tackling the complex challenges like safety, commercialization, and mass production to change the world for the better.

JOB SUMMARY

We are looking for a seasoned Staff Technical Program Manager to be the first TPM in our newly opened Sunnyvale, CA office. This is a high-autonomy, high-visibility role at the intersection of AI/ML infrastructure, robot perception, and strategic partnerships. You will lead complex, cross-functional programs spanning ML operations and perception for humanoid robotics, while serving as the primary program interface to one of our most important strategic AI partners — ensuring crisp communication, aligned priorities, and delivery against shared goals.

As the first TPM on the ground in Sunnyvale, you will wear many hats: standing up program structure for a new site, driving ML and perception program execution, and shaping how Apptronik collaborates with world-class external AI teams. You will set the strategic direction for how these programs are planned and executed, drive alignment between executive stakeholders and engineering leadership, and help scale the program management function as the Sunnyvale team grows.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• New Site Program Leadership: Serve as the first TPM in the Sunnyvale office. Establish program management structure, cadences, and operating rhythms for a new and rapidly growing site, while staying tightly connected to Austin-based engineering and program leadership.
• MLOps Program Ownership: Own end-to-end execution of ML infrastructure and operations programs — including data pipelines, training and evaluation infrastructure, model release processes, and the tooling that enables rapid, reliable iteration on robot learning systems.
• Perception Program Leadership: Lead and TPM the perception team's program execution for humanoid robotics — driving roadmaps execution, milestones, and cross-functional integration of perception capabilities into the full robot stack.
• Strategic Partner Interface: Act as the primary program conduit to a key strategic AI partner. Ensure clear, proactive, bidirectional communication; translate partner needs into internal execution plans; track joint milestones and deliverables; and ensure Apptronik is consistently meeting partner expectations while advocating for Apptronik's priorities.
• Ownership: Own program execution end to end. Set strategic d

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ale, managing critical path and interdependencies across portfolios, and delivering against company roadmap goals.

• Influence in Resource-Constrained Environments — Proven ability to align product, engineering, research, and executive teams, prioritize across competing demands, and execute successfully in fast-paced, limited-resource settings.
• Strategic Thinking — Ability to translate company strategy into actionable program plans and influence roadmap decisions through data-driven insight.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Computer, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or Applied Physics required
• 10+ years of experience in technical program management or engineering management, including leading cross-functional teams across ML/AI and software, with demonstrated experience operating at a senior or staff level
• Preferred: Experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or embodied AI
• Preferred: Direct experience with robot learning, manipulation/dexterous systems, modeling, or large-scale ML data and training programs
• Preferred: Experience with edge AI inference platforms and embedded systems integration
• Preferred: Master's degree in Engineering or Computer Science

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times
• Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen
• Hearing and speech to communicate

The annual compensation range for this position is $250,000-$285,000.

*This is a direct hire. Please, no outside Agency solicitations.

Apptronik provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.