Software Technical Program Manager Thermal Systems

Title: Software Technical Program Manager Thermal Systems
Location: Onsite Palo Alto, 4 days onsite a week
Duration: 12+ Months Contract

Job Description:

Scope Summary:

1. Software Agile/Scrum Team TPM
2. Domain: Thermal Systems

What to Look For:

1. Must have experience running Agile Scrum Teams and Jira
2. Someone who has managed software development in automotive or related/similar industries
3. Someone who has experience working on vehicle thermal systems, body controls, or embedded software either as TPM, Engineer, or Engr Lead
4. Someone who has experience working with automotive diagnostics
5. Someone with experience establishing a software maturity plan or someone who has delivered to a software maturity plan
6. Big plus for someone who has launch experience with a vehicle OEM in systems, software development, or testing

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Thermal Systems, Body Controls, or Embedded Software Technical Program Manager. The TPM will be responsible for driving the Thermal Systems Controls team to meet their committed deliverables as well as working with the engineers, technical leads, and managers across the broader organization to assess risk, communicate status, and drive closure to key issues. The ideal candidate will have a strong technical background in automotive thermal systems, body controls, or embedded software development. They must have excellent project management skills, experience working with highly cross-functional teams, and proficient with project management tools such as Jira and MS Project/Smartsheet.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate with various controls, systems, and integration engineers to establish feature delivery roadmaps, define key deliverable delivery dates, and tie deliverables to engineering milestones.
• Work Right-to-Left to ensure that the Thermal Systems Controls development plans meet end-user needs, support hardware and system DV test plans, and meet engineering program milestones.
• Coordinate with vehicle program management on prototype vehicle and test asset allocation. Ensure engineers have the resources that they need, at the time that they need it, to complete their testing and validation.
• Run sprint planning sessions and help organize the engineering task workflow.
• Track sprint action items and progress towards engineering deliverables. Report status to engineering management and escalate concerns when necessary.
• Work with engineering management to assess team workload management and vocalize resource gaps.
• Assist engineering to prioritize work tasks and ensure team progress.
• Set the overall sprint timeline, identify and resolve roadblocks.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Software Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in software program/project management, systems integration, or V&V, with significant time in automotive or embedded/vehicle software environments.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex, cross-functional software integration and test programs with multiple interdependent workstreams.
• Experience with SDLC, Agile/SAFe methodologies, and CI/CD
• Experience working with vehicle thermal systems, body controls, or embedded software development
• Excellent risk management, prioritization, and stakeholder communication skills; ability to translate technical complexity into clear program status for leadership.
• Proficiency with program management and tracking tools (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps, MS Project / Smartsheet) and defect/test management systems.
• Strong analytical, data-driven approach to decision-making.
• Willingness and ability to travel to test sites/trip locations as required.

Key Competencies

• Systems-level thinking with strong technical fluency across hardware-software boundaries
• Executive-level communication and influence without direct authority
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and driving clarity across complex, matrixed organizations
• Strong ownership mindset and bias for action under tight program timelines