Staff Technical Program Manager, Embedded Software

Aurora Innovation Aurora Innovation · Robotics · Mountain View, CA · Hardware

This role is for a Staff Technical Program Manager focused on the foundational infrastructure and testing environments for an Embedded Software organization within a self-driving technology company. The primary responsibility is to lead programs that integrate software platform engineering and hardware-software integration, ensuring developers have the necessary automated tools and high-fidelity testing environments to safely ship the product. Key tasks include managing release processes, automated deployment, HIL testing systems, and acting as a liaison between software and hardware teams to optimize developer velocity and provide executive reporting on system health and fleet stability.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead the planning and execution for internal software infrastructure, focusing on scaling our release process, automated deployment to vehicles and test benches, and providing visibility into system health through advanced dashboarding.
  2. Own the software-readiness roadmap for our complex hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing systems. You will ensure that physical testing assets are optimized to support the development velocity across all of Aurora.
  3. Act as a liaison between Embedded Software and Hardware Engineering teams to ensure that physical testing assets are designed, built, and maintained in lockstep with software development milestones.
  4. Proactively identify bottlenecks in our release pipeline, deployment infrastructure, or testing asset availability and work with engineering leadership to implement systemic improvements to developer velocity.
  5. Provide program status, resource gap analyses, and hardware-software dependency tracking for executive leadership reviews, ensuring a clear picture of our testing fleet’s stability and throughput.

Skills

Required

  • managing complex technical programs
  • software infrastructure
  • DevOps
  • hardware-integrated software testing
  • managing software release cycles
  • CI/CD pipelines
  • automated deployment systems for embedded or edge devices
  • managing the utilization of physical test environments (e.g., HIL, SIL, or lab benches)
  • balancing fleet bandwidth against engineering demand
  • Jira
  • roadmap software (Smartsheets, etc.)
  • building data-driven dashboards for tracking system performance and fleet health
  • program management methodologies
  • synchronizing software with physical hardware development

Nice to have

  • autonomous vehicles
  • robotics
  • automotive industry
  • developing safety critical code
  • hands on software development

What the JD emphasized

  • Minimum 5 years experience managing complex technical programs, with a focus on software infrastructure, DevOps, or hardware-integrated software testing
  • Proven track record of managing software release cycles, CI/CD pipelines, and automated deployment systems for embedded or edge devices.
  • Experience managing the utilization of physical test environments (e.g., HIL, SIL, or lab benches) and understanding how to balance fleet bandwidth against engineering demand.
  • Deep experience with program management methodologies in an environment where software must be synchronized with physical hardware development.