Hardware Operations Program Manager

Gritt Robotics•Belmont, CA

21h•Onsite

About The Position

Gritt Robotics is seeking a Hardware Operations Program Manager to act as the chief of staff for the hardware organization. This role is crucial for enhancing the efficiency of the team and its leads by clarifying priorities, unblocking engineers, establishing realistic schedules, maintaining a tight cadence, and ensuring timely component availability. The position also involves end-to-end procurement, including sourcing components, managing vendors, tracking purchase orders, and overseeing the final assembly, testing, and readiness of systems before shipment. This is a hands-on, on-site position for an organized and motivated individual who thrives at the intersection of program management, supply chain, and hardware execution.

Requirements

3–6 years of experience in technical program management, chief of staff, operations, or procurement.
Experience in a hardware, robotics, mechanical, aerospace, automotive, or manufacturing environment is ideal.
Excellent communication and follow-through skills, with a reputation for prompt responses and reliability.
Natural organizational skills, maintaining clean task lists, schedules, vendor records, and BOMs.
Comfort with hardware, including the ability to read mechanical drawings, understand bills of materials, communicate with machine shops, source components like LiDAR or industrial cameras, and assess system completion.
Strong interpersonal skills to collaborate effectively with engineers, suppliers, deployment teams, and leadership.
Ability to remain calm and execute plans effectively under pressure.
A mission-driven mindset with a desire to contribute to building the future of infrastructure.
Strong Excel / Google Sheets skills for BOMs, cost rollups, and supplier comparisons.

Nice To Haves

Experience procuring custom machined or fabricated parts (CNC, sheet metal, weldments) alongside off-the-shelf hardware.
Familiarity sourcing sensors and compute, including LiDAR, industrial cameras, NVIDIA Jetson/x86 compute modules, GPUs, and automotive-grade cabling and connectors, with an understanding of environmental ratings.
Hands-on experience setting up or administering an ERP/MRP or PLM system at a hardware startup.
Background working with mechanical, electrical, and firmware engineers on integrated hardware systems.
Exposure to construction equipment, heavy machinery, off-highway vehicles, or field service in real-world environments.
Relevant certifications such as APICS/ASCM (CPIM, CSCP), ISM CPSM, PMP, or Lean/Six Sigma.

Responsibilities

Act as a force multiplier for hardware leads by managing tasks such as meeting preparation, follow-ups, status reporting, and cross-functional coordination.
Manage the day-to-day operations of the hardware team, ensuring clear task lists, weekly priorities, and sprint-level plans.
Maintain a comprehensive understanding of each engineer's workload and immediate needs.
Develop and maintain realistic timelines for system development from design freeze to field deployment, proactively identifying and addressing schedule slippage.
Lead team cadence meetings, including stand-ups, reviews, and planning sessions, ensuring thorough note-taking and action item tracking.
Serve as the primary point of contact for engineers facing issues with parts, vendors, tools, or dependencies, and drive rapid resolution.
Provide clear and honest status updates, risk assessments, and decision-making needs to leadership.
Source off-the-shelf and custom mechanical components, including brackets, mounts, fasteners, structural parts, machined parts, LiDAR units, cameras, compute modules, cabling, and connectors.
Build and maintain strong relationships with mechanical suppliers, sensor and compute distributors, and local machine shops, negotiating price, lead time, and quality.
Manage the entire purchase order lifecycle, track shipments, and maintain accurate inventory records.
Anticipate and mitigate risks associated with long-lead items like LiDARs and industrial cameras by ordering early and qualifying alternative suppliers.
Monitor project spending per system, negotiate favorable pricing, and support cost-aware sourcing decisions.
Ensure all Gritt Robotics field systems are correctly assembled, fully tested, and signed off before shipment, covering mechanical structure, sensors, compute, and host-equipment mounting.
Oversee a defined testing process, including mechanical and functional checks, alignment, boot-up, and end-to-end checkout.
Monitor assembly processes to identify and rectify issues early.
Coordinate with the deployment team to ensure systems are fully configured with necessary components and documentation for on-site installation.
Capture and integrate feedback from testing and deployment into design, sourcing, and assembly processes to prevent recurrence of issues.