Principal Technical Program Manager

Coherent • Fremont, CA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal Technical Program Manager will lead technical engagement with Microsoft teams, including architecture, networking, qualification, and sourcing, to ensure alignment on product configuration, performance targets, telemetry needs, and sample plans. This role involves driving product readiness before customer shipment by coordinating various technical aspects such as demo hardware, reference firmware, interoperability coverage, tolerance testing, corner-condition calibration, and proactive system-level verification. A key responsibility is to own cross-functional issue resolution across areas like firmware, system integration, CMIS interpretation, power and thermal limits, optical performance, telemetry, and manufacturing, ensuring rapid response and effective closure plans. The manager will also collaborate with external switch, NIC, and system vendors, as well as internal product lines, to overcome interoperability blockers and enhance first-pass qualification success at Microsoft. Providing clear executive updates, maintaining risk registers, and offering data-driven trade-off recommendations concerning schedule, capacity, yield, BOM diversity, and customer commitments are essential. Building long-term trust with Microsoft engineering leaders through regular onsite and offsite reviews and providing hands-on support during bring-up, qualification, and ramp phases is also a critical aspect of this position.

Requirements

• B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Optics, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• 7+ years in technical marketing, customer engineering, systems engineering, or technical program management for optical transceivers, networking, or datacenter hardware.
• Strong working knowledge of optical module qualification, firmware and system bring-up, CMIS, telemetry or DDM, power and thermal trade-offs, and switch or NIC interoperability.
• Proven ability to influence hyperscale customers and lead cross-functional teams across R&D, operations, quality, and external partners to close urgent technical issues.
• Excellent communication and program leadership: concise executive updates, clear decision options, and data-driven problem solving.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting 800G or 1.6T qualification, or similar high-speed optical products with hyperscale customers.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical engagement with Microsoft architecture, networking, qualification, and sourcing teams to align product configuration, performance targets, telemetry needs, and sample plans.
• Drive readiness before customer shipment by coordinating demo hardware or EVB, reference firmware, interoperability coverage, tolerance testing, corner-condition calibration, and proactive system-level verification.
• Own cross-functional issue resolution for firmware and system integration, CMIS interpretation, power and thermal limits, optical performance, telemetry, and manufacturing issues; ensure fast response and closure plans.
• Coordinate with switch, NIC, and system vendors and internal product lines to remove interoperability blockers and improve first-pass qualification success at Microsoft.
• Provide clear executive updates, risk registers, and trade-off recommendations covering schedule, capacity, yield, BOM diversity, and customer commitments.
• Build long-term trust with Microsoft engineering leaders through regular onsite and offsite reviews and hands-on support during bring-up, qualification, and ramp.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees