Software Program Manager - HPC

Cornelis Networks, Inc.•Austin, TX

6d•Remote

About The Position

Cornelis Networks is seeking a Software Program Manager to drive execution across key software initiatives for next-generation products in a fast-paced, customer-focused startup developing interconnect solutions for HPC and AI datacenters. The role coordinates software, firmware, hardware, validation, product, and customer-facing workstreams, using technical fluency and disciplined execution to create clarity across complex programs. The successful candidate is organized, pragmatic, and comfortable with ambiguity. They establish effective, appropriately lightweight processes, align engineering teams around priorities and milestones, identify risks early, and communicate clearly with technical teams, executives, and customer-facing stakeholders. The position is remote for employees residing within the United States. The compensation package includes equity, cash, and incentives, along with health and retirement benefits. Base pay depends on skills, qualifications, experience, and location relative to the hiring range. Depending on the role, employees may also be eligible for performance-based incentives, including an annual bonus or sales incentives. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage; disability and life insurance; a dependent care flexible spending account; accidental injury insurance; pet insurance; paid holidays; a 401(k) with company match; and Open Time Off for regular full-time exempt employees. Other paid time off benefits include sick time, bonding leave, and pregnancy disability leave.

Requirements

At least 3 years of experience in software project management, including direct ownership of schedules, dependencies, and release execution.
Experience supporting HPC, AI/ML infrastructure, or other performance-critical systems environments.
Experience coordinating software deliverables against hardware or platform schedules, including bring-up, integration, and system-level milestones.
Strong knowledge of modern methodologies and AI workflows, and proficiency with tools such as Jira and Confluence.
Excellent communication and coordination skills, including the ability to collaborate across teams.
Proven ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced startup environment.
Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science or Engineering, or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Software Engineering background.
Exposure to fabric, networking, or silicon product development, or to AI training and inference infrastructure at scale.

Responsibilities

Lead planning and execution for key software initiatives, including schedules, milestones, dependencies, deliverables, and execution status, in partnership with software engineering leaders.
Own software schedules, deliverables, and dependencies supporting next-generation product milestones; track commitments across software, firmware, hardware, and platform teams, and surface scope, schedule, and integration tradeoffs early.
Coordinate across development, test, DevOps, firmware, hardware, platform and systems engineering, and field organizations to align priorities, dependencies, risks, release readiness, and customer commitments.
Partner with engineering and product teams to plan software releases, track scope, coordinate readiness reviews, manage defects and issue visibility, and support go/no-go decisions.
Establish and maintain dashboards, status reports, risk registers, milestone tracking, and communication rhythms; provide concise updates to engineering leadership and executives.
Drive visibility and follow-through on customer-facing software issues, escalations, and commitments, tracking ownership, mitigation plans, and resolution status with engineering, support, product, and field teams.
Improve planning, Jira workflows, release tracking, status reporting, bug triage, dependency management, and engineering execution through practical, lightweight processes.
Facilitate discussions about competing priorities, resource constraints, schedule risks, and customer commitments, ensuring decision points are surfaced and resolved by appropriate stakeholders.
Maintain accessible project plans, schedules, risks, decisions, dependencies, and execution status; partner with engineering and architecture teams to keep technical documentation of ownership clear.

Benefits

Equity, cash, and incentives as part of a competitive compensation package.
Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
Disability and life insurance.
Dependent care flexible spending account.
Accidental injury insurance.
Pet insurance.
Paid holidays.
401(k) with company match.
Open Time Off (OTO) for regular full-time exempt employees.
Sick time, bonding leave, and pregnancy disability leave.
Potential eligibility for performance-based incentives, including an annual bonus or sales incentives.