Sr Technical Program Manager, See & Spray

Blue River Technology•Santa Clara, CA

14h•$158,000 - $238,000•Hybrid

About The Position

We’re Blue River, a team of innovators driven to create intelligent machinery that solves monumental problems for our customers. We empower our customers - farmers, construction crews, and foresters to implement safer and more sustainable solutions, driving increased profitability with less reliance on scarce labor. We believe that focusing on the small stuff, pixel-by-pixel and task-by-task, leads to big gains. Blue River Technology aligns with John Deere’s vision to “innovate on behalf of humanity” by quickly identifying and solving high-value, high-uncertainty challenges in AI, machine learning, computer vision, and robotics. BRT acts as a research and development flywheel, building not only new products but also new platforms that reliably create value for both Deere and its customers. From fully autonomous machines to highly precise farming equipment, BRT and Deere are partnering to deliver technical breakthroughs across industries such as agriculture and construction. Our people are at the heart of what we do. Through cross-disciplinary collaboration, this mission-driven team is eager to define the new frontier of robotics. We are always asking hard questions, rapidly iterating, and getting our boots in the field to figure it out. We won’t give up until we’ve made a tangible and positive impact on the planet! Blue River Technology is based in Santa Clara, CA. Summary Blue River's See and Spray and See and Scout product lines use advanced computer vision and machine learning to transform how farmers manage their fields -- reducing chemical use, improving yields, and enabling precision at scale. The Program Management team drives cross-functional execution across our mission-based teams (MBTs), ensuring complex hardware, software, and systems integration programs deliver on time and with quality. We operate at the intersection of engineering, product, and operations—and we are growing. We are seeking a Senior Technical Program Manager to own the processes, tools, and systems that enable our software releases and field deployments. This is not a role where you manage a single product release — you will support Robotics development (RSW), Computer Vision Machine Learning (CVML) model development, and internal tooling infrastructure that all mission-based teams depend on. You will help ensure our release pipeline runs on a predictable cadence and that our data-collection feedback loops are automated and reliable, delivering features to customers in a timely manner. This role requires someone who can drive cross-organizational alignment across engineering, product, and field operations.

Requirements

BS or MS in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
8+ years of experience in technical program management, systems engineering, or a related technical role.
2 years minimum in a robotics or ML-intensive product environment.
Experience managing cross-organizational dependencies without direct authority over the teams involved. Expert at finding the right escalation points.
Strong systems thinking ability to understand how changes in one part of the stack (new sensor, model update, firmware/middleware change) ripple through the rest.
Track record of defining metrics, standing up dashboards, and using data to drive decisions.
Demonstrated ability to deploy the right tools (Jira, GitHub, risk matrices, dashboards, AI agents) to match the program's complexity.
Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present to executive leadership.
Strong technical acumen—ability to read architectural diagrams, write specs and test plans, and go deep on engineering issues when needed.

Nice To Haves

Experience in autonomous systems.
Familiarity with machine learning model development and deployment pipelines.
Experience with HIL/SIL/XIL test infrastructure or V and V processes for safety-critical systems.
Experience with OTA update systems, field deployment logistics, or dealer- and customer-facing technical programs.
Demonstrated ability to own and improve SDLC processes across multiple teams. Experience with CI/CD pipelines, test automation frameworks, and DevOps practices.
Knowledge of data collection pipelines, log management systems, and data governance.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end delivery of complex robotics programs spanning perception and application software.
Develop and maintain program schedules that account for the inherent uncertainty of ML development, including experimentation, data collection cycles, and model evaluation.
Define program structure, milestones, definitions, and exit criteria in collaboration with engineering leads - including what “good enough to ship” means.
Identify technical risks proactively, beyond status reports, from understanding what is being built and what can go wrong.
Distinguish between ML performance risks (model performance targets), hardware risks (camera development, sensor data and actuator reliability), system integration risks (latency, VPU timing), and data risks (managing shifts between training and deployment environments).
Support current Over-the-Air update infrastructure while helping identify/resolve issues to increase overall customer and dealer trust in the technology.
Manage data collection cycles spanning the data pipeline, hardware deployment, field engineering coordination, and simulation tools to deliver high-quality ML and robotics models.
Accelerate the model development loop by ensuring faster feedback loops to enable a self-sustaining pipeline.