Staff Product Program Manager, Network Expansion

Aurora•Mountain View, CA

11d•$163,000 - $290,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Aurora's commercial trucking network is expanding, with a goal of having over 200 Aurora-powered trucks in driverless commercial operation across multiple freight corridors by the end of 2026. Each new lane, endpoint, weigh station, and truck stop must pass software readiness gates before commercial operation without a driver. The Staff PM, Network Expansion is responsible for overseeing this software readiness picture, serving as the primary source of truth for senior leadership, commercial partners, and engineering teams. This role also involves building the processes and tooling necessary to scale with the expanding commercial network.

Requirements

Ability to range across strategy and execution, including structuring prioritization frameworks for VPs and performing hands-on operational work like building readiness checklists or running daily check-ins.
Credibility with engineering teams, with a strong technical understanding of ODD analysis, test coverage, and system integration to assess schedule realism, identify executive-level risks, and ask effective questions in engineering reviews.
Cross-functional influence in high-stakes environments, with the ability to drive alignment and accountability across Vehicle Operations, Mapping Operations, Systems & Safety Engineering, Perception, and Business Development without direct ownership of their roadmaps.
Experience navigating multi-team environments where accountability for outcomes without direct control is essential.
Comfort building processes and tooling in ambiguous environments where current systems are still under development.

Nice To Haves

Experience with operational or physical readiness programs in autonomous vehicles, aviation, rail, logistics, or manufacturing launch.

Responsibilities

Own the definitive view of software readiness for all highway segments, customer endpoints, weigh stations, border patrol stations, and truck stops against readiness criteria and customer commitments, including map development, ODD analysis, test creation, and on-road performance.
Keep the software readiness picture current across all active sites and ensure it informs release planning and prioritization decisions.
Aggregate workstream status for the lane expansion program and produce executive software readiness updates for senior leadership.
Own the agenda and content for weekly program reviews and lead VP-level decision meetings for escalations or tradeoff resolutions.
Connect commercial network priorities to autonomy capability development, partnering with engineering teams to ensure the capability roadmap aligns with expansion needs.
Partner with Business Development and Product Strategy to identify high-priority sites and translate them into engineering planning input.
Articulate business consequences of workstream slips affecting the commercial schedule and identify available tradeoffs.
Track and unblock engineering dependencies for lane and endpoint readiness, working with Motion Planning, Perception, and Systems & Safety Engineering.
Ensure mapping work is sequenced according to lane and endpoint readiness timelines.
Coordinate with Vehicle Operations for efficient and effective on-road testing.
Partner with Vehicle Operations leadership to develop the fleet demand forecast, informing hiring and vehicle allocation.
Provide forward-looking input on development vehicle needs for specific lanes and endpoints.
Identify scaling limitations in current tracking and coordination processes as the network grows.
Design and drive improvements to tooling and handoffs to facilitate readiness assessment for a larger network.