Technical Program Manager, Thermal Systems

ALTEN Technology•Foster City, CA

5d•Onsite

About The Position

We’re ALTEN Technology USA, an engineering company helping clients bring groundbreaking ideas to life—from advancing space exploration and life-saving medical devices to building autonomous electric vehicles. With 3,000+ experts across North America, we partner with leading companies in aerospace, medical devices, robotics, automotive, commercial vehicles, EVs, rail, and more. As part of the global ALTEN Group—57,000+ engineers in 30 countries—we deliver across the entire product development cycle, from consulting to full project outsourcing. When you join ALTEN Technology USA, you’ll collaborate on some of the world’s toughest engineering challenges, supported by mentorship, career growth opportunities, and comprehensive benefits. We take pride in fostering a culture where employees feel valued, supported, and inspired to grow. ALTEN Technology is supporting an autonomous vehicle client who is preparing for mass production of its cutting-edge autonomous robots. The goal of the Vehicle Development team is to develop a vehicle from the ground up that is capable of L4 autonomy and can be produced at scale. The Vehicle Development team is responsible for not only the design, but also the testing of the robot we are building. We are seeking a skilled Technical Program Manager to join our Thermal Systems team. You will play a key role in ensuring program deliverables are met and the team is on track on the day-to-day activities.

Requirements

5+ years of technical program management experience delivering complex automotive, aerospace, or robotics hardware programs.
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).
Deep understanding of vehicle systems, development cycles, and prototype/pre-production testing.
Expert-level capability structuring JIRA boards, workflows, and dashboards for real-time project health visibility.
A proven "closer" mindset with a high sense of autonomy, excellent synthesis skills, and a calm demeanor under shifting priorities.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in Mechanical, Aerospace, or Electrical Engineering.
Direct experience working with autonomous vehicle platforms, thermal systems, or vehicle engineering.
Experience in a fast-paced startup or high-growth "execution-first" environment.

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end delivery of critical vehicle program milestones, proactively clearing technical bottlenecks to keep programs on track.
Partner with hardware, attribute, controls and program to surface and architect immediate recovery plans.
Design and maintain lightweight JIRA workflows, sprint cadences, and reporting rituals that maximize engineering focus and minimize admin debt.
Act as the primary interface for cross-functional requests, ensuring hardware, software, and validation dependencies are tightly coordinated.
Translate fast-moving, complex technical data into concise, actionable updates for leadership.
Coordinate with engineers to maintain the timelines.