Technical Program Management

Chalk•San Francisco, CA

3d•$225,000 - $275,000•Onsite

About The Position

Chalk is building the data platform that powers the future of machine learning applications. We tear down complexity, latency, and scale barriers that have traditionally constrained ML capabilities. Our platform combines Rust-speed performance with elegant tools that developers love to use. Leading companies depend on Chalk for everything from stopping fraudulent credit card swipes, verifying identities, and maximizing clean energy capture. We've recently raised a $50 million Series A, led by Felicis. We are hiring our first Technical Program Manager to drive execution across Chalk's most important initiatives. Chalk's surface area is growing quickly: the Chalk Context Engine serves features to models and agents in single-digit milliseconds, and Chalk Compute runs models and agents securely inside our customers' own clouds. Every launch spans engineering, product, docs, and go-to-market, and we need someone who keeps all of it moving. You'll work directly with our founders, VP of Product, and engineering leads to build and run our program management systems, processes, and culture. We want to move fast, and any process that slows us down should be there because it leads to better decisions and products. We're in the office 5 days a week. When unavoidable conflicts come up, we're flexible. This is not a hybrid role.

Requirements

10+ years of experience, including 6+ years of technical program management experience
Track record of shipping complex, multi-team technical programs from concept to launch
Strong technical depth: you can follow architecture discussions, pressure-test engineering plans, and understand how data infrastructure and ML systems fit together
Crisp written and verbal communication: your program proposals, reviews, and decision/tradeoff docs create clarity and get buy-in from engineers and execs alike
Comfortable operating in ambiguity; you build structure where none exists
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent

Nice To Haves

Prior experience as a software engineer or in another hands-on technical role
Experience launching developer-facing platforms, APIs, or ML/data infrastructure
Experience as the first TPM or program hire at a startup
Familiarity with some of the systems we build and run: Data: streaming and batch feature pipelines, data warehousing, analytics, BI
Serving and infrastructure: single-digit-millisecond online serving, serverless compute, and Kubernetes deployments inside customer VPCs (“Bring Your Own Cloud” deployments)
AI: training, fine-tuning, serving, and deploying models, plus agentic applications
Languages: Python, SQL, Rust, and Go

Responsibilities

Drive Chalk's largest cross-functional programs end to end, including critical product launches, with complete independence
Build the program management systems, processes, and culture that change how teams think, decide, collaborate, measure progress, and deliver
Elevate the execution capability of the engineering teams around you
Own timelines, dependencies, and risks for major platform initiatives — surface tradeoffs early and drive them to decisions
Run launch readiness for new products and capabilities, coordinating engineering delivery with docs, marketing, and customer-facing teams
Give founders and engineering leads clear visibility into program health, blockers, and outcomes
Influence and, where necessary, push back on leads and execs: force sequencing tradeoffs, tell us when we're not ready to ship, and help us focus by saying no to more things
Participate actively in product and engineering design, identifying risks and opportunities in technical strategy, architecture, and how we structure the engineering org
Unblock teams: chase down dependencies, resolve conflicts, and keep decisions moving