First TPM for ML Platform: Lead Cross‑Team Launches

Chalk; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

FSA/HSA options

Lunch and dinner provided

Fully stocked office snacks

Evening Uber / Lyft home

Job summary

Chalk is hiring its first Technical Program Manager to drive end-to-end execution across Chalk's initiatives, including the Context Engine and Compute platform. You will partner with founders, the VP of Product, and engineering leads to build our program management systems and processes.

Requirements include 10+ years of experience, 6+ years in TPM, deep technical depth, and superb communication. You should handle ambiguity, surface tradeoffs early, and push for clear decisions.

Qualifications

• 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: follow architecture discussions, data infrastructure and ML systems.
• Crisp written and verbal communication; ability to influence engineers and execs.
• Bachelor's degree in CS, Engineering, or equivalent.

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

Skills

Technical program management

Cross-functional leadership

Written communication

Ambiguity management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Kubernetes

Python

SQL

Rust

Go

Job description

Chalk is hiring its first Technical Program Manager to drive end-to-end execution across Chalk's initiatives, including the Context Engine and Compute platform. You will partner with founders, the VP of Product, and engineering leads to build our program management systems and processes.

Requirements include 10+ years of experience, 6+ years in TPM, deep technical depth, and superb communication. You should handle ambiguity, surface tradeoffs early, and push for clear decisions.