R&D Lab & Hardware Program Lead

DDN; North Carolina; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

DDN is seeking an experienced Technical Program Manager to lead lab consolidation and hardware build coordination across engineering programs. The role focuses on ensuring lab capacity, suitable build inventories, and timely hardware support for ongoing R&D work.

The position requires 8–12 years in technical program management or related fields, with strong cross-functional and stakeholder communication skills.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of experience in technical program management or lab/data center operations.
• Experience coordinating hardware build schedules with engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain teams.
• Strong cross-functional coordination and ability to manage multi-workstream plans with hard deadlines.
• Experience tracking physical hardware assets at scale, including relocation/reconciliation.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to synthesize status for engineering leadership.
• Bachelor's degree in a technical field or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate the lab consolidation end to end—sequencing site moves, equipment migration, and decommissioning across teams.
• Partner with facilities, IT, and hardware engineering on consolidated lab layout and migration timeline.
• Track milestones, dependencies, and risks; escalate blockers threatening timelines or R&D continuity.
• Serve as the R&D-side point of coordination for hardware build requests, ensuring required systems and test equipment are available.
• Track build status and dependencies; proactively flag risks to program milestones.
• Prioritize and sequence competing build and lab requests against program urgency and lab capacity.

Skills

Cross-functional coordination

Program management

Hardware coordination

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in technical field

Job description

DDN is seeking an experienced Technical Program Manager to lead lab consolidation and hardware build coordination across engineering programs. The role focuses on ensuring lab capacity, suitable build inventories, and timely hardware support for ongoing R&D work.

The position requires 8–12 years in technical program management or related fields, with strong cross-functional and stakeholder communication skills.