Senior Technical Program Manager

Drivemode; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

Bonus program

Job summary

Drivemode, a Honda-backed startup, seeks a Senior Technical Program Manager to own delivery for backend and platform systems powering Honda’s next-generation mobile companion apps. This hands-on TPM role sits at the center of mobile, backend, QA, and regional teams, emphasizing clarity in inputs, ownership, and readiness signals before releases.

You will drive execution discipline, align on milestones, and surface risks early with clear mitigation plans, building execution artifacts and ensuring

Qualifications

• 5+ years in Technical Program Management or equivalent roles in software environments.
• Strong technical fluency with backend services, APIs, and distributed systems.
• Proven ability to drive execution across Product, Engineering, and QA.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery for backend and platform initiatives supporting mobile applications across regions.
• Drive execution discipline by enforcing clear requirements and ownership, dependency visibility, and readiness signals before work is released.
• Partner with backend engineers to define system boundaries, interfaces, and milestones; surface risks with mitigation plans.
• Coordinate across mobile, backend, QA, and regional stakeholders to ensure traceability from implementation to release.
• Maintain execution hygiene in Jira, reflecting scope, status, dependencies, readiness, and release tracking.
• Translate complex technical realities into clear status updates and tradeoffs for leadership and partners.
• Build and evolve artifacts (plans, trackers, dashboards, metrics) to support decision-making.
• Identify and eliminate delivery bottlenecks by improving processes and cross-team communication.
• Support production readiness by considering reliability, scalability, and compliance in delivery plans.

Skills

Technical Program Management

Backend APIs

Cross-functional leadership

Communication

Multi-region delivery

Tools

Jira

Job description

Driving technology always feels old. Not by a little bit. We believe vehicles can be a thousand times smarter, safer, and more connected to the world around us, and our mission is to see it happen. In 2019, we joined forces with Honda as their first startup acquisition, and now we’re expanding our vision into building the future of electric vehicles (BEV) for millions of people around the world.

Why Drivemode:

Join Drivemode for an exciting startup environment and a vibrant culture that combines impactful work, competitive compensation, and excellent benefits. By becoming a part of our team, you'll contribute to a crucial mission that revolutionizes the way people engage with vehicles, addressing both business needs and the world's environmental challenges. This presents an exceptional opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation and drive Honda's success in the EV market.

About the role

Drivemode, a part of Honda, is seeking a visionary and results-driven Senior Technical Program Manager to own and drive delivery for complex backend and platform systems that power Honda’s next-generation mobile companion applications.

This role sits at the center of mobile, backend, QA, and regional teams, and is ideal for someone who believes that great execution starts with clarity: clear inputs, clear ownership, and clear readiness signals before work enters a release.

This is a hands-on, execution-focused TPM role with real system ownership, technical depth, and a defined growth path toward Staff Technical Program Manager as scope and impact expand.

What you do

• Own end-to-end delivery for backend and platform initiatives supporting mobile applications across regions.
• Drive execution discipline by enforcing clear requirements and ownership, dependency visibility, and explicit readiness signals before work is committed to a release.
• Partner deeply with backend engineering teams to clarify system boundaries, interfaces, and constraints; align on technical milestones and delivery expectations; and surface risks early with clear mitigation plans.
• Coordinate across mobile, backend, QA, and regional stakeholders to ensure requirements are traceable through implementation, validation, and release.
• Own execution hygiene and accuracy for backend-related work, ensuring Jira reflects reality across scope, status, dependencies, readiness, and release tracking — and stepping in directly when signal or data quality breaks down.
• Translate complex technical realities into clear, honest status, risks, and tradeoffs for leadership and external partners.
• Build and evolve execution artifacts (plans, trackers, dashboards, metrics) that reflect reality and enable decision‑making.
• Identify and eliminate delivery bottlenecks by improving processes, tooling, and cross‑team communication.
• Support production readiness by ensuring reliability, scalability, and compliance considerations are accounted for in delivery plans.

What we are looking for

• 5+ years of experience in Technical Program Management, Program Management, or equivalent roles in software‑driven environments.
• Strong technical fluency, including hands‑on experience working with backend services and APIs, distributed or asynchronous systems, and mobile <--> backend integrations.
• Proven ability to work closely with engineers and architects, understand technical tradeoffs, and ask the right technical questions.
• Demonstrated experience driving execution across Product, Engineering, and QA.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with an emphasis on clarity and precision.

Nice to Have:

• Prior experience as a software engineer, system architect, or technical lead
• Experience working on platform, infrastructure, or integration-heavy systems.
• Familiarity with identity, subscriptions, notifications, or service-oriented products.
• Experience working in multi-region or global delivery environments.
• Japanese language proficiency is a plus, but not required; the role does not require fluency.
• Automotive, IoT, or connected‑device experience is a plus (not required).

$165,000 - $190,000 a year

This reflects the base salary for the position. In addition, the role offers a comprehensive benefits package and a progressive bonus program. The actual compensation package is determined by a variety of factors unique to each candidate, including demonstrated skills, depth and relevance of experience, and role‑specific considerations. We welcome open conversations about compensation during initial discussions with all candidates.

EEOC

Drivemode is proud of a very diverse team with employees coming from 5 continents/20 countries as of today. Diversity in our workplace has played an important part in our success; we recognize each employee’s unique background, knowledge, experiences, ideas, and viewpoints which are all critical in developing a product that has the greatest impacts on drivers all over the world.

Drivemode provides equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other characteristics that make you unique.