Senior Technical Program Manager, Hardware Systems

MatrixSpace; Hoffman Estates (IL); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

MatrixSpace is seeking a Senior Technical Program Manager, Hardware Systems to drive planning and execution across radar and RF hardware development teams. You’ll own the unified hardware execution plan, aligning product requirements, prototypes, builds, qualification, and production readiness across Radar/RF domains.

You will influence across a matrixed organization, translating priorities into executable work, managing risks, and coordinating phase-gate reviews from feasibility to production.

Qualifications

• 8+ years managing complex hardware programs or cross-functional engineering initiatives.
• Experience across radar/RF, electrical, mechanical, embedded systems, FPGA, or related teams.
• Ability to translate priorities into actionable work plans with milestones.
• Experience leading hardware phase-gate reviews and production-readiness reviews.
• Experience coordinating supplier, long-lead material, and manufacturing dependencies.
• Strong communication with senior leaders and stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Test and validate execution assumptions, resources, dependencies, schedules, and risks early.
• Own and maintain the unified hardware execution plan with milestones and readiness gates.
• Integrate requirements from Product, Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, and Operations into one plan.
• Translate priorities into clear work packages and establish an integrated planning cadence.
• Validate feasibility of plans and surface gaps early; escalate misalignments.
• Track progress, report risks, and improve planning processes for visibility.
• Lead through influence across a matrixed organization without direct authority.
• Coordinate cross-functional phase-gate reviews from feasibility to production and ensure signoffs.
• Lead ISO and quality-system audits to maintain certifications and compliance.

Skills

Cross-functional leadership

Influence without authority

Program planning

Stakeholder management

Hardware development lifecycle

Risk management

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Azure DevOps

Smartsheet

Microsoft Project

PLM systems

Job description

Drive the cross-functional execution that moves next-generation AI-enabled radar hardware from concept through production and customer delivery.

MatrixSpace develops AI-enabled radar sensing systems that combine advanced radar, edge computing, AI, and cloud software to provide situational awareness where traditional sensing solutions fall short.

We're looking for a Senior Technical Program Manager, Hardware Systems to drive planning and execution across our radar and RF hardware development teams. You'll own the unified hardware execution plan across Radar Systems, bringing product requirements, design milestones, prototypes, builds, qualification, production readiness, customer-program commitments, and software-support needs together through one clear execution process.

This role requires leading through influence in a matrixed organization. The ideal candidate will not need direct reporting authority over engineers to be effective; instead, you will earn trust, create clarity, run the execution process, surface conflicts early, and drive follow-through.

If you enjoy bringing structure to complex hardware programs, connecting teams around a common plan, and turning ambitious priorities into clear and executable work, we'd love to hear from you.

What You'll Do

• Participate early in program formation to test execution assumptions, resource needs, dependencies, schedules, and major risks before significant commitments are made.
• Own and maintain the unified hardware execution plan, reflecting approved business priorities and Engineering resource commitments in coordinated schedules, dependencies, builds, milestones, readiness gates, and clear escalation paths across Radar/RF development teams.
• Partner across Product, Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, Operations, and customer programs to integrate requirements, suppliers, manufacturing, qualification, production readiness, software enablement, and deployment readiness into one executable plan.
• Partner with technical leaders to translate approved priorities into clear work packages, establishing an efficient operating cadence for integrated planning, readiness, dependency, risk, and milestone reviews.
• Test whether integrated plans are credible by validating resource commitments, schedule assumptions, dependencies, and major risks; surface gaps early and elevate when scope, resources, or schedule are misaligned.
• Track execution, communicate progress and risks to leadership, establish clear escalation paths when execution moves off plan, and continuously improve planning processes to increase visibility and predictability.
• Lead through influence across a matrixed organization, ensuring execution discipline without becoming a shadow engineering manager or replacing functional technical leadership.
• Lead cross-functional phase-gate reviews from feasibility through production. Coordinate required deliverables and functional signoffs, assess program readiness against defined gate criteria, document decisions and open actions, and elevate unmet criteria to the designated decision-makers before a program advances.
• Lead and coordinate ISO, quality-system, and other applicable certification and compliance audits, partnering across Engineering, Quality, Operations, and other functions to ensure audit readiness, close findings, and maintain required certifications.

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of experience managing complex hardware development programs, technical programs, or cross-functional engineering initiatives in technically complex product environments.
• Strong understanding of hardware product-development lifecycles and experience working across radar/RF, electrical, mechanical, embedded systems, FPGA, systems integration, manufacturing, or related technical teams.
• Experience translating complex technical and business priorities into actionable work plans and measurable milestones, with demonstrated experience leading hardware phase-gate reviews and coordinating requirements, design, qualification, and production-readiness reviews.
• Experience managing/identifying supplier, component, long-lead material, prototype, test-equipment, and manufacturing dependencies in partnership with Supply Chain, Quality, and Operations.
• Strong experience with Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps, Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, PLM systems, or similar planning and execution tools, with the judgment to apply process without creating unnecessary overhead.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the technical fluency to engage engineering teams and senior leaders, identify execution risks, ask the right questions, challenge unrealistic timelines, and communicate clear priorities and status, and drive alignment.
• Proven ability to lead through influence without direct authority over the people doing the work, including the confidence to challenge unrealistic timelines, expose priority conflicts, and drive alignment among senior technical and business stakeholders.
• Ability to work credibly with senior technical leaders without owning architecture or technical decision-making.

You’ll thrive in this role if…

• You are energized by turning complexity and ambiguity into a clear execution plan.
• You naturally stay several steps ahead, understand how decisions and dependencies in one part of the hardware organization affect another, and are not afraid to challenge unrealistic timelines or surface risks early.
• You build trust with highly technical teams through curiosity, credibility, organization, and follow-through.
• You understand the difference between leading technical program execution and leading technical decisions: creating the structure that helps engineers and technical leaders deliver ambitious goals without becoming a shadow engineering manager.

This role does not own technical architecture, engineering standards, personnel management, or technical decision-making. Instead, you'll partner with technical leaders to ensure approved priorities are clear, realistic, scheduled, tracked, and executable.

At MatrixSpace, you'll play a central role in how advanced radar hardware moves from technical development to production and deployment across multiple products and customer programs. You'll work alongside highly technical teams building at the intersection of radar, AI, edge computing, and software, helping ensure complex technology translates into coordinated execution and real-world impact.