Staff Vehicle Program Manager

Waabi; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Waabi is seeking a Vehicle Program Manager to own the technical integration of the Waabi Driver with OEM partners, guiding program setup through driverless operation. You will coordinate with Hardware, Embedded, Onboard, Infra, and Autonomy teams to meet critical milestones and ensure seamless collaboration with partners.

You will translate company goals into integrated program plans, manage risks, and present updates to executives and engineering teams, maintaining trust and progress across

Qualifications

• 8+ years of engineering experience in vehicle development, autonomous vehicles, ADAS or robotics, including 3+ years leading technical integration programs.
• Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical, Electrical, Computer or Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Breadth across actuation and autonomy system integration (sensors, compute, embedded, and software) and the judgment to weigh trade-offs between them.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical integration of the Waabi Driver with an OEM partner, from program setup through driverless operation.
• Be part of a team of multidisciplinary Engineers and Research Scientists using an AI-first approach to enable safe self-driving at scale.
• Turn company goals into an integrated program plan with the partner, covering Waabi and OEM deliverables, cross-team dependencies and the critical path.
• Balance resources and priorities across Hardware, Embedded, Onboard, Infra and Autonomy, and make trade-off calls when one plan affects another.
• Act as Waabi's technical face to the OEM and build trust at every level, from executive reviews to working-level engineering teams.
• Go deep when it matters: work with engineers on test vehicles to triage integration issues and drive them to a decision.
• Spot risk before it reaches the schedule, bring options with a recommendation, and escalat early and clearly.
• Hold Waabi's technical standards with the partner, adapting to how each OEM works and pushing back credibly when needed.
• Develop and maintain program reporting for Waabi leadership and partner executive forums

Skills

Engineering leadership

Program management

Systems integration

Autonomy/ADAS

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Computer or Systems Engineering

Tools

Jira

Job description

Waabi, founded by AI visionary Raquel Urtasun, is the leader in Physical AI. With a world-class team, we're unlocking the next era of autonomous transportation with technology that's powering commercial autonomous trucks and robotaxis. Waabi is backed by and partners with world leaders in AI, automotive, logistics, and deep tech.

With offices in Toronto, San Francisco, Dallas, and Pittsburgh, Waabi is growing quickly and looking for diverse, innovative and collaborative candidates who want to impact the world in a positive way. To learn more visit: www.waabi.ai

Waabi is adding OEM partners, and each partnership needs an engineer who owns the technical integration from program setup to on-road milestones. The Vehicle Program Manager is Waabi's technical face to one OEM partner. They turn company goals into an integrated program plan, align Hardware, Embedded, Onboard, Infra and Autonomy to deliver it, and make sure integration milestones land on schedule. A successful candidate can span the range of executive meetings to in vehicle debugging on the test track. As we scale to more partners, each OEM needs its own dedicated owner, for focus and for partner confidentiality. We are looking for an engineer with breadth across the autonomous capable systems, the ability to go deep, and a curious, startup mindset that speeds up our autonomous vehicle programs.

You will...

• Own the technical integration of the Waabi Driver with an OEM partner, from program setup through driverless operation.
• Be part of a team of multidisciplinary Engineers and Research Scientists using an AI-first approach to enable safe self-driving at scale.
• Turn company goals into an integrated program plan with the partner, covering Waabi and OEM deliverables, cross-team dependencies and the critical path.
• Balance resources and priorities across Hardware, Embedded, Onboard, Infra and Autonomy, and make trade-off calls when one plan affects another.
• Act as Waabi's technical face to the OEM and build trust at every level, from executive reviews to working-level engineering teams.
• Go deep when it matters: work with engineers on test vehicles to triage integration issues and drive them to a decision.
• Spot risk before it reaches the schedule, bring options with a recommendation, and escalat early and clearly.
• Hold Waabi's technical standards with the partner, adapting to how each OEM works and pushing back credibly when needed.
• Develop and maintain program reporting for Waabi leadership and partner executive forums

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of engineering experience in vehicle development, autonomous vehicles, ADAS or robotics, including 3+ years leading technical integration programs.
• Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical, Electrical, Computer or Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Breadth across actuation and autonomy system integration (sensors, compute, embedded, and software) and the judgment to weigh trade-offs between them.
• Ability to rapidly go deep on a technical issue with engineers, work it to a decision, and return to the program view.
• Solid problem solving using dependency mapping, critical-path analysis and risk management, with clear options for leadership.
• Strong written and verbal communication, equally effective in an OEM executive review and a test-vehicle debug session.
• Comfort with ambiguity and a startup pace: filters signal from noise and adds structure without adding overhead.
• Open-minded and collaborative team player with the willingness to help others.
• Passionate about self-driving technologies, solving hard problems, and creating innovative solutions.

Bonus/nice to have:

• Solid understanding of how vehicle OEMs plan, gate, validate and decide, including vehicle programs, DVP&R, V&V and supplier management.
• Experience with commercial truck or heavy-duty vehicle platforms.
• Hands-on experience with test vehicles, vehicle networks such as CAN, and field issue triage.
• Experience with program tools such as Jira, and with AI tools that reduce manual tracking.
• Technical experience in developing self-driving vehicles.