Strategic Project Manager

Lightwheel; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Lightwheel is seeking a hands-on product/engineering professional to take ambiguous customer problems and drive them to working solutions in San Francisco. You will own projects from scope to delivery, working directly with customer teams and Lightwheel engineers to define requirements and success criteria.

You will navigate uncertainty, balance trade-offs, and communicate clearly in English (and Mandarin) to customers across regions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher with 1–3 years in product, engineering, technical programs, solutions, or customer delivery.
• Track record of owning a project or substantial workstream from start to finish.
• Founder’s sense of ownership: identify gaps, plan, rally others, and stay accountable.
• Sound judgment under uncertainty: move with incomplete information and manage risks.
• Technical fluency and practical data analysis skills; liaise with engineers and understand technical constraints.

Responsibilities

• Find the real problem by talking to customers and uncoverting goals and constraints.
• Define the solution: turn needs into clear requirements, priorities, and success criteria.
• Take ideas to delivery: scope pilots, mobilize resources, drive execution with customer acceptance.
• Make the hard calls: balance quality, speed, cost, and feasibility with data.
• Build beyond one project: recognize patterns and turn success into repeatable products and capabilities.

Skills

Ownership mindset

Decision-making under uncertainty

Technical fluency

Clear communication

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher

Job description

Physical AI is moving from research into the real world. At Lightwheel, we build the data and simulation capabilities that help make that happen.

We’re looking for someone who can take an ambiguous customer problem, figure out what’s worth building, and drive it through to a working solution.

You’ll work directly with leading Physical AI teams and partner with engineering and operations to bring new solutions to life. Your work will shape what we build, how we deliver it, and which capabilities we scale across customers.

This role is for someone who wants real ownership early: the space to make decisions, the responsibility to follow through, and the opportunity to build something that lasts.

What You’ll Own

• Find the real problem. Work directly with customers to understand their goals, challenge assumptions, and identify the problems worth solving.
• Define the solution. Turn customer needs into clear requirements, priorities, and success criteria. Work with engineering and operations to determine what is feasible and what to build first.
• Take it from idea to delivery. Scope pilots, mobilize resources, and drive execution through customer acceptance. Stay close to the details and get hands-on when needed.
• Make the hard calls. Navigate trade-offs across quality, speed, cost, and technical feasibility. Take informed bets, test assumptions, and adjust as evidence comes in.
• Build beyond one project. Identify patterns across customers and turn successful solutions into repeatable products, tools, and delivery capabilities.

What You Bring

• A bachelor’s degree or higher and 1-3 years of experience in product, engineering, technical programs, solutions, or customer delivery.
• A track record of owning a project or substantial workstream from start to finish. You can explain what you decided, what you personally did, and what changed as a result.
• A founder’s sense of ownership. You spot gaps, create a plan, bring people together, and stay accountable for the outcome.
• Sound judgment under uncertainty. You can move with incomplete information, identify the risks that matter, and make deliberate trade-offs.
• Technical fluency and practical data analysis skills. You can engage with engineers, investigate quality issues, and understand how technical constraints affect the customer.
• Clear communication in English and Mandarin Chinese, with the ability to work directly with customers and teams across regions.

Bonus Points

• You’ve started something: a company, product, or initiative where you owned meaningful decisions and results.
• Experience in robotics, embodied AI, simulation, AI data, or hardware.
• Experience taking a product or delivery model from zero to one.
• An instinct for the business: customer value, cost, margins, and what it takes to scale.