Technical Program Manager

digitalocean98; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

DigitalOcean is seeking a Technical Program Manager on the Agentic AI team to drive value delivery for major AI programs, spanning model integrations, agentic framework development, AI platform capabilities and developer tooling.

You will partner with product, engineering, and AI research leaders, coordinate with model providers and external partners, manage scope changes, and build scalable processes to bring AI capabilities to market.

Qualifications

• Proven track record delivering cross-functional programs in AI/ML, platform engineering, or developer tooling.
• Strong understanding of AI/ML fundamentals and tradeoffs.
• Experience coordinating external model providers and API partners.

Responsibilities

• Drive value delivery for major Agentic AI programs, including model integrations and developer tooling.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and AI research leaders to plan and execute programs.
• Act as central hub of communication across model teams, platform engineers, and external partners.
• Coordinate from capability planning to production deployment with model providers and internal teams.
• Drive consensus and decision-making across multiple teams and locations.
• Proactively manage changes in scope and priority, and identify risks early.
• Build repeatable, scalable processes and operational infrastructure for faster AI delivery.
• Evangelize project and program management best practices within the team and partners.

Skills

Cross-functional leadership

Program management

AI/ML fundamentals

Risk management

Communication

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you'll find your place here. We value winning together-while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world.

We want people who are passionate about enabling the teams they work with to effectively and efficiently deliver value in line with the DO vision.

As a Technical Program Manager on the Agentic AI team, you will drive value delivery for a set of technical programs that bring our AI-powered products and platform capabilities to life - spanning agentic systems, LLM-powered features, AI infrastructure, and the developer tooling that enables builders to ship intelligent applications. This individual will be an experienced cross-functional leader who champions continuous improvement and thrives in a fast-paced environment, applying technical literacy along with program management experience to navigate delivering on commitments as a leader on their team.

In this role, you will partner with Product, Engineering, and AI research leaders to drive the delivery of valuable, often complex, technical programs that advance our Agentic AI Cloud and meet our customers' rapidly evolving AI needs. You will be the connective tissue across model teams, platform engineering, developer experience, and outside partners - embodying servant leadership to ensure efficient, effective value delivery. You will be a proactive collaborator while driving consensus where needed and influencing decisions when teams are stuck.

What You'll Do

• Drive value delivery for major Agentic AI programs - spanning model integrations, agentic framework development, AI platform capabilities, and developer tooling - including prioritization, planning, risk management, execution, and measurement of success
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and AI research leaders, including senior leaders, throughout the life of the program on value delivery and process/practice improvements
• Act as the central hub of communication, keeping model teams, platform engineers, developer experience teams, and external AI partners aligned to keep programs on track
• Coordinate the steps from early capability planning and prototyping through production deployment, partnering with model providers, inference infrastructure teams, and internal platform teams
• Drive decision-making across multiple teams, orgs, and stakeholders spanning multiple locations, including with senior leaders
• Proactively manage changes in scope and priority shifts; recognize risk early - whether a model capability gap, a latency constraint, or a shifting API dependency - and form mitigation plans as required
• Build repeatable, scalable processes - and the visibility and operational infrastructure behind them - that get AI capabilities to market faster, improve reliability, and ensure effective, sustainable operations across teams and orgs
• Evangelize technical project & program management best practices within their team and across partner teams and orgs

What You'll Add to DigitalOcean

• 10+ years of experience as a Technical Program Manager delivering cross-functional programs in a fast-paced environment, with a preference for experience in AI/ML, platform engineering, or developer tooling
• Proven track record planning and delivering complex programs, leading the resolution of blocking issues, and driving effective change management
• Solid understanding of AI/ML fundamentals - model training vs. inference, agentic architectures, LLM APIs, and the emerging landscape of AI developer tooling - and how these translate into real product and platform decisions
• Hands-on familiarity with agentic AI concepts, including multi-step reasoning, tool use, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and the orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar) builders use to create intelligent applications
• Experience coordinating external model providers, API partners, and open-source communities to deliver AI-powered product capabilities
• Strong risk management skills, with a proven ability to spot risks early - a model capability gap, an inference latency constraint, or a shifting vendor dependency - and build plans to keep programs moving
• Ability to influence and work through others where direct reporting relationships do not exist, acting as a reliable bridge between deeply technical AI teams and product and operational teams
• Ability to distill complex or technical concepts - including nuanced AI/ML tradeoffs - into clear, structured communications and action plans
• Ability to balance a detail- and process-oriented mindset with a focus on outcomes
• Experience with project management tooling (e.g., the Atlassian suite -