Technical Program Manager, Actuators

OpenAI; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 207,000 - 285,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI in San Francisco, CA is seeking a Technical Program Manager to own actuator development from goals to production readiness. The role spans mechanical, electrical, firmware, harnessing, controls, test, reliability, manufacturing, and supply chain, turning cross-functional decisions into clear scope and milestones.

You will converge on the right technical plan, surface risks early, and deliver reliable actuator systems on schedule. This in-person role requires presence 4 days a week in SF.

Responsibilities

• Drive actuator programs end-to-end, aligning scope, milestones, interfaces, dependencies, and exit criteria across engineering teams.
• Drive scope lock and technical convergence for sprints, MVPs, and stretch goals while connecting component decisions to system performance.
• Coordinate actuator development across motors, gears, sensing, electronics, and firmware, and align the electrical and mechanical interfaces that connect actuators to the broader robot.
• Lead validation planning from early prototypes through engineering validation, reliability testing, and production readiness.
• Drive tradeoff decisions across cost, quality, performance, schedule, and lead time by collaborating cross-functionally and quantifying impact to meet program deliverables.
• Establish effective mechanisms for technical reviews, change control, design releases, decision tracking, and manufacturing readiness.
• Surface risks early and drive decisions, owners, and actions to closure.

Job description

About Team

Our Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and advancing toward AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world environments. Working across the full model and systems stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the physical constraints of real-world systems to improve people’s lives.

About The Role

We are looking for a Technical Program Manager to own actuator development and integration from system goals through production readiness. The actuator program spans mechanical, electrical, firmware, harnessing, controls, test, reliability, manufacturing, and supply chain, and needs a TPM who can turn cross-functional decisions into clear scope, executable milestones, and timely decisions.

In this role, you will help the team converge on the right technical plan, surface risks early, and deliver reliable actuator systems on schedule.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA and requires in-person presence 4 days a week.

In This Role You Will

• Drive actuator programs end-to-end, aligning scope, milestones, interfaces, dependencies, and exit criteria across engineering teams.
• Drive scope lock and technical convergence for sprints, MVPs, and stretch goals while connecting component decisions to system performance.
• Coordinate actuator development across motors, gears, sensing, electronics, and firmware, and align the electrical and mechanical interfaces that connect actuators to the broader robot.
• Lead validation planning from early prototypes through engineering validation, reliability testing, and production readiness.
• Drive tradeoff decisions across cost, quality, performance, schedule, and lead time by collaborating cross-functionally and quantifying impact to meet program deliverables.
• Establish effective mechanisms for technical reviews, change control, design releases, decision tracking, and manufacturing readiness.
• Surface risks early and drive decisions, owners, and actions to closure.

You Might Thrive In This Role If You

• Have led complex electromechanical hardware programs from development through manufacturing.
• Are equally comfortable reasoning about an actuator’s internal architecture and how it integrates into the larger system through PCBAs, connectors, cables,etc.
• Can work effectively across ME, EE, firmware, interconnecting harnesses, controls, test, reliability, manufacturing, and supply chain.
• Understand hardware development realities including prototype cycles, long-lead parts, suppliers, testing, design changes, and production ramp.

What Success Looks Like

• Cross-functional scope, milestones, interfaces, dependencies, and exit criteria are aligned across engineering, supply chain and manufacturing teams.
• Sprints, MVPs, and stretch goals converge on decisions connected to system performance.
• Validation is planned from early prototypes through engineering validation, reliability testing, and production readiness.
• Risks, tradeoffs, owners, and actions are surfaced early and driven to closure to meet program deliverables.
• Mitigation strategies are well communicated and aligned upon, acceleration of hardware development from design to trials on the floor is quantifiable.
• Tools and workflows built are well embedded in the daily routine of all the team members, thus do not seem an added overhead to get things done.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affi­

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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Compensation Range: $207K - $285K