Technical Program Manager (Engineering Project Lead)

Seek Thermal; Santa Barbara (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Seek Thermal in Santa Barbara, CA is seeking a Technical Program Manager (Engineering Project Lead) to own the technical critical path of new-product programs, coordinating across electrical, mechanical, software/firmware, optics, and systems teams to bring LWIR thermal imaging products from concept through production.

This on-site role requires hands-on embedded systems depth, phase-gate development experience, and the ability to drive design decisions, manage risks, and deliver SOWs and specs

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Mechatronics, Physics, Optical Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of engineering experience, including 2+ years owning the technical critical path of embedded hardware/software programs, with at least one shipped sensing or electro-optical product taken through production.
• Must be a U.S. Person (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual) as required by ITAR/EAR export control regulations.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical critical path of new product development (NPD) programs through phase gates (concept through DV, PV, and production release).
• Ensure design outputs and design-review materials are complete and defensible at every gate, and provide the technical readiness signal for gate sign-off.
• Make and document technical trade-offs with cross-functional approval for scope and design changes.
• Identify technical risks early and drive mitigation across the program.
• Assign engineering tasks and own design documentation and approvals per Seek’s design-control process.
• Drive root-cause and corrective action (8D) when sensor, manufacturing, or integration failures threaten a milestone.
• Provide technical deliverables (SOWs, specifications) for supplier engagements and represent engineering with customers, change control boards, and leadership.

Skills

Embedded systems

Phase-gate development

Jira

SmartSheets

PRD/requirements

8D

RASIC

Education

Electrical Engineering

Software Engineering

Tools

Jira

SmartSheets

Job description

Technical Program Manager (Engineering Project Lead)

Seek Thermal, Santa Barbara, California, United States

About this position

Description: As a Technical Program Manager (Engineering Project Lead) at Seek Thermal, you will own the technical critical path of one or more new-product programs—the chain of design decisions, integrations, and verifications that determines whether the product works and ships. You will be accountable for design outputs, design reviews, and technical trade-offs—working alongside program management while coordinating engineering across electrical, mechanical, software/firmware, optics, and systems to bring LWIR thermal imaging products from concept through production. The Technical Program Manager (Engineering Project Lead) will report directly to the SVP of Engineering.

This is not a remote Position

Responsibilities

• The Technical Program Manager (Engineering Project Lead) will own the technical critical path of new product development (NPD) programs through phase gates (concept through DV, PV, and production release)—know at all times which technical task gates the program, and keep the multidisciplinary team focused on it.
• Ensure design outputs and design-review materials are complete and defensible at every gate, and provide the technical readiness signal for gate sign-off.
• Make and document technical trade-offs (e.g., image quality, runtime, cost, architecture), with cross-functional approval for scope and design changes.
• Identify technical risks early, assess their critical-path impact, and drive mitigation of technical exposure across the program.
• Assign engineering tasks, drive technical status at program meetings in step with program management, and own design documentation and approvals per Seek’s design-control process.
• Drive root-cause and corrective action (8D) when sensor, manufacturing, or integration failures threaten a milestone
• Ensure PRD requirements are testable and verification is defined before design gates; pull hardware/software integration risks off the critical path early.
• Provide technical deliverables (SOWs, specifications) for supplier engagements and represent engineering with customers, change control boards, and leadership.

Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

• The Technical Program Manager (Engineering Project Lead) should possess hands-on embedded systems depth (e.g., RTOS debugging, multicore SoC/MPSoC platforms, I2C/SPI, MIPI CSI, hardware/software co-design) with independent technical judgment.
• Experience developing products under structured quality and development processes (e.g., functional safety, ASPICE, ISO 9001, or similar) within formal design controls.
• Fluency with phase-gate development, PRD/requirements management, DV/PV verification, 8D, RASIC, and planning tools (Jira, SmartSheets).
• Proven technical coordinator of distributed cross-functional teams and a clear communicator—holds a technical position, escalates cleanly, and commits once decided.
• Preferred: thermal/IR imaging (FPA/ROIC, NUC/AGC, LWIR optics), automotive qualification, semiconductor packaging/yield analysis, Agile/Scrum leadership.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Mechatronics, Physics, Optical Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of engineering experience, including 2+ years owning the technical critical path of embedded hardware/software programs, with at least one shipped sensing or electro-optical product taken through production.
• Must be a U.S. Person (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual) as required by ITAR/EAR export control regulations.