Technical Program Manager, Hardware

Mind Robotics; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Mind Robotics is seeking a Hardware Program Manager to own the integrated development plan for our robot platform. You will coordinate mechanical, electrical, compute, actuation, and sensor work, partnering with industrial design, software, and data teams to ensure milestones are met and risks are mitigated.

You will drive planning rhythms, track program health, and push for timely decisions while balancing engineering curiosity with business goals to deliver deployed robots that perform real

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in technical program management for hardware product development, ideally in robotics or other products that integrate mechanical, electrical, compute, actuation, and sensing systems.
• Proven track record taking hardware projects from ideas to hardened, reliable products.
• Strong fundamentals in engineering/science to engage in architecture, planning, and systems integration discussions.
• Experience managing programs spanning multiple interdependent domains with software and operations cross-functional dependencies.
• High sense of urgency, comfortable with ambiguity, and driven by engineering curiosity to understand the full system.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• End-to-End Planning: Own the overall plan for development of our robot — including subsystem plans and investigations across mechanical, electrical, compute, actuation, and sensor systems.
• Technical/Business Grounding: Engage directly in architecture and design discussions to stress-test estimates and align with business goals.
• Guiding Technical Decisions: Move decisions to closure at the team level, escalating when needed.
• Program Practice Design: Establish hardware program management rhythms connecting team work to org milestones and decision artifacts.
• Progress Tracking: Build the tracking layer to report status, blockers, and risks to leadership.
• Risk and Issue Management: Identify risks early, drive mitigations and resolution.

Skills

Industry experience

Proven track record

Technical depth

System complexity

Execution & ownership

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Job description

About Mind
Mind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor. We believe the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with the physical world every day - and we're looking for people who are passionate about robotics, value ownership, and are excited to tackle difficult problems. Join us if you want to move beyond digital intelligence and put intelligence into motion.

About Mind
Mind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor. We believe the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with the physical world every day - and we're looking for people who are passionate about robotics, value ownership, and are excited to tackle difficult problems. Join us if you want to move beyond digital intelligence and put intelligence into motion.
About The Team And The Role
Program Management at Mind is an operational catalyst. We own outcomes, drive the trade-offs that keep engineering moving, and set the metabolic rate of the teams we partner with — clearing roadblocks, closing stalled decisions, carrying risk upward, and protecting the focus engineers need to build. As a Hardware Program Manager you will own the integrated program plan across all of hardware and build the practice itself: how teams define their own milestones and commit to org-level ones, how we know week over week whether we are on or off track, and how problems surface early enough that we can still do something about them. You will partner directly with the industrial design, software, and data teams so that our plans collectively roll up to meet our goals of deployed robots doing real work.

• End-to-End Planning: Own the overall plan for development of our robot — including subsystem plans and investigations across mechanical, electrical, compute, actuation, and sensor systems.
• Technical/Business Grounding: Engage directly in architecture and design discussions at a depth sufficient to stress-test engineering estimates and ensure alignment with business goals.
• Guiding Technical Decisions: Keep technical decisions moving to closure — resolved at the team level where possible, escalated when they can't be.
• Program Practice Design: Establish how hardware program management works at Mind: the planning rhythm that connects team-level work to org-level milestones and the artifacts that support both the individual engineer and leadership in prioritization and decision making.
• Progress Tracking: Build the tracking layer that answers whether we are on or off track, drawn from the systems teams already work in. Monitor and report on key program metrics, and communicate status, blockers, and risks to leadership.
• Risk and Issue Management: Identify and communicate technical, dependency, and resourcing risks early. Drive the process for mitigations and resolution.

Requirements

• Industry Experience: 5+ years of experience in technical program management for hardware product development, ideally in robotics or other products that integrate mechanical, electrical, compute, actuation, and sensing systems.
• Proven Track Record: Demonstrated success taking hardware projects from nothing more than ideas to hardened, reliable products.
• Technical Depth: Strong fundamentals in engineering/science with the ability to engage meaningfully in architecture, planning, and systems integration discussions.
• System Complexity: Experience managing programs spanning multiple interdependent domains along with dependencies on broader cross-functional teams such as software engineering and operations.
• Execution & Ownership: High sense of urgency, comfortable with ambiguity, and driven by an "engineering curiosity" to understand how the entire system works.
• Educational Background: Bachelor's degree in engineering, or equivalent experience.