Technical Program Manager, Hardware Systems

United States Digital Space LLC; New York, San Francisco (NY, CA); Hybrid; USD 365,000 - 435,000; Full time

Job summary

United States Digital Space LLC is seeking a Technical Program Manager to own hardware systems execution from concept to production deployment. You will coordinate ODMs/CMs, silicon, firmware, and datacenter teams to ship boards and racks at scale.

The role requires leading the NPI cadence, managing schedules and risks, and delivering reliable, telemetry-enabled platforms. A strong autonomous work style is essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in hardware systems/NPI program management.
• Direct ownership of a platform from concept through volume production.
• Working technical fluency across the hardware stack to interrogate status.
• Experience managing ODMs/CMs and component vendors, including SOW negotiation.
• Track record of standing up program mechanisms on new hardware efforts.
• Strong written communication for plans, reviews, and exec updates.
• Ability to operate with high autonomy in a fast-moving environment.

Responsibilities

• Own the integrated hardware systems program plan across board, chassis, rack, and interconnect — from requirements through EVT/DVT/PVT, qualification, and production ramp.
• Drive execution with ODMs, contract manufacturers, and component/optics vendors: SOWs, build schedules, deliverables, and escalation.
• Stand up and run the NPI cadence — build matrix, engineering reviews, DFx, issue triage, exit criteria.
• Drive bring-up and validation for new platforms: lab/pilot-rack logistics, firmware/BMC/diagnostics coordination, test coverage.
• Own interfaces that make or break a hardware program: silicon, datacenter, infrastructure software, and supply chain.
• Run partner and technology evaluations as a program and land build/buy/co-design recommendations.
• Own program communication upward and outward — to architects and executives.

Skills

Hardware NPI

Program management

Vendor management

Technical fluency

Communication

Education

BS/MS in EE/CE/ME

Job description

About the company

the company’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.

About the role

the company trains and serves frontier AI models on some of the largest accelerator fleets in the world, and we're now building the custom hardware systems that fleet will run on — from the package boundary out through boards, racks, interconnect, power, cooling, and the datacenter interface.

We're looking for a Technical Program Manager to own execution of these hardware systems from concept through production deployment. You'll drive the program that turns architecture and specs into boards and racks that ship — managing ODMs, CMs, and component vendors on one side, and coordinating silicon, firmware, infrastructure software, supply chain, and datacenter teams on the other.

This is a role on a new hardware team. You'll build the program cadence, review structure, and NPI process this team runs on. We need someone who has shipped hardware at scale, has a realistic view of ODM/CM schedules and where they break, and is comfortable owning consequential program calls without a large organization behind them.

Key responsibilities

• Own the integrated hardware systems program plan across board, chassis, rack, and interconnect — from requirements through EVT/DVT/PVT, qualification, and production ramp — and be the source of truth on schedule, risk, and readiness.

• Drive execution with ODMs, contract manufacturers, and component/optics vendors: SOWs, build schedules, deliverable tracking, factory readiness, and escalation when they slip.

• Stand up and run the NPI cadence — build matrix, engineering reviews, DFx, issue triage, exit criteria — and keep it lightweight enough that a small, senior team actually uses it.

• Drive the bring-up and validation program for new platforms: lab and pilot-rack logistics, firmware/BMC/diagnostics coordination, test coverage, and the reliability and telemetry targets a platform has to hit before it enters the fleet.

• Own the interfaces that make or break a hardware program: silicon (samples, package, power/thermal envelopes), datacenter (power, cooling, rack integration, deployment windows), infrastructure software (management plane, provisioning, telemetry), and supply chain (long-lead components, second-sourcing, allocation).

• Run partner and technology evaluations as a program — candidate ODMs, reference platforms, connector/optics/memory options — and land build / buy / co-design recommendations with the architecture team.

• Own program communication upward and outward — for an audience that ranges from architects to executives.

• Develop and share AI-assisted approaches to hardware program management — issue-tracker synthesis, build-readiness checking, spec/BOM consistency, ODM-report digestion.

Minimum qualifications

• 8+ years in hardware systems / NPI program management for compute, networking, storage, or accelerator platforms.

• Direct ownership of at least one platform from concept through volume production — you can walk through its EVT/DVT/PVT arc, what broke, and how you recovered.

• Working technical fluency across the hardware stack — power delivery, thermal, mechanical, high-speed interconnect, board design, system management — sufficient to interrogate status and push back credibly on architects and vendors.

• Experience managing ODMs/CMs and component vendors, including SOW negotiation, build tracking, quality escapes, and escalation.

• Track record of standing up program mechanisms on a new or early-stage hardware effort, not just operating inside a mature PLC.

• Strong written communication — plans, reviews, and exec updates that many teams depend on.

• Comfort operating with high autonomy and limited process in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with AI/ML accelerator systems (GPU, TPU, custom ASIC), HPC, or hyperscale datacenter platforms and their scale-up / scale-out fabrics.

• Experience taking a first-generation, custom-silicon-based system from bring-up through fleet deployment.

• Experience with liquid-cooled and/or high-density rack architectures, rack level high power distribution, or optical interconnect programs.

• Familiarity with the chip-package-system interface and coordinating tightly with a silicon team.

• Experience with datacenter integration, deployment, and fleet-scale reliability/RAS programs.

• Practical experience using AI tools in your own workflow, and clear ideas about where they help and where they don't.

• BS/MS in EE, CE, ME, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.

For sales roles, the range provided is the role’s On Target Earnings ("OTE") range, meaning that the range includes both the sales commissions/sales bonuses target and annual base salary for the role.

Annual Salary:

$365,000—$435,000 USD

LogisticsMinimum education: Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience

Required field of study: A field relevant to the role as demonstrated through coursework, training, or professional experience

Minimum years of experience: Years of experience required will correlate with the internal job level requirements for the position

Location-based hybrid policy: Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices.

Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas! However, we aren't able to successfully sponsor visas for every role and every candidate. But if we make you an offer, we will make every reasonable effort to get you a visa, and we retain an immigration lawyer to help with this.

We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification. Not all strong candidates will meet every single qualification as listed. Research shows that people who identify as being from underrepresented groups are more prone to experiencing imposter syndrome and doubting the strength of their candidacy, so we urge you not to exclude yourself prematurely and to submit an application if you're interested in this work. We think AI systems like the ones we're building have enormous social and ethical implications. We think this makes representation even more important, and we strive to include a range of diverse perspectives on our team.