Technical Program Manager- LA

Socket.dev; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Socket.dev seeks a seasoned Technical Program Manager to lead multidisciplinary programs spanning hardware, software, systems, manufacturing, and supply chain. You’ll translate objectives into clear plans, milestones, and ownership, guiding projects from early requirements through production and field delivery.

You’ll collaborate with engineering, product, operations, and leadership, manage risks and dependencies, coordinate with government stakeholders and vendors, and drive documentation,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, a technical discipline, business, or a related field.
• Five or more years of experience in technical program management or related roles.
• Experience leading cross-functional programs involving multiple engineering disciplines.
• Experience managing hardware and software development, system integration, manufacturing, and testing.
• Strong project-management skills: schedules, priorities, dependencies, risks.
• Ability to operate in fast-paced environment with evolving requirements and competing priorities.
• Strong technical aptitude to understand architectures and lifecycles.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with diverse stakeholders.
• Attention to detail and commitment to quality.
• Ownership mindset and ability to drive work to completion with limited direction.
• Experience with government customers, contracts, or deliverables.

Responsibilities

• Own the execution of multidisciplinary programs spanning hardware, software, systems engineering, manufacturing, testing, supply chain, and customer delivery.
• Partner closely with engineering, product, operations, and leadership to translate program objectives into clear plans, priorities, deliverables, schedules, and ownership.
• Drive programs from early requirements and system definition through design, integration, qualification, production, and field delivery.
• Develop and maintain integrated program plans that connect technical development, procurement, manufacturing, testing, documentation, and milestones.
• Identify critical-path activities, dependencies, resource constraints, and execution risks; drive mitigation plans and escalate issues as needed.
• Lead cross-functional execution across internal teams and external partners with clear ownership and deadlines.
• Serve as a central point of coordination among engineering teams, leadership, customers, vendors, and test facilities.
• Own preparation and coordination of key program reviews, customer deliverables, data packages, test documentation, and status reports.
• Work with engineering teams to establish clear requirements, interfaces, and acceptance criteria.
• Coordinate system integration and test activities, including test planning, scheduling, readings, readiness reviews, issue resolution, and test results.
• Partner with manufacturing and supply-chain teams to support production readiness and delivery commitments.
• Establish practical program-management processes, tools, and reporting structures to improve execution without overhead.
• Track and clearly communicate program status, risks, decisions, dependencies, and leadership needs.
• Create clarity in fast-moving or ambiguous situations, remove obstacles, and drive teams toward decisions and results.
• Develop technical understanding of the system architecture and verification approaches to inform decisions.
• Support proposal efforts, statements of work, and planning for future phases.

Skills

Cross-functional leadership

Project management

Requirements gathering

Communication

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field

Tools

Jira

Notion

Linear

Google Workspace

Job description

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Own the execution of complex, multidisciplinary programs spanning hardware, software, systems engineering, manufacturing, testing, supply chain, and customer delivery.
• Partner closely with engineering, product, operations, and company leadership to translate program objectives into clear plans, priorities, deliverables, schedules, and ownership.
• Drive programs from early requirements and system definition through design, integration, qualification, production, and field delivery.
• Develop and maintain integrated program plans that connect technical development, procurement, manufacturing, testing, documentation, and customer milestones.
• Identify critical-path activities, technical and schedule dependencies, resource constraints, and execution risks. Drive mitigation plans and escape issues when necessary.
• Lead cross-functional execution across internal teams and external partners, ensuring that decisions, actions, owners, and deadlines are clearly documented and followed through to completion.
• Serve as a central point of coordination between engineering teams, company leadership, customers, government stakeholders, vendors, test facilities, and manufacturing partners.
• Own preparation and coordination of key program reviews, customer deliverables, technical data packages, test documentation, status reports, and other contractual or programmatic submissions.
• Work with engineering teams to establish clear requirements, interfaces, configuration baselines, verification plans, and acceptance criteria.
• Coordinate system integration and test activities, including test planning, hardware availability, facility scheduling, readiness reviews, issue resolution, and delivery of test results.
• Partner with manufacturing and supply-chain teams to support production readiness, supplier execution, material availability, build planning, production tracking, and delivery commitments.
• Establish practical program-management processes, tools, and reporting structures that improve execution without creating unnecessary overhead.
• Track and clearly communicate program status, risks, decisions, dependencies, and areas requiring leadership attention.
• Create clarity in fast-moving or ambiguous situations, remove obstacles, and proactively drive teams toward decisions and results.
• Develop sufficient technical understanding of the system architecture, interfaces, requirements and development risks to ask effective questions, challenge assumptions, and facilitate informed decisions.
• Support proposal efforts, statements of work, program estimates, customer requests, and planning for future phases of work.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, a technical discipline, business, or a related field.
• Five or more years of experience in technical program management, systems engineering, engineering project management, operations, or a related role supporting complex technical products.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional programs involving multiple engineering disciplines.
• Experience managing programs that combine hardware and software development, system integration, manufacturing, and testing.
• Strong project-management skills, including the ability to develop schedules, establish priorities, manage dependencies, track risks, and drive action across teams.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced environment with evolving requirements, limited structure, and competing priorities.
• Strong technical aptitude and the ability to understand system architectures, interfaces, development lifecycles, technical risks, and verification approaches.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate clearly with engineers, executives, customers, vendors, and government stakeholders.
• Strong attention to detail, sound judgment, and a demonstrated commitment to quality and follow-through.
• Ability to take ownership of complex problems, create structure where needed, and drive work to completion with limited direction.
• Experience working with government customers, government contracts, proposals, contractual deliverables, or technical data requirements.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience delivering aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous systems, unmanned systems, or other highly integrated technical products.
• Experience taking a new hardware or software-enabled product from development through qualification, production, and delivery.
• Experience with defense-system safety, qualification testing, compliance documentation, technical reviews, or government concurrence processes.
• Experience managing external suppliers, contract manufacturers, test laboratories, and other technical partners.
• Familiarity with government contract structures, statements of work, contract data requirements lists, data-item descriptions, and formal delivery documentation.
• Experience supporting production planning, configuration management, supplier management, or manufacturing-readiness activities.
• Experience developing or improving organizational processes, program reporting, communication plans, and execution workflows.
• Experience with tools such as Linear, Notion, Jira, Google Workspace, or equivalent program-management platforms.
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills, with the ability to use data and metrics to inform priorities, recommendations, and decisions.