Technical Program Manager, Product Planning

Icehouseventures; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Icehouseventures is looking for a Product Planning specialist to manage cross-functional product strategies from its office in Sunnyvale. This pivotal role focuses on developing key portfolio projects and ensuring alignment across multiple teams.

The ideal candidate has a generalist mindset, 5-8 years of program delivery experience, and exceptional communication skills. The company promotes a hybrid work environment that balances in-office collaboration and remote work.

If you are passionate about self-driving cars and want to make a difference, we encourage you to apply.

Qualifications

• 5 to 8 years of experience leading software projects in fast-paced environments.
• Ability to communicate and influence senior leadership effectively.
• Experience in AV, AI/ML or Automotive domains preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop, manage, and execute key portfolio projects and initiatives.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to maintain product plans.
• Manage the full product lifecycle, including financials and logistics.

Skills

Generalist mindset

Detail-oriented

Program delivery experience

Technical fluency

Exceptional communication skills

Strong project management

Growth mindset

Tools

Looker

Agentic AI

JIRA

Confluence

Job description

About us

Founded in 2017, Wayve is the leading developer of Embodied AI technology. Our advanced AI software and foundation models enable vehicles to perceive, understand, and navigate any complex environment, enhancing the usability and safety of automated driving systems.

Our vision is to create autonomy that propels the world forward. Our intelligent, mapless, and hardware-agnostic AI products are designed for automakers, accelerating the transition from assisted to automated driving.

In our fast-paced environment big problems ignite us—we embrace uncertainty, leaning into complex challenges to unlock groundbreaking solutions. We aim high and stay humble in our pursuit of excellence, constantly learning and evolving as we pave the way for a smarter, safer future.

At Wayve, your contributions matter. We value diversity, embrace new perspectives, and foster an inclusive work environment; we back each other to deliver impact.

The role

The Product Planning role is a pivotal, cross-functional position that manages what to build, for whom, and how to deliver value, effectively bridging the gap between product strategy, direction and execution.

At Wayve, this generalist role cuts across all product categories (e.g., ADAS features, Robotaxi), customer programs (e.g, Nissan, etc) distinguishing it from feature-owner Product Managers and Technical Program Managers who own the execution of a specific product. The planner focuses on setting the structure of the roadmaps to meet company growth and profit goals, rather than owning feature requirements in any single area. This role demands exceptional skill in executive communication, cultivating and maintaining strategic relationships with leadership across all orgs, and adeptly navigating intricate organizational dynamics.

Key Responsibilities & Activities

• Directional Planning & Initiatives: Develop, manage, and execute key portfolio projects, initiatives, and business opportunities. Help define the value proposition for portfolio projects, maintain detailed product roadmaps, and set milestones based on long-term vision. Conduct in-depth studies and analyses to understand the implications of proposed product changes across all business functions (e.g., engineering, data science, operations, finance, supply chain).
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Collaborate cross-functionally with business development, product management, finance, engineering, and operations teams to establish and maintain a single source of truth for all product plans, roadmaps, data and assumptions. Own the risk register for the company and proactively build risk mitigation plans.
• Executive Communication & Stakeholder Management: This role requires extensive experience in executive communication, nurturing strong relationships with company leadership, and adeptly navigating complex organizational dynamics. The ability to effectively communicate with, influence, and manage the expectations of senior leadership, while handling sensitive situations and fostering constructive relationships, is paramount.
• Operational Management: Focus on short-to-mid-term tactical plans, manage the full product lifecycle, and coordinate aspects like financials, logistics, inventory levels, and pricing.

About you

Required Qualifications/Skills

• Bold Generalist - High level of comfort with ambiguity, Ability to step outside their comfort zone and wear a multitude of hats as they help throughout the organization.
• Detail-oriented: You care about depth of knowledge and dive deep into the inner workings of every technology domain to identify dependencies and catch risks early.
• Program delivery experience: You get things done! You have shown agency by leading software projects in fast-paced or early-stage environments with over 5 to 8 yrs of experience.
• Technical fluency and strong analytical, quantitative skills - Proven ability to use data and metrics to back up assumptions and recommendations. Comfortable working with engineers and understanding systems, even if you don’t write code. Ideal if experience is in AV or AI/ML or Automotive domains.
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal with emphasis on ability to collaborate, influence and align efforts of disparate groups to achieve a common goal.
• Strong project management: Skilled at planning, prioritising, managing risks, and adapting as things change. Proficiency in productivity, BI tools such as: Looker, Agentic AI, JIRA, Confluence etc
• Growth mindset: Always open to feedback and looking to improve.

This is a full-time role based in our office in Sunnyvale. At Wayve we want the best of all worlds so we operate a hybrid working policy that combines time together in our offices and workshops to fuel innovation, culture, relationships and learning, and time spent working from home.

Wayve is committed to creating an inclusive interview experience. If you require any accommodations or adjustments to participate fully in our interview process, please let us know.

We understand that everyone has a unique set of skills and experiences and that not everyone will meet all of the requirements listed above. If you’re passionate about self-driving cars and think you have what it takes to make a positive impact on the world, we encourage you to apply.

At Wayve we're committed to creating a diverse, fair and respectful culture that is inclusive of everyone based on their unique skills and perspectives, and regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding) or any other basis as protected by applicable law.

For more information visit Careers at Wayve.

To learn more about what drives us, visit Values at Wayve

DISCLAIMER: We will not ask about marriage or pregnancy, care responsibilities or disabilities in any of our job adverts or interviews. However, we do look to capture information about care responsibilities, and disabilities among other diversity information as part of an optional DEI Monitoring form to help us identify areas of improvement in our hiring process and ensure that the process is inclusive and non-discriminatory.