Technical Program Manager, Sensors

AI Chopping Block; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI in San Francisco, CA is seeking a Technical Program Manager to drive the development and integration of sensor systems for robotics. This role requires coordinating across requirements, engineering design, integration, validation, manufacturing, supply chain, and release processes to turn complex sensor needs into clear plans and milestones.

Based in San Francisco, this in-person role will require presence 4 days a week and successful candidates will have a track record in

Qualifications

• Experience leading camera modules, microphones, radar, proximity sensing integration into mobile robots.
• Led electromechanical hardware programs from requirements through manufacturing.
• Knowledge of engineering development systems for version control and change management.
• Ability to work across engineering, test, manufacturing, and supply chain teams.

Responsibilities

• Drive requirements alignment across engineering design, integration, testing, and validation for sensor systems.
• Coordinate integration of modules including electrical, mechanical, harnessing, and software interfaces with the robotic system.
• Establish cadences for technical reviews, BOM readiness, change management, production releases, approvals, and decision tracking.
• Align harnesses, fasteners, assembly fixtures, test fixtures, and documentation for cross-functional execution.
• Lead validation planning around functional, reliability, NVH failure modes and exit criteria.
• Partner with manufacturing and supply chain to manage handoffs, lead times, dependencies, and production readiness.
• Drive tradeoff decisions across cost, quality, performance, schedule, and lead time.

Skills

Camera integration

Hardware program leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Engineering change mgmt

Job description

About Team

Our Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and advancing toward AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world environments. Working across the full model and systems stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the physical constraints of real-world systems to improve people’s lives.

About the Role

We are looking for a TPM to drive development and integration of a range of sensor systems for robotics. This role will drive cross-functional alignment across requirements, engineering design, integration, validation, manufacturing, supply chain, and release processes, helping turn complex sensor-system needs into clear plans, decisions, and milestones.

Location and in-person expectations: This role is based in San Francisco, CA and requires in-person presence 4 days a week.

In this role you will:

• Drive requirements alignment across engineering design, integration, testing, and validation for camera modules, LiDAR, IMUs, RADAR, proximity sensors, audio components and the systems they interact with.

• Coordinate the integration of modules including electrical, mechanical, harnessing, and software interfaces with the full robotic system with deep understanding of timelines to drive the respective PCBAs, enclosures, build and test fixtures, connectors and cables.

• Establish effective cadences for technical reviews, BOM readiness, change management, production releases, approvals, and decision tracking.

• Align harnesses, fasteners, assembly fixtures, test fixtures, and documentation so cross-functional teams can execute against a clear plan.

• Lead validation planning around functional, reliability, NVH failure modes, including testing needs, schedules, and exit criteria.

• Partner with manufacturing and supply chain to manage handoffs, lead times, dependencies, and production readiness.

• Drive tradeoff decisions across cost, quality, performance, schedule, and lead time by collaborating cross-functionally and quantifying impact to meet program deliverables.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Bring experience in developing camera modules, microphones/speakers, radar, proximity sensing, etc. and their integration into mobile robots.

• Have led complex electromechanical hardware programs from requirements through manufacturing.

• Understand engineering development systems for version control, change management, technical reviews, approvals, and production releases.

• Can work effectively across engineering, test, manufacturing, and supply chain teams.

What success looks like:

• Requirements, interfaces, dependencies, and validation plans are aligned across engineering teams.

• Sensor subsystems move from design through integration and testing with clear milestones and exit criteria.

• Technical reviews, BOM readiness, change control, and production-release mechanisms are operating effectively.

• Functional, reliability, and NVH risks are surfaced early and driven to closure.

• Cost, quality, performance, schedule, and lead-time tradeoffs are quantified and resolved cross-functionally.

• Mitigation strategies are well communicated and aligned upon, acceleration of hardware development from design to trials on the floor is quantifiable.

• Tools and workflows built are well embedded in the daily routine of all the team members, thus do not seem an added overhead to get things done.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Aff… Policy Statement.

Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

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