Senior Manager, Incident Management

Bringing self-driving vehicles to our roads is the most transformative opportunity of our generation. Aurora is taking a fresh start with the development of self-driving technology, combining excellence in AI, rigorous engineering, and a team with decades of experience building robots that work.

Led by a team of seasoned experts, our mission is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly. We are designing the software and hardware to power the transportation of our future that will make our roads safer, give more people access to mobility, and reduce congestion and pollution in cities - improving the quality of life for all. The challenge in what we are endeavoring to achieve is transcendent; we are developing perhaps the world's most complex computing system and asking it to perform the task of transporting and keeping safe our most precious asset: human life.

Aurora hires people who are excited to build the future of transportation.

About the Role

As the Senior Manager, you will be a critical technical leader responsible for shaping and executing Aurora’s strategy for enterprise-wide incident response and resilience. Your leadership will ensure the stability of our entire technical ecosystem—from the autonomous vehicle and its on-board systems to our enterprise IT infrastructure, cloud platforms, and operational centers (NOC/SOC).

This is a high-impact leadership role that combines strategic technical program management with operational excellence. You will be instrumental in proactively identifying systemic risks, influencing system architecture for improved observability and stability, and maturing our response capabilities against a complex landscape of operational and cybersecurity threats.

Please note: This role may work with sensitive content or situations.

In this role you will:

• Strategic Leadership & Technical Vision: Define and execute the technical roadmap for the incident response function, aligning with departmental and company-wide objectives. Drive the evolution of our incident management framework by architecting new processes, developing data-driven playbooks, and integrating tooling and automation to enhance response maturity across all technical domains. 
• Incident Command & Technical Oversight: Serve as the ultimate point of escalation and command for high-severity, complex incidents, including cybersecurity breaches, mission-critical production service outages (both on-vehicle and in the cloud), and widespread IT infrastructure failures. Ensure the 24x7 team of Incident Commanders adheres to established protocols and drives rapid technical triage.
• Cross-Functional Technical Partnership: Run the cross-functional Incident Governance Board, fostering deep collaboration and decisive action. Partner with senior leaders in Engineering, IT, Safety, Legal, and Cyber Security to influence architectural decisions, resiliency planning, and vulnerability management programs, ensuring a seamless and coordinated approach to risk mitigation.
• Executive Communication & Risk Translation: Serve as the definitive source of truth during major incidents, expertly translating complex technical impacts - from system failures to security vulnerabilities - into clear business risks for an executive audience. Ensure stakeholders receive timely, accurate, and actionable information to maintain strategic alignment.
• Data-Driven Continuous Improvement: Lead rigorous, blameless post-incident reviews to identify root causes and systemic lessons learned. Develop and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) and service level objectives (SLOs) related to incident response, using data to drive accountability and track the remediation of action items.
• Audit, Compliance & Security Readiness: Lead the IMT's engagement with internal and external auditors, demonstrating process maturity and adherence to relevant compliance frameworks (e.g., ISO 27001, NIST) and regulatory requirements related to incident management.

Required Qualifications:

• Experience: 10+ years of experience in a technical operations domain, with a significant emphasis on Incident Management in large-scale environments such as cloud computing, enterprise software, robotics, or other safety-critical industries.
• Leadership: At least 7 years in direct people management with demonstrated excellence in leading, mentoring, and scaling high-performance, geographically distributed, 24x7 technical teams.
• Holistic Systems Thinking: Ability to rapidly comprehend the interconnectedness of complex system architectures, spanning on-vehicle compute, cloud infrastructure, enterprise IT systems, and the operational dynamics of a Network Operations Center (NOC) and Security Operations Center (SOC).
• Program Development: Proven experience leading an enterprise through the development and execution of incident response and crisis management programs, including creating mature processes, SOPs, and comprehensive training programs.
• Executive Presence: Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with a proven ability to brief C-level executives and translate deep technical issues into concise, business-oriented terms.
• Strategic Execution: Proven ability to drive complex, cross-functional initiatives from conception to completion, demonstrably improving operational maturity and efficiency.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

Desirable Qualifications:

• Expert-level understanding of incident response frameworks (e.g., ICS/NIMS) and direct, hands-on experience managing enterprise-level incidents (e.g., major cloud service disruptions, large-scale network failures, critical security incidents).
• Experience developing and managing department-level budgets and resource allocation plans.
• Experience with modern observability, monitoring, and logging platforms (e.g., Datadog, Splunk, Prometheus).

The base salary wage range for this position is $189,000 - $303,000 per year.  Aurora’s pay ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, the successful candidate’s starting base pay will be determined based on factors including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, relevant education or training, and market conditions. These ranges may be modified in the future. The successful candidate will also be eligible for an annual bonus, equity compensation, and benefits.