Staff Engineering Program Manager

About Cyngn

Based in Mountain View, CA, Cyngn is a publicly-traded autonomous technology company. We deploy self-driving industrial vehicles like forklifts and tuggers to factories, warehouses, and other facilities throughout North America. To build this emergent technology, we are looking for innovative, motivated, and experienced leaders to join us and move this field forward. If you like to build, tinker, and create with a team of trusted and passionate colleagues, then Cyngn is the place for you. Key reasons to join Cyngn: 

We are small and big.

With under 100 employees, Cyngn operates with the energy of a startup. On the other hand, we’re publicly traded. This means our employees not only work in close-knit teams with mentorship from company leaders—they also get access to the liquidity of our publicly-traded equity.

We build today and deploy tomorrow.

Our autonomous vehicles aren’t just test concepts—they’re deployed to real clients right now. That means your work will have a tangible, visible impact.

We aren’t robots. We just develop them.

We’re a welcoming, diverse team of sharp thinkers and kind humans. Collaboration and trust drive our creative environment. At Cyngn, everyone’s perspective matters—and that’s what powers our innovation.

About this role:

Industrial organizations are facing critical challenges with labor shortages, costly safety incidents, and the ever-increasing demand for efficiency. At Cyngn, we are at the forefront of solving these problems by developing and deploying AI-powered autonomous vehicle technology for industrial fleets.

To accelerate this mission and scale our impact, we are looking for a Principal Engineering Program Manager, reporting directly to the Vice President of Product and Technology. In this role, you will act as the on-site leader and directly responsible owner for our most critical mobile robotics development programs. You will serve as a direct extension of the product and technology leadership, responsible for translating our strategic intent into world-class execution.

What You'll Achieve

Your mission is to drive our complex, cross-functional programs from concept through to successful launch. Success in this role means ensuring Cyngn can develop products and deliver customer value more efficiently, transparently, and predictably. Within your first year, you will:

- Take full ownership of a major development program, becoming the go-to leader for its execution.

- Materially improve the predictability of our product release timelines.

- Implement and refine a development process that scales across hardware and software teams, becoming the standard for our organization.

• Own and Drive Execution: Own the end-to-end execution of development initiatives, tracking progress, identifying and mitigating risks, and providing transparent updates to all stakeholders.
• Serve as the On-Site Owner: Serve as the primary on-site owner and point of contact for the development program. You will work closely with and mentor Engineering and Product leads to execute and improve development processes that mitigate the complexities of cross-functional product development.
• Champion Product Strategy: Champion the product strategy, context, and intent in all technical discussions and planning meetings. Work with Product Management to understand problems and discover solutions with the Engineering leads.
• Lead Cross-Functional Teams: Lead and orchestrate a cross-functional team of hardware, software, and product experts. You will facilitate communication, ensure alignment, surface dependencies, and resolve blockers.
• Clear Roadblocks: Proactively identify and remove obstacles to unblock team execution and balance competing priorities, escalating when necessary to maintain momentum.
• Improve Development Processes: Own and iteratively improve the development methodologies and processes used by the teams to improve delivery.
• Align with Leadership: Work closely with Engineering leadership to align with goals and measures, promote organizational clarity, and escalate areas of misalignment or conflict.

• Experience: A minimum of 10 years of experience leading complex product development initiatives as an engineering/technical program manager, engineering manager, or delivery manager, preferably in robotics. autonomous systems, or other domains that involve the combination of hardware and software.
• Education: Minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or a related technical field.
• Strategic Execution: You have a strong technical aptitude with an ability to understand system design, engineering tradeoffs, and risk management. You have demonstrated experience translating high-level product strategy into actionable engineering plans.
• Leadership & Presence: You have the maturity and presence to act as a delegate for senior leadership. You possess strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to adapt your style to the audience.
• Process Expertise: You believe in process over tools and are proficient in both agile and sequential development approaches, knowing when to use each.

• Deep experience in safety-critical systems and development practices and familiarity with relevant standards (e.g., ISO 3691-4, ISO 26262, IEC 61508).
• A past life as a software or hardware engineer before moving into program management.
• Proven success in managing programs that involve advanced perception (computer vision, LiDAR), motion planning, or fleet management at scale.
• Experience taking a product from early prototype to high-volume production.

• Health benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA and FSA (Health & Dependent Daycare), Employee Assistance Program, 1:1 Health Concierge)
• Life, Short-term and long-term disability insurance (Cyngn funds 100% of premiums)
• Company 401(k)
• Commuter Benefits
• Flexible vacation policy
• Remote or hybrid work opportunities
• Sabbatical leave opportunity after 5 years with the company
• Paid Parental Leave
• Daily lunches for in-office employees
• Monthly meal and tech allowances for remote employees
• Allowance to purchase new headphones when you join!