Staff Technical Program Manager

Apptronik is a human-centered robotics company developing AI-powered robots to support humanity in every facet of life. Our flagship humanoid robot, Apollo, is built to collaborate thoughtfully with people, starting with critical industries such as manufacturing and logistics, with future applications in healthcare, the home, and beyond.

We operate at the cutting edge of embodied AI, applying our expertise across the full robotics stack to solve some of society's most important problems. You will join a team dedicated to bringing Apollo to market at scale, tackling the complex challenges like safety, commercialization, and mass production to change the world for the better.

We are looking for a seasoned Staff Technical Program Manager to be the first TPM in our newly opened Sunnyvale, CA office. This is a high-autonomy, high-visibility role at the intersection of AI/ML infrastructure, robot perception, and strategic partnerships. You will lead complex, cross-functional programs spanning ML operations and perception for humanoid robotics, while serving as the primary program interface to one of our most important strategic AI partners — ensuring crisp communication, aligned priorities, and delivery against shared goals.

As the first TPM on the ground in Sunnyvale, you will wear many hats: standing up program structure for a new site, driving ML and perception program execution, and shaping how Apptronik collaborates with world-class external AI teams. You will set the strategic direction for how these programs are planned and executed, drive alignment between executive stakeholders and engineering leadership, and help scale the program management function as the Sunnyvale team grows.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• New Site Program Leadership: Serve as the first TPM in the Sunnyvale office. Establish program management structure, cadences, and operating rhythms for a new and rapidly growing site, while staying tightly connected to Austin-based engineering and program leadership.

• MLOps Program Ownership: Own end-to-end execution of ML infrastructure and operations programs — including data pipelines, training and evaluation infrastructure, model release processes, and the tooling that enables rapid, reliable iteration on robot learning systems.

• Perception Program Leadership: Lead and TPM the perception team's program execution for humanoid robotics — driving roadmaps execution, milestones, and cross-functional integration of perception capabilities into the full robot stack.

• Strategic Partner Interface: Act as the primary program conduit to a key strategic AI partner. Ensure clear, proactive, bidirectional communication; translate partner needs into internal execution plans; track joint milestones and deliverables; and ensure Apptronik is consistently meeting partner expectations while advocating for Apptronik's priorities.

• Ownership: Own program execution end to end. Set strategic direction, identify resource requirements, and be accountable for executing on company goals and roadmap. Challenge assumptions at the org level and foster a results-driven culture.

• Orchestration: Partner directly with engineering leadership to execute solutions and adapt quickly when priorities shift. Coordinate across engineering, research, operations, and executive leadership — internally and externally — to keep all stakeholders aligned and informed.

• Communication: Proactively communicate program status, risks, trade-offs, and decisions to executive stakeholders and partner counterparts. Clearly articulate requirements, goals, and milestones across teams and up to leadership.

• Leadership &