Program Director
Complex hardware does not reach customers because a schedule looks good. It reaches them when engineering intent survives prototype instability, factory constraints, and customer pressure. This role owns that translation: turning high-complexity systems into products that launch on time, at the required quality, cost, and volume. You will be accountable for program outcomes that protect revenue, yield, and customer confidence.
Performance Objectives
- Deliver assigned programs from concept through engineering builds, qualification, ramp, and stable mass production, hitting agreed milestones for schedule, quality, cost, and volume.
- Convert customer requirements into a single, governed plan across R&D, manufacturing, test, quality, supply chain, and production, with clear owners and no unresolved dependencies at phase gates.
- Cut launch risk by running a living risk and change system: identify technical, supply, and capacity threats early, and close corrective actions before they move the critical path.
- Make engineering changes manufacturable. Drive ECO, DFM, and design-for-test decisions so late changes do not inflate cost, scrap, or ramp delay.
- Serve as the decision interface with the customer: report status, tradeoffs, and recovery plans in time for the customer to act, and bring internal teams a single prioritized response.
- Raise program predictability quarter over quarter by standardizing phase-gate reviews, escalation paths, and lessons learned across the portfolio you lead.
- Build a program team that can run global execution without you in every meeting, including clear succession on critical workstreams.
Environment & Resources
You lead program managers and work as a peer to engineering, quality, supply chain, and factory leadership. The work spans Silicon Valley-style product development and high-volume manufacturing sites across regions and time zones. You will have authority to set program priorities, call cross-functional reviews, and escalate blockers to senior leadership. Core tools include phase-gate governance, ECO/DFM reviews, schedule and risk systems, and factory readiness data. Travel to customer sites and manufacturing locations is expected.
Essential Qualifications
- 10+ years in technology program or product introduction leadership, including ownership of hardware programs through EVT, DVT, PVT, and volume ramp.
- Proven record leading cross-functional teams and managing people, not only coordinating tasks.
- Hands-on command of ECO control, DFM/DFT reviews, and manufacturing readiness for complex electronic or computing systems.
- Experience bridging regional R&D with global mass-manufacturing operations, including clear written and verbal communication across cultures and time zones.
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or a related field; an MBA or PMP is useful, not a substitute for delivery results.
- Evidence you have recovered a late or unstable program without sacrificing quality or customer trust.
Why This Role
- You run programs at the intersection of advanced computing, AI infrastructure, and high-volume electronics manufacturing, not slide-only portfolio management.
- Scope spans the full path from unstable engineering builds to reliable, repeatable production.
- You influence how global engineering and factories work together on products used at massive scale.
- Sustainability and manufacturability are part of launch success, not a side report.
If you have shipped complex hardware through global factories and can be measured on launch results, apply with a short note on one program you owned from prototype to volume and the outcome you delivered.