Technical Program Manager

Job Description

The Tesla Energy Factory Firmware Team is looking for a Technical Program Manager to drive short and long term, complex, interdisciplinary projects across Energy firmware, system integration, firmware validation, and manufacturing testing to support the development of new factory firmware processes and carry out integration trials to meet established product specifications.  This includes supporting from early prototype builds through to the launch of the production line and future optimizations.

The Program Manager will lead the Energy roadmap planning and execution for factory firmware testing and validation across the Engineering and Factory teams to ensure products are tested and function to the highest quality.  Driving to establish validation standards, develop testing protocols, prepare equipment readiness, document test results, and maintain dashboards to communicate KPIs.

The right candidate will understand firmware and software system development, have experience with manufacturing, and leading cross-functional teams to deliver exceptional product performance. You will have the opportunity to shape the process and interaction between the firmware engineering process and manufacturing line operation for efficiency and high quality. You will use your engineering background to understand the product requirements, technical risks and the validation strategy to accelerate the development process. You will communicate and present projects’ status, highlight schedule risk, and develop recovery plans in the event a slip.

Job Responsibilities

• Manage cross-functional factory-facing projects from end-to-end, covering a range of areas including firmware trials, testing rebalancing, pre-flashing, and coordination with hardware & firmware development teams. Work closely with manufacturing and engineering teams to effectively coordinate firmware trials, validation, & integration to the factory on a regular basis
• Facilitate & manage partnerships with key groups such as Manufacturing Engineering, Production, NPI, Engineering, System Integration & Test, and Firmware/Software development, and other partner engineering teams
• Serve as subject matter expert (SME) on factory firmware releases to ensure proper validation procedures are followed
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to evaluate the best processes roll-out, Trial Report & Document observations, analysis, and results, make recommendations as needed and drive solutions. Record all issues found during trials and help drive to closure
• Manage Trial Recovery: Ensure manufacturing lines are validated and/or restored to prior condition post-trial(s).  Evaluate the success of each trial (yield, downtime, cost, safety, etc.)
• Track all trial details in PCA tracking system for approvals
• Inspire, lead, and organize internal improvement initiatives to existing software, firmware, test engineering
• Evolve our release processes to support high precision and dependability. Maintain the agility of the Tesla method
• Lead your projects with strength and confidence through rapid development cycles, changing requirements, and uncertainty
• Communicate clearly, regularly, and effectively with leadership, stakeholders, and internal team members in both written and verbal forms

Job Requirements

• Degree in an Engineering discipline, or equivalent experience
• 3+ years' technical program/project management experience managing consumer-facing software programs and/or embedded systems (or equivalent experience)
• 3+ years’ working as an engineer, ideally on software or firmware teams, as a developer or tester
• Experience managing end-to-end product deployment — from concept through development and successful launch
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and collaboration skills with ability to work in a highly cross-functional environment
• Excellent organization and delegation skills with ability to own the product roadmap and schedule with a track record of delivering projects on-time
• Ability to work with limited resources, independently, tight deadlines, and with urgency