Staff Technical Program Manager - Release Management

Who we are

Aurora’s mission is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.

The Aurora Driver will create a new era in mobility and logistics, one that will bring a safer, more efficient, and more accessible future to everyone.

At Aurora, you will tackle massively complex problems alongside other passionate, intelligent individuals, growing as an expert while expanding your knowledge. For the latest news from Aurora, visit aurora.tech or follow us on LinkedIn.

What we are looking for

As a Staff Technical Program Manager (Release Management), you will report to the Manager of Release Management and join our Software Product-Design team. This is a senior individual contributor (IC) role that balances strategic release architecture and automation with hands-on, day-to-day release train execution. We are hiring for this role to help drive scale and automation in our release operations for predictive prevention, establishing robust automated release gating as our commercial driverless fleet scales from a dozen vehicles to thousands. This is a high-impact opportunity for a force multiplier who thrives on combining hands-on tactical execution with long-term operational scale. You are highly motivated to remove manual friction, manage release operations, and automate software release and deployment frameworks in a safety-critical, high-velocity environment.

In this role you will

• Lead Day-to-Day Release Operations & Cadence: Own and execute the end-to-end release cycle, including orchestrating regular release train schedules, managing branch cut-offs, running daily release/build triage, and coordinating hotfix deployments across software and vehicle platforms.

• Cross-Functional Coordination & Release Communication: Serve as the primary operational hub for release readiness, driving daily alignment across engineering, safety, hardware, and test operations teams while maintaining transparent release communications and dashboards.

• Drive Predictive Prevention and Release Automation: Shift release operations toward predictive prevention by identifying and eliminating manual friction points, automating release workflows, and utilizing AI/ML tools for triage classification and anomaly detection.

• Establish Data-Driven Release Gating: Help architect and maintain automated "Release Gates" that auto-assemble compliance evidence using structured data (Single Source of Truth), ensuring rigorous quality and safety standards before release promotion.

• Manage High-Scale Branching & Change Control: Govern and orchestrate concurrent release branches across diverse customers, hardware configurations, and Operational Design Domains (ODDs), maintaining absolute branching hygiene and change control.

• Ensure Safety-First Rigor and Auditable Compliance: Treat release documentation and launch reports with software-grade discipline—ensuring version control, complete auditability, and safety compliance without introducing operational bottlenecks.

Required qualifications

• 7+ Years of Hands-On Release Experience: Technical program management, release engineering, or systems engineering background with direct, day-to-day release train execution and managing software-hardware integrations in complex environments.

• Safety-Critical Domain Expertise: Experience working under strict safety-regulated standards (such as ISO 26262, DO-178C, or ISO 13485) within automotive, aerospace, medical or robotics, with strong configuration management, baseline, and change control practices.

• Tactical Build & CI/CD Execution: Practical, hands-on technical experience with CI/CD build automation tools (e.g., Buildkite, GitHub Actions) and monorepo build systems (e.g., Bazel) to troubleshoot and execute daily release operations at scale.

• Complex Branching & Daily Triage: Proven track record of orchestrating concurrent release branches, running hands-on daily build/release triage, and executing hotfix deployments across diverse teams and hardware platforms.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration & Governance: Collaborative track record of partnering across engineering, safety, hardware, and test operations teams to establish transparent governance, shared release visibility, and cross-team trust.

• Customer & Team Support Mindset: Strong team player willing to support internal operations, external partners, and high-priority releases with occasional evening or weekend coverage as needed.

• Travel Requirement: Ability to travel to engineering centers in Mountain View, CA, Terminal Operations in Texas or Pittsburgh, PA as business needs arise.

Desirable qualifications

• AV & Robotics Background: Direct, hands-on experience in autonomous vehicles, robotics, machine learning systems, or complex cyber-physical environments.

• AI-Leveraged Release Operations: Practical experience applying ML/AI tooling to day-to-day release operations, such as automated test-failure classification, triage automation, or pipeline anomaly detection.

• Automation-First & Collaborative Mindset: Passion for building self-service release tooling and reducing operational friction while fostering seamless cross-functional alignment and developer enablement.

• Cloud & SaaS Infrastructure: Practical familiarity with cloud environments (AWS) and progressive deployment methodologies (feature flagging, progressive delivery, service dependency ordering).

• Proactive Execution & Planning: Proven capability to manage day-to-day edge cases and unknown release risks by establishing team-wide visibility and proactive build health tracking.

For roles based in San Francisco, CA and Mountain View, CA: The salary range for this position is $181,000 - $290,000 per year.

For roles based in Pittsburgh, PA: The salary range for this position is $163,000 - $261,000 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.

Working at Aurora

At Aurora, we bring together extraordinarily talented and experienced people united by the strength of our values. We operate with integrity, set outrageous goals, and build a culture where we win together — all without any jerks.

We believe in-person work increases collaboration, empathy, and our ability to lead effectively. As a result, Aurorans are expected to work from the office at least 3 days per week, with some roles requiring more frequent in-office presence, up to 5 days per week, based on operational needs.

Our Careers page provides insight into what it is like to work at Aurora, and you can find all the latest updates in our Newsroom.

Our commitment to safety

At the core of everything we do is our commitment to safety. Building best-in-class self-driving technology will take time, and we believe that each employee at Aurora has a role in contributing to safety, every step of the way. Aurora expects commitment to our safety policies from every employee, and seeks candidates who take an active responsibility, can contribute to building an atmosphere of trust, and invest in the organization’s long-term success by prioritizing working safely, no matter what.

Our commitment to inclusion

Aurora considers candidates without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy status, parent or caregiver status, ancestry, political affiliation, veteran and/or military status, physical or mental disability, or any other status protected by federal or state law. Aurora considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. We are also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected].

For California applicants, information collected and processed as part of your application and any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Aurora’s California Employment Privacy Policy.