Staff Vehicle Program Manager

About the role

Waabi, a Physical AI company behind autonomous trucks and robotaxis, is hiring a Staff Vehicle Program Manager in San Francisco. The role is the technical face of Waabi to one OEM partner, owning the integration of the Waabi Driver from program setup through driverless operation. Each OEM gets its own dedicated owner so that focus and confidentiality are maintained.

Key responsibilities

• Own the technical integration of the Waabi Driver with an OEM partner, from program setup through driverless operation.
• Turn company goals into an integrated program plan covering Waabi and OEM deliverables, cross-team dependencies and the critical path.
• Balance resources and priorities across Hardware, Embedded, Onboard, Infra and Autonomy, making trade-off calls.
• Build trust with the OEM from executive reviews down to working-level engineering teams.
• Work with engineers on test vehicles to triage integration issues and drive decisions.
• Identify risks early, bring options with recommendations and escalate clearly.
• Maintain technical standards with the partner and develop program reporting for Waabi leadership and partner executives.

Required profile

• 8+ years of engineering experience in vehicle development, autonomous vehicles, ADAS or robotics, including 3+ years leading technical integration programs.
• Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical, Electrical, Computer or Systems Engineering or a related field.
• Breadth across actuation and autonomy system integration (sensors, compute, embedded, software) and the judgment to weigh trade-offs.
• Ability to go deep on technical issues and then return to the program view.
• Strong written and verbal communication, comfort with ambiguity and a startup pace, and a collaborative attitude.

Nice to have

• Understanding of OEM planning, gates, validation and decision processes, including DVP&R, V&V and supplier management.
• Experience with commercial truck or heavy-duty vehicle platforms.
• Hands-on experience with test vehicles, CAN bus and field issue triage.
• Program tools such as Jira and AI tools that reduce manual tracking.
• Technical experience developing self-driving vehicles.