Technical Program Manager

Axiom Cloud is at a critical moment: our customers include 5 major North American grocery chains, and we are on track to deploy our solution at our 100th customer site in the coming months.  

It’s now a key challenge to build more value-generating features in our products with the quality that our customers demand as we scale up. Team members are finding themselves split between program management and individual contributor work. We are therefore seeking a Technical Program Manager who can synthesize internal stakeholder requirements and core technology needs, and continuously connect them to principal business outcomes. This person will motivate, guide, and drive the decision-making process that influences immediate and long-term product outcomes - which in turn, directly affects Axiom’s success in this new stage of growth.  
 

What You’ll Do

You will report directly to the CTO in a fully-remote position (hours that largely align with Pacific Time are expected). You will work with the CTO, the Director of Software, the Director of New Product Development, and the product and software teams on the following strategic initiatives:

• Own Axiom’s product backlog. Know everything there is to know about our products, and apply that unique expertise to transform the backlog into a highly functional product prioritization system for the entire organization.
• Wrangle all of the work: capture, track, and don’t stop driving it until it’s DONE done!
• Identify, analyze, and mitigate risk. Prioritize work to answer gating questions first.
• Substantially mitigate ambiguity in business outcomes and technical milestones. Engage in architecture conversations and peer around corners to help teams understand the implications of design decisions.
• Exercise technical judgment, and when necessary, dive deep to drive solutions to problems. This could mean digging into code, data, logs, system documentation and design, performance, refrigeration processes, etc.
• Communicate decisions, coordinate dependencies, and facilitate work within as well as across product teams.
• Report true progress and latest path forward, however good or bad they may be, up and across the organization. Provide situational awareness to all stakeholders.
• Leverage this one-of-a-kind position to reach across any and all delineations in the organization, from individual contributors to C-level, to ensure the program’s best possible execution.  Resolve cross-functional dependencies, especially when there is no clear ownership.
• Represent Axiom in direct discussions with customers. Present successes as well as failures, and continue to build confidence in the customer that we are the best solution to their needs.
• Resolve conflict. Encourage transparent communication. Build trust and respect among all contributors.
• Develop tools and processes to improve technical team productivity.
• Be the “Swiss Army knife” of the team: seek and fill any remaining holes in execution, from developing customer-facing reports to actively operating the fleet, in order to achieve program business objectives.

Who You Are

(a general guide - we can bend these rules for an incredible candidate!)

Key attributes:

• Bachelors degree (or equivalent credentials/training) in a technical discipline.
• 3+ years professional experience in technical program, product, and/or project management.

• “Uncanny” communication skills, interpersonal skills, and ability to empathize. This position is first and foremost about getting human beings, both internal and external to the org, to work the best together!
• Ability to “manage up,” or anticipating questions, managing expectations, and delivering answers / recommendations before your audience even realizes they want to know something more.
• Rapid learner and synthesizer of new information. In important discussions, you bring the technical depth necessary to represent your team (without unnecessarily pulling them in) and also a broad understanding of business outcomes to contextualize progress and the path forward.
• An insatiable learner in technology and management.
• An enthusiastic self-starter who can work with minimal supervision and generates innovative solutions to tough problems.
• Passionate about technology innovation, product development, company-building, environmental impact, energy, and/or climate tech.
• Aligned with Axiom Cloud’s guiding principles (you will be asked to provide examples of how you embody these principles during interviews).

Nice to have any of the following:

• Relevant certification(s), such as Scrum Master, Agile Practitioner, PMP, etc.
• Experience with field deployments or repairs (software or hardware).
• Basic scripting in any programming language; Python a plus.
• Experience with rapid tool development in low/no-code environments (Airtable, Jira, Zapier, Power Apps, etc).
• Basic familiarity with linux command line.
• Basic understanding of the refrigeration cycle and/or common HVAC/R systems.

What You Get

• Compensation in competitive base salary and equity.
• Fully remote position (the entire company is fully remote).
• “Honor system” PTO policy (no specified limits), flexible work schedule, flexible maternity/paternity leave.
• Numerous social activities including team happy hours, barbecues, holiday parties, and an annual Halloween costume competition. NOTE: we will resume in-person events in the Bay Area when it is safe to do so.

The Fine Print

• We’re a startup. The work is demanding, but we’ll make every effort to find an arrangement that works.
• Periodic on-call rotation.
• Occasional travel.

Bonus Question

Play this game for 15 minutes to help us better understand your strengths! https://play.scoutible.com/axiomcloud

Axiom Cloud is an Equal Opportunity Employer and fully subscribes to the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity, to ensure that all applicants and employees are considered for hire, promotion, and job status without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, marital or familial status.