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Program Manager

unspun

unspun

Operations
Emeryville, CA, USA
Posted on Dec 14, 2024

About unspun

unspun's mission is to reduce global carbon emissions by 1% by revolutionizing the way we make clothes. We envision a world where every garment is made on-demand, eliminating overproduction and reconnecting people with the clothing they wear. Our innovative Vega™ technology, a revolutionary 3D weaving system for direct yarn-to-garment production, is at the heart of our mission to transform the fashion industry.

About You

You are a strategic and organized Program Manager with experience launching hardware products and a proven ability to oversee complex, cross-functional initiatives. Having navigated the challenges of bringing physical products to market, you understand the unique complexities of hardware development, commercialization readiness, manufacturing, and deployment. You excel at connecting the dots across hardware engineering, operations, commercialization, and product teams to deliver seamless outcomes. You thrive in environments requiring prioritization, clear communication, and difficult tradeoff decisions to ensure alignment across diverse stakeholders. Your ability to dive deep into details while maintaining strategic perspective will ensure our teams work effectively together to bring Vega™ technology to market, enabling us meet our ambitious revenue and impact goals.

What You'll Do

  • Drive the successful rollout of our Vega™ product by aligning commercialization timelines with engineering development phase gates.
  • Serve as the central point of coordination for hardware engineering, operations, commercialization, and product teams, ensuring all stakeholders are aligned.
  • Facilitate decision making and trade-off discussions, ensuring clear communication of priorities and decisions made to key stakeholders.
  • Drive program delivery through strategic management of timelines, resources, and dependencies, ensuring coordinated execution across all workstreams.
  • Define and track program success metrics, from machine deployment to revenue generation.
  • Develop and lead comprehensive risk management strategy, including identification, mitigation planning, and ongoing monitoring of technical, operational, and commercial risks.
  • Facilitate the integration of customer feedback into engineering priorities to continuously improve the Vega™ product.
  • Communicate program status, decisions, and priorities clearly and effectively to all stakeholders, including executive leadership.
  • Implement processes that enhance efficiency and transparency across program activities.

Ideal Qualities

  • 5+ years of experience in program management, with a focus on cross-functional initiatives.
  • Experience with hardware, manufacturing, or complex technical products.
  • Track record of successful program delivery at scale.
  • Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects that bridge engineering, operations, and commercialization.
  • Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, particularly in resolving conflicting priorities.
  • Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills to align diverse stakeholders.

Bonus Points

  • Experience with hardware-software integration and real-time systems.
  • Background in product commercialization and customer-driven development.
  • Familiarity with additive manufacturing systems.
  • PMP or similar certification.

We don't expect you to have all of the listed qualities, and are looking for someone who hopes to learn those areas where they don't have as much experience. If you don't meet all of the requirements listed above, but can make up for it with a voracious passion to learn how to do so, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Our Philosophy

We won’t roll our eyes if your socks don’t match. We get it. But then, if you spend those extra few minutes in the morning matching your socks and shirt, we get that too. Our workspaces are sometimes spotless and sometimes chaotic, and we celebrate messy exploration. We work through complex problems but generate simple and elegant solutions. We strive to look at things differently, and never do anything solely because “that’s the way it’s always been done.”

We’re a team of designers and engineers, industry-veterans and serial entrepreneurs, artists and developers. We’re aspiring chess masters and climbers, bakers and photographers. Originally spun out of Stanford and the University of Colorado, we now call the SF Bay Area home, with strong ties to Hong Kong. We are looking for teammates who share our desire to work on ambitious problems, find deep meaning in their work, and leave the world better than we found it.

unspun is an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to being a diverse team that reflects a broad range of background, thought, and experience. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, status as an individual with a disability, status as protected veteran, or any other legally protected characteristics. Women, minorities, and people from underrepresented backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.