Program Manager

Program Manager

Powercast is seeking a Program Manager to drive the end-to-end execution of complex hardware products incorporating mechanical, electrical, and firmware disciplines. In this role, you will act as the operational coordinator of our engineering organization, ensuring cross-functional teams stay aligned, mitigate project risks early, and deliver multi-disciplinary products on schedule and within budget.

Key Responsibilities

• Cross-Disciplinary Coordination: Align mechanical (ME), electrical (EE), firmware (FW), Operational, Quality and Commercial streams into a single unified execution plan. Manage inter-discipline dependencies (e.g., PCB board spins, enclosure prototyping and tooling, firmware/hardware integration).
• Schedule & Milestone Management: Build and manage detailed integrated project schedules tracking key hardware design milestones—from initial design concepts through EVT, DVT, and PVT.  Monitor and coordinate resource loading and utilization.
• Risk & Issue Mitigation: Facilitate regular cross-functional risk assessments (Design FMEA, supply chain long-lead risks, bring-up roadblocks) and drive proactive mitigation strategies across engineering disciplines.
• Prototyping & Bring-Up Operations: Coordinate prototype build runs, lab testing schedules, and board bring-up sessions. Ensure ME, EE, and FW engineers have the hardware samples, tooling, and test equipment required to execute builds on time.
• Cross-Functional Communication: Serve as the primary point of contact for project status across Engineering, Product Management, Industrial Design, Quality, and Supply Chain teams. Translate technical tradeoffs into clear risks and actionable choices for stakeholders.
• Process Standardization: Continually refine development processes, design review gates, and change-management workflows to streamline cross-team handoffs. Develop and manage project reporting and management tools.

Qualifications

• Experience: 10+ years of project or program management experience delivering physical hardware products containing mechanical, electrical, and embedded software/firmware components.
• Technical Breadth: Strong foundational understanding of the hardware product development lifecycle (NPI), PCB development cycles, mechanical tooling lead times, and firmware release cadences.
• Dependency Mapping: Proven skill in identifying and tracking complex cross-team dependencies where software, electrical schematics, and mechanical dimensions intersect.
• Tool Proficiency: Extensive experience in project management tools (MS Project, Smartsheet, etc.) applied to physical hardware workflows.
• Communication: Outstanding organizational and communication skills, with a track record of driving clarity across diverse engineering cultures (ME, EE, FW).

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronics, or Systems Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on experience working directly with contract manufacturers (CMs) and testing/certification labs (FCC, CE, UL).