---
title: 'Program Manager, Teleoperations at Watney'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/program-manager-teleoperations-watney-san-francisco-c0zedeb0sc5r'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Program Manager, Teleoperations at Watney

- **Company:** Watney
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/watney/2fd3879c-4418-43ef-a8ca-831ab0ab948a

## Job description

## Our Mission

Expand human ambition in the physical world.

Critical infrastructure is constrained by labor shortages, hazardous working conditions, and operational complexity. Watney builds and deploys autonomous robotic systems that increase the speed and capacity of buildout, starting with data centers.

## ABOUT THE ROLE

The Program Manager, Teleoperations runs the day-to-day work of the robot pilot program: getting new pilots through tryouts and training, tracking how they perform once they're on the floor, and flagging what needs to change. You'll work under the program lead and alongside Fleet Operations, reporting what the numbers say and helping carry out the fixes. This program runs today: a 2,000+ pilot floor already supports robots working live customer deployments. You'll spend your first months learning how that floor runs, then take direct ownership of a piece of it - a training cohort, a KPI, a shift. We're looking for someone with strong critical thinking and clear communication, ready to learn a live operations program from the ground up - comfortable with messy real-world data and fast-changing priorities.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Run tryouts and training sessions for new pilots, and track how they perform
- Pull and report on KPIs (telemetry, task times, etc.) for your piece of the floor
- Follow SOPs, flag where they break down, and help update them
- Coordinate with Fleet Operations on day-to-day robot allocation for training
- Escalate performance findings to the program lead and to hardware/software engineering

## WHAT YOU'LL BRING

- 1-2 years of experience in an operations, program-support, or offshore-workforce role (recruiting, training, or performance tracking)
- Comfort working from SOPs and following a defined process closely
- Strong data-analysis skills and comfort with messy real-world data
- Clear written and verbal communication skills
- Willingness to work hard in a scrappy environment

We’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive team. At Watney Robotics, we welcome people of all backgrounds and identities, and we make hiring decisions based on skills, experience, and potential. If you’re passionate about robotics but don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply!

Curious to learn more? Follow us here on [X](https://x.com/watneyrobotics/) and [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/watneyrobotics/about/)

## About Watney

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Develops autonomous robotics systems to operate datacenter and supercomputing infrastructure, partnering with hyperscalers to accelerate compute scaling.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Ryan Gannon (Co-Founder), Sean Cheong (Co-Founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Robotics Engineering / Datacenter Infrastructure Automation
- **Target customers**: Hyperscale cloud providers and large-scale data center operators (Enterprise B2B)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Deploy an abundant, intelligent workforce” by enabling the growth of critical infrastructure through autonomous robots.

## Products & Services
- **Autonomous Datacenter Robotics Platform**: A fleet of autonomous robots designed for datacenter buildout and breakfix operations. The system handles physical tasks such as server installation, cable management, maintenance, and repair, reducing human labor and accelerating deployment timelines.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available
- **Key Metric** (Private): **$21.0M in total funding** (Seed round closed May 30, 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Conviction, Abstract, A* (A-star). Partners with the world’s largest hyperscalers (names not disclosed).
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount grew **183.3% year-over-year** to 11 employees (as of mid-2026)
  - Monthly headcount growth of **+6.2%**
  - Active job postings rose **+28.6% month-over-month** and **+350% quarter-over-quarter**
  - Currently hiring for 9 roles spanning engineering, operations, and strategy

## Competitive Advantages
- **Deep domain focus**: Solely dedicated to datacenter and supercomputing infrastructure – a narrow, high-stakes vertical with massive scaling demand.
- **Elite founding team**: Includes former GSM for iPhone, former founding engineer at Worldcoin, and a builder of the world’s fastest EV racecar (ETH Zurich).
- **Early partnerships with hyperscalers**: Already working with the largest cloud providers, providing critical validation and a clear path to production.
- **Full-stack ownership**: Company is moving from prototype to production fleets, offering engineers end-to-end impact from hardware to software.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale from prototype to production fleets**: Transitioning from small-scale deployments to large autonomous fleets.
- **Deepen hyperscaler partnerships**: Expand contracts and joint development roadmaps with major cloud providers.
- **Grow engineering and operations teams**: Aggressively hiring across robotics, software, facilities management, and deployment strategy to support production scaling.

## Why Work Here
- **In-Office culture**: All roles are based in San Francisco (HQ); the company emphasizes in-person collaboration.
- **Ground-floor opportunity**: With outsized ownership and visibility, employees shape the “rollout playbook” for a category-defining robotics company.
- **Technical challenge**: Work on real systems that combine robotics, AI, hardware, and infrastructure at scale.
- **Notable peers**: Colleagues include alumni from Scale AI, Amazon Web Services, Tools for Humanity, Warburg Pincus, and the US Army Corps of Engineers.
- **Growth trajectory**: A very young company (founded 2024) with rapid hiring and clear product-market fit, ideal for early-stage career builders.

## Sources
1. [watneyrobotics.com](https://watneyrobotics.com/)
2. [linkedin.com/company/watneyrobotics](https://www.linkedin.com/company/watneyrobotics)
3. [builtin.com/company/watney-robotics-inc](https://builtin.com/company/watney-robotics-inc)
4. [startups.gallery/companies/watney](https://startups.gallery/companies/watney)

## Other roles at Watney

- [Staff Program Manager, Teleoperations](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-program-manager-teleoperations-watney-san-francisco-w7qah1bzn6xd) — San Francisco, CA
- [Operations Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/operations-lead-watney-san-francisco-be77taz7js4n) — San Francisco, CA
- [Manufacturing Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/manufacturing-engineer-watney-san-francisco-my41btjba2q8) — San Francisco, CA
- [Growth Marketing Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/growth-marketing-manager-watney-san-francisco-ek0hqtqhkcz3) — San Francisco, CA
- [Business Operations Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/business-operations-lead-watney-san-francisco-9n7j7kpvkzpj) — San Francisco, CA
- [Finance Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/finance-manager-watney-san-francisco-1f1kygnh0cag) — San Francisco, CA
- [General Application](https://feeny.ai/job/general-application-watney-san-francisco-6nk2g8aqqjr4) — San Francisco, CA
- [Engineering Program Manager - Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-program-manager-robotics-watney-san-francisco-pw4pgcw5ttbz) — San Francisco, CA
- [Robotics Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/robotics-technician-watney-san-francisco-a9smm1vdp9nt) — San Francisco, CA
- [Technical Sourcer](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-sourcer-watney-san-francisco-69nx7ehb2msa) — San Francisco, CA