---
title: 'Staff Program Manager, Teleoperations at Watney'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-program-manager-teleoperations-watney-san-francisco-w7qah1bzn6xd'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Staff Program Manager, Teleoperations at Watney

- **Company:** Watney
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $100k–$200k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/watney/0f939c50-c1bf-4737-a626-563c81007ec1/application

**Skills:** Data analysis, Telemetry analysis, KPI definition

> Leads a team of 250+ robot pilots to execute teleoperation tasks for autonomous robotic systems. Defines KPIs, analyzes performance data, and partners with engineering and international teams to optimize hardware, software, and organizational structures.

## 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 Staff Program Manager, Teleoperations owns the robot pilot program at Watney: how new pilots get on the floor, how they get better once they're there, and the KPI framework and feedback loop that connects the two. This program runs today: a 2,000+ pilot floor already supports robots working live customer deployments. You'll partner with our pilots, our Southeast Asia leadership team, and our ML researchers to keep the program moving as fast as the robots need it to. We're looking for someone with strong critical thinking, clear communication, and experience running a large distributed center of excellence program from the ground up - comfortable with messy real-world data, short-notice global travel, and late-night performance analysis when the program calls for it.

## What You'll Do

- Own the pilot program: tryouts, training cohorts, and the performance work that turns a new pilot into a great one, across a 2,000+ pilot operation
- Define KPIs and measure performance (telemetry, task times, etc.), and close the loop from data to action
- Partner with Fleet Operations to solve robot allocation for training and live deployments
- Partner with our Southeast Asia leadership team on organizational structure and shift-operations improvements
- Translate performance findings into concrete changes with our hardware and software engineering teams

## What You'll Bring

- 4+ years running a distributed or offshore workforce program at scale (recruiting, training, performance management), at a consulting firm or technology company
- Experience writing SOPs and owning quality/process for an operations team
- 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

- [Program Manager, Teleoperations](https://feeny.ai/job/program-manager-teleoperations-watney-san-francisco-c0zedeb0sc5r) — 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