---
title: 'Technical Program Manager, Electrical at Sesame'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/technical-program-manager-electrical-sesame-bellevue-r0mzb8s3vpj1'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-17'
---

# Technical Program Manager, Electrical at Sesame

- **Company:** Sesame
- **Location:** Bellevue, WA
- **Compensation:** $175k–$250k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-17
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sesame/cf5cb1db-5470-4966-970c-b90ff51b3fe4

## Job description

## About Sesame

Sesame believes in a future where computers are lifelike - with the ability to see, hear, and collaborate with us in ways that feel natural and human. With this vision, we're designing a new kind of computer, focused on making voice agents part of our daily lives. Our team brings together founders from Oculus and Ubiquity6, alongside proven leaders from Meta, Google, and Apple, with deep expertise spanning hardware and software. Join us in shaping a future where computers truly come alive.

## About the Role

Sesame is integrating a complex sensing and computing system into a compact, attractive wearable form factor. The Electrical TPM owns the program plan for that system: main logic and sensor boards, flex circuits, power and battery, custom silicon, and the sensing subsystems that let the device understand the wearer and their surroundings. You will carry these subsystems from architecture through EVT, DVT and PVT builds, working alongside our Electrical, Silicon, Firmware and Manufacturing teams and our contract manufacturers and component suppliers.

The ideal candidate has an electrical engineering background, has owned board and flex releases through multiple prototype builds, and is comfortable in the details of bring-up, failure analysis and vendor management. You know what it takes to get a board from schematic release to a working unit on a factory line, and you can tell the difference between a risk that needs escalation and one that needs a day of debug.

We are a small team working on very ambitious projects. In a fast-paced startup, everyone must be comfortable, collaborative, decisive, and able to achieve results with limited supervision.

Responsibilities:

- Own the electrical program schedule from architecture through EVT, DVT and PVT, including board and flex design releases, bring-up milestones and validation exit criteria.
- Drive cross-functional execution across Electrical, Silicon, Firmware, Product Design and Manufacturing. Communicate status, risks and decisions clearly to engineers and executives.
- Program-manage the sensing subsystems: sensor selection, tuning and calibration plans, firmware integration, and factory test, including their interaction with enclosure materials and industrial design.
- Track DOEs from concept through POR selection
- Manage board, flex and component suppliers: quotes, POs, demand quantities, delivery schedules, customs and consigned material.
- Plan electrical materials and build matrices for prototype builds; coordinate SMT and system builds across multiple vendors and factory sites.
- Run failure analysis triage for electrical issues: every issue has an owner, a due date and a path to closure; the burndown is reviewed regularly.
- Maintain the electrical section of the program's master issues list and weekly status, aligned with area leads.
- Track long-lead and end-of-life component risk, and drive mitigation before it affects a build.
- Travel to contract manufacturer and supplier sites for builds and bring-up as needed.

Minimum Qualifications:

- BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or equivalent practical experience.
- 5+ years of experience in hardware program management or electrical design of consumer electronics, with at least 2 years managing programs.
- Hands-on experience releasing PCBs and flex circuits and taking them through prototype builds (EVT/DVT/PVT or equivalent).
- Working knowledge of sensor integration, power and battery systems, and board-level bring-up and debug.
- Direct experience managing PCB, SMT and component suppliers, including quotes, POs and delivery schedules.
- Experience running failure analysis and issue tracking across engineering teams.
- Strong written communication; able to run a program with clear plans, decision logs and status updates.
- Ability to travel internationally, up to 25%.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Experience with wearables or other very small, battery-powered devices.
- Experience with custom silicon or ASIC programs and their firmware integration.
- Experience integrating sensors into small, body-worn devices, and the tuning and factory-test challenges that come with it.
- Experience working with contract manufacturers.
- Experience with Linear, Arena or similar issue and PLM tools.
- Startup experience, or ownership of new product programs at a large company.

Sesame is committed to a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered. We welcome all qualified applicants, embracing diversity in race, gender, identity, orientation, ability, and more. We provide reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities. Contact careers@sesame.com for assistance.

Full-time Employee Benefits:

- 401 (k) max employer match: 3.5% of compensation
- 100% employer-paid health, vision, and dental benefits for you and your dependents
- Unlimited PTO and sick time
- Flexible spending account with employer matching up to $1,650/year (medical FSA)
- Guardian Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Opportunity to share in the company's success with competitive stock options

Benefits do not apply to contingent/contract workers.

## About Sesame

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Sesame is building lifelike, conversational AI agents integrated into lightweight eyewear, aiming to bring ambient intelligence to daily life.
- **Entity Type**: Private (early-stage, backed by prominent venture firms)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Brendan Iribe, Ankit Kumar, Ryan Brown, Angela Gayles, Nate Mitchell

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Artificial intelligence / Voice assistants / Consumer electronics
- **Target customers**: Consumer (B2C) – individuals seeking hands-free, intelligent personal agents integrated into everyday eyewear
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Bringing the computer to life” – creating a personal companion that understands you, with natural conversation and lightweight, all-day wearable hardware.

## Products & Services
- **Sesame Personal Agents**: Software-based conversational AI agents capable of natural dialogue, personality modeling, and multimodal interaction (voice, gesture). Currently in development; initial hardware (eyewear) targeted for 2027.
- **Sesame Eyewear**: Lightweight, all-day comfortable glasses with high-quality audio and hands-free agent access. Coming 2027.
- **Research Platform**: In-house deep learning research covering speech generation, personality modeling, multimodality, and scaled training infrastructure.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available. Unconfirmed reports suggest a potential fundraising round of ~$200 M (source: Techmeme via LinkedIn snippet). The company has not officially disclosed its valuation.
- **Key Metric**: Total employees ~70 (as of mid-2026), with +5.8 % monthly headcount growth.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Backed by a16z, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, plus a collection of founders and investors.
- **Growth Signals**: 55 total employees on BuiltIn (likely older data); 63 active job postings (+14.5 % monthly trend); monthly LinkedIn follower growth of +3.8 % (20,969 followers). Talent sources include Meta, Apple, Google, DeepMind, and Microsoft.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Interdisciplinary approach**: Tightly integrated hardware, software, and ML teams (hardware engineers, ML researchers, product designers) working on a unified product vision.
- **Founding team pedigree**: Led by Oculus VR veterans (Brendan Iribe, Nate Mitchell) and experienced AI/ML innovators, giving deep expertise in both consumer hardware and conversational AI.
- **Research depth**: Active push in speech generation, personality modeling, and multimodality, with scaled GPU infrastructure for training.

## Strategic Focus
- **Near-term**: Ship the first generation of personal agent software and finalize the eyewear device for a 2027 launch. Continue advancing foundational ML research.
- **Long-term**: Build a new category of ambient, always-available AI companions that replace traditional screen-based interaction.
- **Growth areas**: Expanding engineering team rapidly (63 open roles), especially in ML, embedded systems, iOS/Android, supply chain, and hardware.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Small, focused, interdisciplinary team with a clear vision. Emphasis on tight collaboration between research, product, and hardware. Described as “artists, makers, and engineers.”
- **Work environment**: In-office for most roles (San Francisco, Bellevue, New York). Roles are listed as “In-Office” (not remote/hybrid). Offices in SF, Bellevue, NY.
- **Perks & engineering culture**: Not explicitly detailed, but the company invests heavily in infrastructure (GPU clusters) and research. Strong engineering focus with roles spanning embedded ML, OS architecture, and developer infrastructure.
- **Notable**: Opportunities to work on cutting-edge voice AI and physical product design from the ground up.

## Sources
1. [sesame.com](https://www.sesame.com/) – Company overview and product vision
2. [sesame.com/team](https://www.sesame.com/team) – Leadership, investors, team description
3. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/sesame-sesamecom) – Founded year, HQ, employee count, office policy
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/sesameai) – Employee count, growth, talent sources, funding rumor
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sesame) – Open positions and location details

## Other roles at Sesame

- [Speaker Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/speaker-systems-engineer-sesame-san-francisco-0n2w3gdydh91) — San Francisco, CA
- [Technical Program Manager, Product Design](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-program-manager-product-design-sesame-san-francisco-c39j4ewzmywn) — San Francisco, CA
- [Fabrication Shop Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/fabrication-shop-manager-sesame-bellevue-z681vhqvvavf) — Bellevue, WA
- [Mechanical Engineer, Product Design](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-product-design-sesame-san-francisco-zkkzarsbya1a) — San Francisco, CA
- [Electrical Engineering Technician (Contract)](https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-engineering-technician-contract-sesame-san-francisco-re7hrcqavmdm) — San Francisco, CA
- [Product Engineering Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/product-engineering-lead-sesame-san-francisco-frrrpwp06s6z) — San Francisco, CA
- [Executive Assistant](https://feeny.ai/job/executive-assistant-sesame-new-york-e0mdmkv43s9f) — New York, NY
- [iOS/Android Automation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/ios-android-automation-engineer-sesame-san-francisco-yg3qrrfeze2g) — San Francisco, CA
- [Research Scientist](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-sesame-san-francisco-dn2g1qez13fh) — San Francisco, CA
- [Hardware Test Automation Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/hardware-test-automation-engineer-sesame-san-francisco-fvyd7w3bj32c) — San Francisco, CA