Technical Program Manager at Forward (Santa Clara, CA)Technical Program Manager

Forward was founded in 2013 by four Stanford Ph.D.s, building the industry's first network digital twin: a mathematically accurate model of the production network. It's the foundation for autonomous networking, giving engineers and AI agents the ability to know the impact of every change before it touches production. That founding instinct still defines how we work. We're accurate and evidence-driven, relentless about clarity, and we'd rather be certain than comfortable, building a groundbreaking platform that transforms how teams run and secure networks across every major cloud and vendor environment.

Global leaders like Goldman Sachs, PayPal, S&P Global, IBM, and Dell trust Forward, alongside fast-growing enterprises and government agencies, realizing an average of $14.2 million in annual benefits, according to IDC. Backed by top-tier investors, including A. Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, MSD Partners, Omega Venture Partners, Section 32, and Threshold Ventures, and headquartered in Santa Clara, we're most proud of our team: curious people who'd rather build what doesn't exist than accept how things have always been done.

Forward is looking for a Technical Program Manager

Core accountability: Drive execution across engineering programs, including releases, cross-functional initiatives, and the communications and coordination infrastructure that keeps a scaling org aligned.

What you'll own:

• Release management end-to-end: SDLC coordination from product definition through production deployment, dependency mapping, release cadence, risk identification, and escalation before deadlines slip
• Cross-functional programs that span engineering, product, and the technical field: scoping, sequencing, and driving them to outcomes
• Internal engineering communications: status reporting, exec updates, and the cadence of how engineering keeps the rest of the org informed
• Process design that gets teams aligned without adding bureaucracy. Lightweight, followed, and retired when no longer useful
• Automation and AI leverage: identify what should be automated, partner with engineers to implement, and use AI for status tracking, documentation, and dependency analysis

What matters:

• Track record running multi-team SaaS releases and broader engineering programs with complex dependencies
• Technical depth to distinguish realistic from fantasy (networking or infrastructure background a plus)
• Translates fluently between technical teams and business stakeholders
• Builds lightweight processes that actually get followed
• Knows when to push back on scope or timeline vs. when to escalate
• Comfortable being the person who asks "are we still on track?" repeatedly, and the one who reframes the question when the answer keeps being "yes" but the evidence says otherwise

What this isn't:

• Pure project management. You need technical credibility
• Pure engineering. You're not writing runbooks or going on-call
• Order-taker. You'll challenge unrealistic commitments and unclear program goals
• Customer-facing. This role is internal

The base pay range for this role is between $190,000 and $220,000. Base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.