---
title: 'Technical Program Manager, Software at Mind Robotics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/technical-program-manager-software-mind-robotics-palo-alto-nzbtjpp2a6gy'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-26'
---

# Technical Program Manager, Software at Mind Robotics

- **Company:** Mind Robotics
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-26
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/mindrobotics/d004d274-a9d9-4242-b141-9eaf85c7a397

## Job description

About Mind: Mind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor. We believe the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with the physical world every day - and we're looking for people who are passionate about robotics, value ownership, and are excited to tackle difficult problems. Join us if you want to move beyond digital intelligence and put intelligence into motion.

About the team and the role: Program Management at Mind is an operational catalyst. We own outcomes, drive the trade-offs that keep engineering moving, and set the metabolic rate of the teams we partner with — clearing roadblocks, closing stalled decisions, carrying risk upward, and protecting the focus engineers need to build. As a Software Program Manager you will own the integrated program plan across all of software and build the practice itself: how teams define their own milestones and commit to org-level ones, how we know week over week whether we are on or off track, and how problems surface early enough that we can still do something about them. You will partner directly with hardware program management so that software and hardware roll up into one program picture rather than two competing ones. Responsibilities:

- End-to-End Ownership: Own the software program plan end to end — from roadmap planning through implementation, integration, validation, and release to the fleet — and own the functional outcome, not just the schedule.
- Program Practice Design: Establish how software program management works at Mind: the planning rhythm that connects team-level work to org-level milestones, what qualifies as a milestone, what "done" means at each one, and the artifacts that support both the individual engineer and leadership in prioritization and decision making.
- Milestone Planning: Build software plans that align with org-level milestones, including clear definitions of what “done” means at each step.
- Metric Tracking: Monitor and report on key program metrics, and communicate status, blockers, and risks to leadership.
- Progress Tracking & Status Integrity: Build the tracking layer that answers whether we are on or off track, drawn from the systems teams already work in.
- Risk Mitigation: Identify and escalate technical, dependency, and resourcing risks early, and and drive them to resolution.
- Technical / Business Judgment: Engage directly in architecture and design discussions at a depth sufficient to stress-test engineering estimates and pressure-test readiness. Drive decisions at that level with understanding of the impacts to our business goals.

Requirements:

- Educational Background: Bachelor's degree in engineering (software / computer science preferred), or equivalent experience.
- Industry Experience: 5+ years of experience in technical program management for software products, ideally in robotics, autonomous systems, or another domain where software ships against hardware and real-world deployment constraints.
- Proven Track Record: Demonstrated success taking software from early development through release and sustained operation.
- Technical Depth: Strong software fundamentals with the ability to engage meaningfully in architecture, planning, and systems integration discussions.
- System Complexity: Experience managing programs spanning multiple interdependent software domains along with their dependencies on hardware revisions and the availability of test hardware.
- Execution & Ownership: High sense of urgency, comfortable with ambiguity, and driven by an "engineering curiosity" to understand how the entire system works.

## About Mind Robotics

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Mind Robotics builds AI-driven robotic systems for industrial deployment, focusing on creating general-purpose physical intelligence for the world's most demanding manufacturing challenges.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2025
- **Founders**: Not publicly disclosed (founding technical team includes Sriramana Sankar, Ruijie He, Vishal J., and Ury Zhilinsky as Founding Technical Members)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Robotics Engineering, Industrial Automation, Artificial Intelligence
- **Target customers**: B2B, Enterprise (industrial manufacturing, factory floors)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Building the generalized physical intelligence required to solve the world’s most demanding industrial challenges." The company believes the path to general-purpose robotics begins where the need is most acute and the environment is most structured: the factory floor.

## Products & Services
- **AI-Enabled Industrial Robots**: Intelligent robotic systems designed for industrial deployment, focusing on creating collaborative platforms for manufacturing environments. The company builds "physical AI" for real-world industrial challenges, emphasizing hardware-in-the-loop development where researchers and engineers work hands-on with hardware.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$615M** across two rounds
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz (co-lead Series A), Accel (co-lead Series A), Kleiner Perkins (led most recent round), Eclipse (seed), Prysm Capital, Menlo Ventures. Partners include Silicon Valley Robotics.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Raised a $115M seed round in late 2025, followed by a massive $500M Series A in March 2026 co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz
  - Closed an additional funding round in May 2026 led by Kleiner Perkins
  - Headcount of ~21 employees with a monthly growth rate of +42.9%
  - LinkedIn following of 9,654 with +38.5% monthly growth
  - Talent sourced from top companies including Tesla, Rivian, Databricks, and Physical Intelligence

## Competitive Advantages
- **Massive capital advantage**: With $615M in total funding raised within its first year, Mind Robotics is one of the best-capitalized early-stage robotics startups, enabling aggressive hiring and R&D investment.
- **Top-tier investor backing**: Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and Kleiner Perkins — some of the most prestigious venture firms in the world.
- **Hardware-in-the-loop philosophy**: The company emphasizes that the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with hardware, creating a unique engineering culture focused on real-world deployment.
- **Lean, high-impact team**: With only ~21 employees and massive funding, each individual has outsized ownership and impact.

## Strategic Focus
- **Industrial deployment first**: Targeting factory floors as the most structured environment for deploying general-purpose robotics, believing this is the fastest path to broadly capable robots.
- **Physical AI development**: Building the intelligence layer for robots that can operate in messy, complex real-world environments.
- **Aggressive scaling**: With $615M in funding, the company is rapidly expanding its team across hardware engineering, software, and data platform roles.

## Why Work Here
- **Massive impact per person**: The company explicitly states it is "building a lean, collaborative team where every individual has a massive impact" — a rare promise for a company with over half a billion in funding.
- **Hardware-in-the-loop culture**: Engineers and researchers work directly with physical hardware daily, solving real-world problems rather than just simulation.
- **Top-tier team**: Colleagues include alumni from Tesla, Rivian, Databricks, and Physical Intelligence, creating a high-caliber peer group.
- **Work policy**: Hybrid workspace (combination of remote and on-site work) with a strong in-office presence in Palo Alto, CA. Most roles appear to be on-site or hybrid.
- **Open roles**: 22 active positions across hardware engineering (actuation, motor design, electrical design, tactile sensing), software engineering (robotics, firmware, controls, ML infrastructure), and data platform roles.
- **Culture highlights**: The company looks for "builders who are passionate about robotics and live for the challenge of making systems work in messy, complex environments." They emphasize a lean, collaborative team where every individual has massive impact.

## Sources
1. [mindrobotics.com](https://www.mindrobotics.com/)
2. [mindrobotics.com/careers](https://www.mindrobotics.com/careers)
3. [LinkedIn - Mind Robotics](https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindrobotics)
4. [Built In - Mind Robotics](https://builtin.com/company/mind-robotics)
5. [Ashby Jobs - Mind Robotics](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/mindrobotics)

## Other roles at Mind Robotics

- [Software Engineer, Data Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-data-platform-mind-robotics-palo-alto-h9nnhq30rhnc) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Robot Operator, Data Collection](https://feeny.ai/job/robot-operator-data-collection-mind-robotics-palo-alto-8br5b7ksz571) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Mechanical Design Engineer, Wearables](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-design-engineer-wearables-mind-robotics-palo-alto-kveqcemqyqm2) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Tech Lead, Robotics Runtime & Middleware](https://feeny.ai/job/tech-lead-robotics-runtime-middleware-mind-robotics-palo-alto-0nmtyyhy7tad) — Palo Alto, CA
- [IT Operations Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/it-operations-lead-mind-robotics-palo-alto-nnxhw00ffje8) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Test Engineer, Actuation](https://feeny.ai/job/test-engineer-actuation-mind-robotics-palo-alto-fpcjggcme83d) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Supplier Industrialization Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/supplier-industrialization-engineer-mind-robotics-palo-alto-v7csa9tpt7ys) — Palo Alto, CA
- [System Integration Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/system-integration-engineer-mind-robotics-palo-alto-fbfk3r1bw99s) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Tech Lead, Software Infrastructure and Fleet Management](https://feeny.ai/job/tech-lead-software-infrastructure-and-fleet-management-mind-robotics-palo-alto-1pdhevhnevhm) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Simulation and Validation Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/simulation-and-validation-software-engineer-mind-robotics-palo-alto-byck56jcmcar) — Palo Alto, CA