Senior Program Manager (Validation Operations)

• Software Operations is the processing muscle behind Nuro Driver. We take the onroad miles our fleet collects and turn them into usable data, which becomes the foundation everything downstream depends on. Within Software Operations, Validation Operations holds the bar for safety and system testing, making sure our autonomous driving software is safe before it ever hits the road. It’s careful, consequential work, and we take it seriously
• Own the systems that make validation operations accurate, scalable, and ready for Nuro’s next stage of growth
• As a Senior Program Manager on the Software Operations team, you’ll partner with Autonomy, Systems, and Data Platform Engineering to deliver the high-quality data that powers critical validation and expansion efforts. You’ll serve as the bridge between Engineering, Operations, and our offshore partner, upholding the quality bar, building scalable workflows, and driving performance across the ecosystem
• This is a high-ownership role for someone who thrives in ambiguity and wants to make a measurable impact. You’ll investigate failures at their root, turn data into decisions, and lead the changes that keep quality, delivery, and operational confidence high
• You’ll lead the day-to-day operations that keep validation data flowing, accurate, and on schedule, bringing structure to ambiguity and turning quality gaps into lasting improvements
• Support critical validation programs: Partner with Autonomy, Systems, and Data Platform Engineering to deliver the operational support and data that validation and expansion efforts depend on
• Set the quality standard: Define metrics, sampling approaches, workflows, and operating mechanisms that enable consistent, scalable data quality
• Diagnose and fix what’s broken: Audit live workflows, query databases, and trace accuracy or pipeline failures to their root cause, then drive measurable corrective action
• Lead global operations: Own the offshore vendor relationship, including budget, capacity, performance, and quality outcomes
• Drive improvement: Lead adoption of improved operational practices through clear documentation, stakeholder engagement, pilot programs, and change management
• Build the team: Lead a small in-house team, strengthen oversight, and create processes that evolve with Nuro’s needs
• Align teams around action: Translate complex operational and technical issues into clear recommendations for Engineering, Operations, and leadership
• You won’t just manage validation operations. You’ll make the whole function better, more scalable, and more trusted

Benefits

• Free Caltrain pass and commuter benefits
• Company stock options
• Work from home opportunities
• Health insurance
• Experience managing large-scale offshore or globally distributed annotation teams
• A track record of identifying and closing data quality gaps, with measurable impact on accuracy or model performance
• Ability to work both strategically and hands-on, from designing a quality framework to personally tracing a labeling fault through a database
• 5+ years of program management experience embedded with software validation and/or AI/ML operations
• High agency and a history of building processes where none exist
• Deep familiarity with data pipelines and labeling ecosystems, including annotation workflows, quality sampling, taxonomy design, and inter-annotator agreement
• Quality-obsessed approach to program management: energized by finding what is broken, not just by shipping on time
• Clear written and verbal communication, with the ability to influence and make complex information accessible to technical and non-technical audiences
• Proficiency querying data with SQL and BigQuery, and using KPIs to drive prioritization, capacity management, and continuous improvement
• Bachelor’s degree in a technical or business discipline, or equivalent practical experience
• Background in autonomous vehicles, software validation, robotics or data engineering