Technical Program Manager (AI Startup)

ABOUT NEXTSTEP

NextStep is an AI-powered career platform built for top consulting talent navigating their next move. We use smart matching technology to connect consultants with high-potential roles at ambitious companies and we handle the process with discretion that senior professionals expect. On behalf of a client in our partner network, we are looking for a Technical Program Manager to join their team.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Our client is an AI infrastructure startup based in London, building the tooling and compute orchestration layer that enables enterprise teams to deploy and scale machine learning workloads in production. They are Series B-backed, growing fast, and at the stage where the complexity of delivering across multiple product lines and customer environments requires dedicated, experienced technical program management.

THE ROLE

As Technical Program Manager, you will be responsible for coordinating and delivering complex, cross-functional technical programs across the engineering organisation. You will work at the intersection of product, engineering, and customer delivery, bringing structure, clarity, and momentum to programs that span multiple teams and have real external consequences. You are comfortable in technical environments, can hold your own with engineers, and know when to push and when to listen.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Own the planning, coordination, and delivery of complex technical programs across multiple engineering teams, from scoping and resourcing through to release and retrospective.

• Define program structure, milestones, dependencies, and success criteria, maintaining a clear view of progress and risk at all times.

• Work closely with engineering leads, product managers, and customer success teams to align priorities and remove blockers.

• Build and maintain program visibility tools, dashboards, and governance cadences that give leadership real-time confidence in delivery.

• Manage escalations and cross-team dependencies with composure, ensuring issues are surfaced and resolved quickly.

• Coordinate customer-facing technical deliveries, ensuring internal commitments translate into reliable external outcomes.

• Contribute to the development of the TPM function, including processes, tooling, and best practices as the team scales.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• 5+ years of experience in technical program management, engineering operations, or a consulting role with significant technical delivery exposure.

• Strong technical literacy; able to engage meaningfully with engineering discussions, understand architectural trade-offs, and ask the right questions.

• Proven experience running complex, multi-team technical programs in a fast-moving product environment.

• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple concurrent workstreams without losing control of quality or timelines.

• Confident communicator able to translate technical complexity for non-technical stakeholders and vice versa.

• Familiarity with agile and lean delivery methodologies; able to apply them pragmatically rather than dogmatically.

• Experience in cloud infrastructure, ML platforms, or developer tooling is a strong advantage.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

• Base salary of £105,000 - £130,000, determined based on experience and scope.

• Equity participation in a well-funded, high-growth AI infrastructure business.

• Additional benefits, including private health cover, pension, and leave entitlement, are detailed as part of the full offer package.

HOW TO APPLY

To be considered for this role, please create your profile at getnextstep.com https://getnextstep.com/candidate/landing?utm_medium=job-board&utm_source=job-board. Once your profile is complete, our matching system will evaluate your background against the role criteria and match you with the role if it's a strong fit. No cover letter required.

This role is listed by NextStep on behalf of our client. All applications are handled with confidentiality.