Technical Program Manager

DigitalOcean
Seattle, WA
Career-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have 10+ years of experience in AI/ML and platform engineering, with a preference for cross-functional leadership in fast-paced environments.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 10+ years of experience in AI/ML and a background in cross-functional leadership
    — “10+ years of experience as a Technical Program Manager delivering cross-functional programs in a fast-paced environment”
  • Individuals who have coordinated external model providers and open-source communities
    — “Experience coordinating external model providers, API partners, and open-source communities”
  • Candidates with a history of resolving complex blocking issues and managing risk effectively
    — “Proven track record planning and delivering complex programs, leading the resolution of blocking issues”

Things to consider

  • This role requires managing multiple teams across different locations and time zones
    — “Drive decision-making across multiple teams, orgs, and stakeholders spanning multiple locations”
  • The position demands a balance between process-oriented thinking and outcome focus
    — “Ability to balance a detail- and process-oriented mindset with a focus on outcomes”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience in agentic AI and multi-step reasoning in your resume and interviews
    — “Hands-on familiarity with agentic AI concepts, including multi-step reasoning”
  • Showcase your ability to distill complex AI/ML tradeoffs into clear communications
    — “Ability to distill complex or technical concepts into clear, structured communications”
  • Emphasize your track record in driving consensus and influencing decisions without direct authority
    — “Ability to influence and work through others where direct reporting relationships do not exist”
  • Demonstrate your use of AI tools as a force multiplier in your past program management work
    — “Embraces AI as a force multiplier — actively using AI tools and agentic workflows”
  • Include examples of building repeatable, scalable processes that accelerate AI delivery
    — “Build repeatable, scalable processes that get AI capabilities to market faster”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • successful delivery of technical programs
  • improved cross-functional collaboration
  • enhanced AI platform capabilities
Typical background
10+ years of experience in technical program managementbackground in AI/ML

Skills & requirements

Required

Technical Program ManagementCross-functional CollaborationRisk ManagementValue DeliveryAi/ml Knowledge

Preferred

Cloud ComputingAgile Methodologies

About the role

Original posting from DigitalOcean

Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here.  We value winning together—while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world. 

We want people who are passionate about enabling the teams they work with to effectively and efficiently deliver value in line with the DO vision.

As a Technical Program Manager on the Agentic AI team, you will drive value delivery for a set of technical programs that bring our AI-powered products and platform capabilities to life — spanning agentic systems, LLM-powered features, AI infrastructure, and the developer tooling that enables builders to ship intelligent applications. This individual will be an experienced cross-functional leader who champions continuous improvement and thrives in a fast-paced environment, applying technical literacy along with program management experience to navigate delivering on commitments as a leader on their team.

In this role, you will partner with Product, Engineering, and AI research leaders to drive the delivery of valuable, often complex, technical programs that advance our Agentic AI Cloud and meet our customers’ rapidly evolving AI needs. You will be the connective tissue across model teams, platform engineering, developer experience, and outside partners — embodying servant leadership to ensure efficient, effective value delivery. You will be a proactive collaborator while driving consensus where needed and influencing decisions when teams are stuck.

What You’ll Do

Drive value delivery for major Agentic AI programs — spanning model integrations, agentic framework development, AI platform capabilities, and developer tooling — including prioritization, planning, risk management, execution, and measurement of success

Partner with Product, Engineering, and AI research leaders, including senior leaders, throughout the life of the program on value delivery and process/practice improvements

Act as the central hub of communication, keeping model teams, platform engineers, developer experience teams, and external AI partners aligned to keep programs on track

Coordinate the steps from early capability planning and prototyping through production deployment, partnering with model providers, inference infrastructure teams, and internal platform teams

Drive decision-making across multiple teams, orgs, and stakeholders spanning multiple locations, including with senior leaders

Proactively manage changes in scope and priority shifts; recognize risk early — whether a model capability gap, a latency constraint, or a shifting API dependency — and form mitigation plans as required

Build repeatable, scalable processes — and the visibility and operational infrastructure behind them — that get AI capabilities to market faster, improve reliability, and ensure effective, sustainable operations across teams and orgs

Evangelize technical project & program management best practices within their team and across partner teams and orgs

What You’ll Add to DigitalOcean

10+ years of experience as a Technical Program Manager delivering cross-functional programs in a fast-paced environment, with a preference for experience in AI/ML, platform engineering, or developer tooling

Proven track record planning and delivering complex programs, leading the resolution of blocking issues, and driving effective change management

Solid understanding of AI/ML fundamentals — model training vs. inference, agentic architectures, LLM APIs, and the emerging landscape of AI developer tooling — and how these translate into real product and platform decisions

Hands-on familiarity with agentic AI concepts, including multi-step reasoning, tool use, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and the orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar) builders use to create intelligent applications

Experience coordinating external model providers, API partners, and open-source communities to deliver AI-powered product capabilities

Strong risk management skills, with a proven ability to spot risks early — a model capability gap, an inference latency constraint, or a shifting vendor dependency — and build plans to keep programs moving

Ability to influence and work through others where direct reporting relationships do not exist, acting as a reliable bridge between deeply technical AI teams and product and operational teams

Ability to distill complex or technical concepts — including nuanced AI/ML tradeoffs — into clear, structured communications and action plans

Ability to balance a detail- and process-oriented mindset with a focus on outcomes

Experience with project management tooling (e.g., the Atlassian suite — Jira and Confluence) for managing the flow of value and delivering curated information to appropriate stakeholders

Embraces AI as a force multiplier — actively using AI tools and agentic workflows to work faster and smarter, with a continuous eye for where AI can improve how programs get delivered and how the team operates

A growth mindset that prioritizes learning and improvement for yourself and the teams you work with

Compensation Range: 

$148,800 - $186,000

*This is a hybrid role

JR: 2026-8073

#LI-Hybrid

Why You’ll Like Working for DigitalOcean

We innovate with purpose. You’ll be a part of a cutting-edge technology company with an upward trajectory, who are proud to simplify cloud and AI so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world. As a member of the team, you will be a Shark who thinks big, bold, and scrappy, like an owner with a bias for action and a powerful sense of responsibility for customers, products, employees, and decisions.

We prioritize career development. At DO, you’ll do the best work of your career. You will work with some of the smartest and most interesting people in the industry. We are a high-performance organization that will always challenge you to think big. Our organizational development team will provide you with resources to ensure you keep growing. We provide employees with reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education. All employees have access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses to support their continued growth and development.

We care about your well-being. Regardless of your location, we will provide you with a competitive array of benefits to support you from our Employee Assistance Program to Local Employee Meetups to flexible time off policy, to name a few. While the philosophy around our benefits is the same worldwide, specific benefits may vary based on local regulations and preferences.

We reward our employees. The salary range for this position is based on market data, relevant years of experience, and skills. You may qualify for a bonus in addition to base salary; bonus amounts are determined based on company and individual performance. We also provide equity compensation to eligible employees, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program.

DigitalOcean is an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

Application Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions within any 180-day period. This policy promotes better role-candidate matching and encourages thoughtful applications where your qualifications align most strongly.

Source: DigitalOcean careers

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