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Dyna Robotics is seeking a Research Technical Program Manager to oversee and coordinate the company's robotics research portfolio. The company builds general-purpose robots powered by a proprietary embodied AI foundation model, with deployments across multiple industries. The team includes veterans from Google DeepMind, Meta, and Cruise, backed by leading investors including CRV and First Round.
In this role, you will serve as the central coordinator for the research organization, working closely with the Chief Research Officer. Your primary responsibilities include:
- Maintaining comprehensive visibility into the research portfolio: tracking project objectives, hypotheses, results, milestones, risks, and upcoming decisions across all teams.
- Assessing research progress by evaluating the strength of results, distinguishing meaningful advances from open questions, and identifying technical bottlenecks early.
- Connecting work across teams by identifying shared challenges, dependencies, and complementary approaches to create opportunities for collaboration.
- Partnering with the Chief Research Officer on strategy development, synthesizing findings, and supporting decisions on research direction, priorities, resourcing, and new opportunities.
- Translating strategy into actionable research plans by helping teams define tractable questions, establish useful evaluation criteria, and set milestones that balance scientific uncertainty with organizational goals.
- Driving decisions and accountability through research reviews, clarifying tradeoffs, documenting decisions, and ensuring clear ownership and next steps.
- Keeping leadership informed with concise, evidence-based updates that accurately represent progress and highlight areas requiring leadership attention.
- Bridging research and application by working with engineering and product teams to identify when findings are ready for development and what validation is needed.
You will need strong scientific depth, sound judgment, and the ability to help teams navigate the inherent uncertainty of research work.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Strong research background in robotics, demonstrated through original research, publications, or substantial contributions in an industry research setting.
- Deep expertise in one or more areas such as robot learning, manipulation, perception, planning, control, embodied AI, or autonomous systems.
- Ability to engage deeply with technical work: questioning assumptions, interpreting experimental results, and exercising sound judgment beyond your own specialty.
- Experience coordinating complex research efforts across multiple researchers, teams, or disciplines.
- Strategic thinking capability to connect individual projects to broader research goals and articulate implications of different choices.
- Comfort with ambiguity and changing evidence, with judgment to adapt plans as research evolves.
- Clear communication, strong organization, and ability to build trust and influence across teams.
BONUS QUALIFICATIONS:
- PhD in robotics, computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or related field, or equivalent research experience.
- Experience working with senior research leadership on portfolio planning and technical prioritization.
- Hands-on experience with physical robotic systems, including experimentation, evaluation, and deployment challenges.
- Track record of connecting research efforts to produce stronger shared outcomes.
