Technical Program Manager

We see the potential inside everything and everyone. Starting with you.

Orbem uses AI to industrialize MRI, delivering non-invasive insight into everything from fruits to eggs to the human body. We are transforming what is becoming the world's largest biological dataset into actionable intelligence to reduce waste, increase quality, and accelerate the shift toward a more sustainable and healthier future.

Headquartered and founded in Munich, Germany, with an office now in Houston, Texas, our world-class team is scaling inside-out technology to transform how humanity sees and understands biological matter.

Help us see what's possible. Join us.

Orbem is at a critical inflection point. As we scale our range of unique products, we need delivery that is predictable, transparent and built to scale.

As a Staff Technical Program Manager within our TPM team, you will drive the delivery of complex, high-stakes programs that bring our products from development to market. You will work across Hardware, Software and Science/AI, aligning teams around shared goals and turning technical complexity into clear plans and decisions.

This is a high-impact role that blends technical depth, delivery architecture and informal leadership. You will work in a complex, fast-scaling environment, and you will also help strengthen how the wider TPM team works.

Own the Execution Plan:

• Architect and design end-to-end delivery plans for your team(s), from initial discovery or design phase until commercial launch.
• Lead quarterly OKR planning and ensure it is fully aligned to company OKRs.

Lead Cross-Functional Coordination:

• Co-lead product delivery with the Product Manager and Tech Leads. You own the how and when.
• Manage dependencies across teams and relevant domains (technical, operations, business development), and keep stakeholders, including external partners, aligned.

Drive Risk & Decision-Making

• Proactively identify, track, and mitigate technical and non-technical risks — timeline, resources, budget, and scope.
• Escalate and resolve cross-team conflicts; create the decision-making frameworks other teams rely on.

Shape Ways of Working

• Champion tooling and process best practices within the team and contribute workflows optimization within the TPM team. (e.g. refine the Product Development Lifecycle, Risk Management processes).
• Coach and mentor other TPMs.

• Program Leadership: Proven track record managing complex, cross-functional technical programs — ideally spanning hardware, software, and/or AI — with high delivery accountability.
• Technical Depth: Solid understanding of how complex deep-tech products are engineered across Hardware, Software and Science/AI. You can evaluate trade-offs across all three domains well enough to challenge and guide engineering decisions. A technical background in systems engineering, MRI or AI/ML is a plus.
• Practical understanding of how products are operated at customer sites, from early MVPs to mature deployments.
• Execution & Planning: Expert in building and managing master program plans, sprint structures, milestone tracking, and risk registers across multiple concurrent workstreams.

Stakeholder Management: Able to translate technical complexity into executive-level clarity and to influence and align without formal authority across matrixed organizations.

• Change Management: Proven ability to drive adoption of new tools, frameworks, and processes (e.g. PDLC/PLM rollouts, agile tooling) across cross-functional teams — balancing structured change with the pace of a fast-moving scale-up.
• Tooling & Process: Advanced setup of planning and tracking tools such as Jira and Confluence, covering portfolio dashboards, cross-team dependency and risk tracking, and executive-ready reporting. Hands-on with agentic AI tools that boost team efficiency.
• Leadership & Culture: You are a servant leader who thrives in fast-growing scale-up environments, models candid communication, and creates psychological safety in high-stakes settings

Experience with deep-tech products involving AI or MRI — or direct exposure to the Food & Fresh Produce industry, particularly melons or soft fruits — is a significant plus. Familiarity with industrializing sensor-based inspection systems for high-throughput agricultural or food processing environments is highly valued.

Fit to Our Values

• We Own Every Challenge: we enjoy complexity and thrive under uncertainty.
• We Strive for Better: we seize any opportunity for growth and challenge the status quo. We are constantly learning and improving.
• We Imagine New Frontiers: we think beyond “doable” and “reasonable”. We design a sustainable and healthy future together.

International Environment:

• Join a team with 40+ nationalities across 5 continents, all driven by a shared purpose: shedding light on the world’s toughest challenges.
• Stock Options: Share in Orbem’s success.
• Relocation Support: Seamless support for your move to Germany.
• Learning & Development: €1,750 annual budget for personal growth.
• Fitness Membership: Access to Urban Sports Club or Wellpass.
• Childcare Reimbursement: Support for Kita/Kindergarten fees.
• Deutschland Ticket: Monthly subsidy towards public transportation costs.

Work-Life Integration:

• Flexible Hours & Home Office: Work when and where it suits you.
• WFH Perks: Get €185 to upgrade your home office + an external monitor on us!
• 30 Days Paid Leave: Plenty of time to recharge.
• Personal Leave: Flexibility for life’s important moments.
• Work From Anywhere: Experience new cultures and environments for up to 60 days per year.

Make a Difference:

Join an ambitious, fast-growing team working on breakthrough technology. In our scale-up environment, you'll have the freedom to lead your projects and make an impact. We provide a platform for you to explore, innovate, and define your vision for the future. At Orbem, we're committed to helping you discover your strengths, and while we aim to teach you, we also want to learn from you.

You'll become part of our diverse and international team. Learn more about the team members, their work, and challenges here: https://orbem.ai/company/

At Orbem, we're committed to building a smart, diverse team, and we recognize that self-doubt can prevent talented individuals from applying. If you feel you don't meet every requirement, we'd love to hear from you anyway!