Software, Technical Program Manager

About the role

Osmo is a digital olfaction company focused on giving computers a sense of smell to improve health and wellbeing, drawing on the deep connection between scent, emotion, and memory. The Software, Technical Program Manager will embed directly within the Software and AI organization, acting as the connective tissue between ML experts, software creators, and broader company stakeholders. You will own the execution strategy for complex software initiatives, manage intricate dependencies, and proactively remove blockers so the team can maintain high efficiency. This is a software-centric technical program management role that demands technical credibility, comfort reading code, and an understanding of model architecture decisions and downstream impacts. You will drive technical execution and cross-functional delivery for one of the most ambitious applied AI challenges in the world today. The position is based in Elizabeth, NJ, with an additional office in Somerville, MA. You will help define what great program management looks like at Osmo and set the standard for future hires in this role.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Partner directly with software and ML leadership as their primary thought partner on execution strategy, resource planning, and timeline delivery.
• Translate Osmo's product and scientific ambitions into clear, actionable engineering milestones and build the operational roadmap to move from architecture to deployment.
• Build and leverage AI-powered tools and workflows for progress tracking, dependency mapping, stakeholder communication, and operational efficiency in your daily work.
• Own execution and dependency management across ML, software, and hardware teams, making timeline tradeoffs visible and driving them toward resolution.
• Structure release readiness and deployment schedules for ML models and software systems, ensuring the right data is surfaced so the team can ship with confidence.
• Sit close to the engineering and ML work by attending design reviews and reading code when necessary to understand how the system truly operates.
• Develop deep technical intuition about Osmo's AI systems, including architectural bottlenecks, latency risks, integration challenges, and indicators of a healthy ML lifecycle.
• Translate execution status, technical risks, and timeline shifts between technical ML teams and business, product, and scientific stakeholders, making complex tradeoffs understandable to non-engineers.
• Bring structure to ambiguous technical initiatives by scoping, sequencing, and advancing them without adding unnecessary process.
• Surface blockers, technical risks, and capacity constraints early, accompanied by proposed solutions and contingency plans rather than only escalations.
• Help define the standards for technical program management at Osmo and establish the bar for those who follow you in this role.

Requirements

• 10+ years of combined experience involving software creation, ML implementation, or applied ML, along with program management, technical program management, or engineering leadership roles, bringing both engineering depth and operational execution instinct.
• Demonstrated understanding of the ML development lifecycle, including data, training, evaluation, validation, and deployment, with a practical point of view on how to efficiently ship ML systems.
• Strong software fluency that allows you to read code in at least one mainstream language, follow model architecture discussions in real time, and comprehend system integration points during design reviews.
• Direct experience driving technical execution inside a software or ML organization, successfully delivering complex, multi-team engineering projects from requirements through production.
• Fluency with modern AI tools such as LLMs, automation platforms, and workflow builders, plus a track record of using AI in your own work to accelerate project delivery and management.
• Strong judgment under ambiguity, capable of entering an undefined project space, establishing milestones, and creating clarity where it is initially absent.
• A clear and confident communicator who can bridge deeply technical ML and engineering teams with business, product, and scientific stakeholders.
• Comfort pushing back on stakeholders, including senior leaders, when timelines, scopes, or resources do not align logically.
• A Bachelor's degree or higher in computer science, a related STEM field, or equivalent engineering experience.
• Authorized to work in the US and available for on-site presence at the Elizabeth, NJ location.

Nice to have

• You started as a software engineer or ML engineer and transitioned into program management while continuing to write code occasionally, even by hand.

Practical notes

• US authorization required.
• On-site presence at Elizabeth, NJ is expected.
• Hours may vary.