Technical Program Manager - Hardware Development

Location: Japan

Travel Required: Open to travel up to 20% of working hours (to Japan, US, and Taiwan)

Job Classification: Full Time

Reports to: Head of Japan

About Dexterity

At Dexterity, we believe robots can positively transform the world. Our breakthrough technology frees people to do the creative, inspiring, problem-solving jobs that humans do best by enabling robots to handle repetitive and physically difficult work.

We’re starting with warehouse automation, where the need for smarter, more resilient supply chains impacts millions of lives and businesses around the world. Dexterity's full-stack robotics systems pick, move, pack, and collaborate with human-like skill, awareness, and learning capabilities. Our systems are software-driven, hardware-agnostic, and have already picked over 15 million goods in production. And did we mention we’re customer-obsessed? Every decision, large and small, is driven by one question – how can we empower our customers with robots to do more than they thought was possible?

Dexterity is one of the fastest growing companies in robotics, backed by world-class investors such as Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Obvious Ventures. We’re a diverse and multidisciplinary team with a culture built on passion, trust, and dedication. Come join Dexterity and help make intelligent robots a reality!

About The Role

Dexterity Japan team focuses on a) generating revenue streams through the marketing and deployment of robotic automation solutions to Japanese warehouse customers and b) building and managing relationships with hardware (HW) suppliers and partners headquartered in Japan to jointly develop a new HW more suitable for the use in the warehouse industry than for the manufacturing industry. 

This role is for building and managing relationships with HW suppliers and partners headquartered in Japan. You will act as a local extension of the core engineering team of Dexterity headquarters (HQ) in the US and lead discussions and actions of various sub-projects between Japanese partners and Dexterity HQ for successful new HW product introductions.

Responsibilities (including but not limited to):

Support proactively clarifying and agreeing upon product requirements and the scope of collaborations between the companies

Visualize and verbalize critical points of discussion for effective communication between the companies with language barriers and cultural differences

Lead and facilitate regular meetings and ad-hoc meetings to drive the execution of project activities

Manage multiple sub-project baselines, schedules, critical paths, and technology risk areas to go through the design, engineering, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing stages as smoothly as possible

Design and implement prototype testing plan, design iteration, and reliability evaluation of new HW products together with stakeholders

Cooperate with Dexterity HQ to add more value to the entire robotic system architecture through HW design improvement

Identify and highlight technical risk areas and propose risk mitigation strategies as a subject matter expert in Japan

Analyze HW quality issues found in the system deployment sites, determine root causes, agree upon countermeasures, and implement the countermeasures with stakeholders

Track the progress of quality issue countermeasures to ensure the eradication of quality issues in the market

Required Experience, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Engineering academic background (mechanical or mechatronics is a plus)

Minimum 7+ years of work experience in the hardware-related industry

Fluent Japanese for effective communication with robot suppliers

Business-level English for effective communication with the US headquarters

Experience in bridging cross-border technical communication is a plus

Equal Opportunity Employer:

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.