Your New Role and Team
Sanctuary AI, a world leader in building dexterity-driven Physical AI for general purpose robots, is looking to hire a Program Lead to lead one of Sanctuary’s core company programs. Each Sanctuary program represents a major cross-functional effort that integrates software, hardware, and machine learning into cohesive systems designed to push the boundaries of robotics and intelligence.
Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the Program Lead acts as the accountable owner for the program’s success. You will define goals, orchestrate delivery, and manage the resources, tradeoffs, and dependencies required to achieve them. You will partner closely with leaders across engineering, product, operations, and research to ensure that program outcomes directly advance Sanctuary’s mission to build human-like intelligence in machines.
The ideal candidate combines technical fluency, business judgment, and a strong sense of ownership. You see the program as a business within the business and are motivated by building something enduring and impactful.
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Success Criteria
Serve as the single point of accountability for one of Sanctuary’s most complex and strategically significant programs
Define the program’s strategic objectives, roadmap, and success metrics in partnership with executive and technical leadership
Translate high-level goals into executable plans that balance innovation, speed, and quality
Manage and prioritize resources, budgets, and timelines to ensure optimal use of both internal and external capabilities
Drive decision-making across functions and ensure alignment between technical execution and business outcomes
Identify risks, evaluate tradeoffs, and guide cross-functional problem-solving to keep the program on track
Communicate progress, decisions, and strategic implications to company leadership with clarity and credibility
Represent the program internally and externally, ensuring consistent alignment with Sanctuary’s technical and commercial vision
Your Experience and Qualifications
7+ years of experience leading complex, multi-disciplinary programs in robotics, AI, or advanced engineering environments
Proven success owning program outcomes that span technical development, operational delivery, and cross-functional alignment
Strong business and technical acumen, with the ability to engage deeply on both strategic direction and detailed execution
Demonstrated experience managing budgets, dependencies, and external partnerships
Track record of influencing senior leaders and driving alignment across large organizations
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or a related technical discipline
Skills
Exceptional ability to connect technical detail to strategic intent and business impact
Skilled at building and maintaining alignment across diverse teams with differing priorities
Adept at resource and schedule management, risk analysis, and tradeoff decision-making
Strong analytical and systems thinking capabilities to manage interdependent technical domains
Clear and persuasive communicator, able to tailor messaging for technical and non-technical audiences
Proficient in modern program management tools and frameworks such as Jira, Smartsheet, or similar platforms
Traits
Operates as a true owner of the program, with strong accountability for outcomes rather than tasks
Balances strategic vision with a bias for pragmatic execution
Collaborative, grounded, and trusted by peers across disciplines
Thrives in high-complexity, high-ambiguity environments where clarity must be created rather than found
Deeply motivated by Sanctuary’s mission to create human-like intelligence in machines and bring it to practical use in the world
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Working at Sanctuary AI
Sanctuary AI is an equal opportunity employer; employment with Sanctuary AI is governed based on skills, competence, and qualifications and will not be influenced in any way by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status. In 2023, Sanctuary AI moved into a state-of-the-art office facility and has been recognized by LinkedIn as a Top Startup company.
Compensation and Benefits
Sanctuary offers a market-leading compensation package that includes competitive salaries, equity stakes, and a full suite of benefits for permanent employees, encompassing health coverage, paid time off, cutting-edge work facilities, and worksite flexibility by role. Our commitment to fairness ensures that our total compensation consistently surpasses market standards.
About Sanctuary AI
Founded in 2018, Sanctuary builds humanoid robots and a novel control system for them that integrates symbolic logic and reasoning with data-driven robot foundation models. We use our robots to collect vision, audio, touch, and proprioception data from the perspective of the robot while they perform real-world work tasks. We use that data to train multimodal robot foundation models. Because our systems are vertically integrated, we can design, deploy, and refine at scale. Our mission is to create the world's first human-like intelligence in general-purpose robots.
Recruiting and Employment Agency Notice:
Recruitment and hiring is conducted internally by Sanctuary AI. We are not seeking or soliciting any new agency partnerships or agreements at this time. Any employment agency or professional recruiter (“Agency”) that provides an unsolicited resume(s) or otherwise presents a prospective job candidate through the Sanctuary AI career site or directly to any Sanctuary AI employee, irrevocably grants to Sanctuary AI the unrestricted right to engage, hire, or contract with that candidate at Sanctuary AI's sole discretion without any compensation to the Agency. We appreciate your interest in working together, and should the need arise our Talent Acquisition team will contact any external firms directly.
