Staff Technical Program Manager, Engineering Efficiency and Infrastructure
Flexport
About Flexport:
At Flexport, we believe global trade can move the human race forward. That’s why it’s our mission to make global commerce so easy there will be more of it. We’re shaping the future of a $10T industry with solutions powered by innovative technology and exceptional people. Today, companies of all sizes—from emerging brands to Fortune 500s—use Flexport technology to move more than $19B of merchandise across 112 countries a year.
The recent global supply chain crisis has put Flexport center stage as we continue to play a pivotal role in how goods move around the world. We are proud to have the support of the best investors in the game who believe in our mission, solutions and people. Ready to tackle global challenges that impact business, society, and the environment? Come join us.
Build the foundation that helps Flexport grow
The Infrastructure & Platform Engineering team’s mission is to provide the reliable, scalable, and cost-effective technology foundation that powers global trade. We enable Flexport’s product engineering teams to ship code faster and more securely by abstracting away infrastructure complexity.
The opportunity:
We are looking for a highly experienced Principal Technical Program Manager (TPM) to join our team! In this high-leverage role, you will bridge the gap between Engineering, Infrastructure, and Finance to ensure the efficient scaling of our technology stack.
You will own two critical mandates: Engineering Cost Efficiency and Cross-Team Infrastructure Initiatives. You will drive the strategy to optimize our cloud spend without sacrificing velocity, while simultaneously leading complex, cross-team engineering programs—such as migrations, reliability improvements, and architectural overhauls, which requires tight coordination across the entire engineering organization.
You will:
- Lead the Engineering Cost Efficiency Program: Own the roadmap for cloud cost management. Partner with Finance and Engineering leadership to define budgets, forecast spend, and identify optimization opportunities across AWS and other vendors.
- Drive Cross-Team Engineering Projects: Lead the execution of large-scale infrastructure initiatives that touch multiple engineering teams (e.g., database migrations, reliability re-architecture, service mesh implementation) from design to delivery.
- Leverage AI for Eng Operational Excellence: Champion the adoption of AI-driven tooling to modernize engineering workflows, utilizing LLMs for automated code migration/refactoring and implementing ML-based anomaly detection to catch cloud cost spikes in real-time.
- Establish Operational Excellence: Define and track KPIs related to infrastructure health, unit economics, and engineering efficiency. Create the feedback loops necessary to hold teams accountable for their usage and reliability.
- Bridge Technical & Business Worlds: Translate complex technical infrastructure challenges into clear business impact (cost, risk, speed) for executive stakeholders.
- Manage Risk & Dependencies: Proactively identify blockers in complex technical programs. Navigate trade-offs between speed, cost, and quality, ensuring stakeholders are aligned on the path forward.
- Cultivate a Culture of Efficiency: Evangelize best practices for resource utilization and architectural efficiency. Empower engineering teams with the data and tools they need to make cost-aware decisions.
- Communication & Reporting: Produce clear, concise artifacts for communicating status, progress, risks, and financial savings to the engineering leaders and executive leadership.
You should have:
- 10+ years of experience in Technical Program Management, Engineering Management, or a related technical field.
- Deep understanding of Cloud Infrastructure (AWS preferred) and SaaS economics. You understand how architectural decisions impact the bottom line.
- Proven experience leading Cost Efficiency programs or managing significant cloud budgets at scale.
- Experience applying AI/ML technologies to drive operational efficiency, such as using LLMs for developer productivity, automating workflows, or enhancing data analysis.
- Experience managing large-scale, cross-functional technical programs involving distributed systems, microservices, infrastructure and security practices.
- Strong analytical skills: You are comfortable diving into large datasets (SQL, Excel/gsheets) to model costs, forecast trends, and find anomalies.
- Ability to influence without authority: You can drive consensus across autonomous engineering teams and negotiate with senior leadership.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to switch context between deep technical architecture and high-level business strategy.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or relevant technical work experience.
Bonus points if you have:
- Background in logistics, supply chain, or high-volume transactional marketplaces.
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Commitment to Equal Opportunity
At Flexport, our ability to fulfill our mission of making global commerce easy and accessible relies on having a diverse, dedicated and engaged workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, physical and mental disability, health status, marital and family status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
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