Senior Director, R&D Program Management Office

Who We Are

Samsara (NYSE: IOT) is the pioneer of the Connected Operations Cloud, which helps to digitize the world of physical operations, providing visibility and empowering entire sectors of our economy to become more safe, efficient, and sustainable. Founded in San Francisco in 2015, we now employ more than 2,000 people globally and collect more than 40 billion minutes of video footage and 5 trillion data points annually.

Working at Samsara means you’ll help define the future of physical operations and be on a team that’s shaping an exciting array of product solutions, including video-based safety, vehicle telematics, apps and driver workflows, equipment monitoring, and site visibility. As part of a newly public company, you’ll have the autonomy and support to make an impact as we build for the long term.

Recent awards we’ve won include:

Best Place to Work by Built In 2022

Deloitte Fast 500 Companies

IoT Analytics Company of the Year in 2022’s IoT Breakthrough Winners

Every year, we partner with our customers to deliver outcomes like conserving millions of gallons of fuel, saving millions of dollars, and creating positive environmental change. As more customers connect to our platform, our data grows, our AI models get smarter, and our opportunities expand.

About the role:

The R&D PMO is responsible for managing highly cross-functional and extremely complex strategic initiatives for the R&D organization at Samsara, such as launching new hardware products, building new partnership programs or rolling out new products, pricing packages.

In this role, as leader of the R&D PMO you will partner closely with many teams, leaders and other program management functions across Samsara, from R&D to Sales, Marketing and Finance. You will directly influence and strengthen the PMO contributions across Samsara, generating concrete program management contributions, maintaining a high level of program management value-add, and scaling the team. You will be proud to work on high-quality innovative products that are changing the world of physical operations and delivering real-life impact for our customers. The ideal candidate brings a unique blend of strong strategic and execution skills, who is excited about rolling up their sleeves to work hand in hand with our team of technical program managers to build for the long term. You have experience with process development, change management, and can help solve tough operational problems.

In this role, you will:

• Partner with and guide cross functional teams across product management, engineering, go-to-market, finance, program management and other functions, in order to drive execution of key strategic R&D programs, such as new product launches
• Deeply understand the business health and key performance metrics and bring a customer first focus to programs. Deep dive regularly into data and metrics to identify risks and opportunities and follow through with action-oriented insights.
• Hire, develop and lead an inclusive, engaged, and high performing team.
• Spearhead and manage highly complex programs, with multiple projects and workstreams, by coordinating across many stakeholders and other program managers in order to create a well-coordinated, cohesive and comprehensive operating plan for such programs.
• Enable effective cross-functional collaboration across R&D teams (Software, Firmware, Hardware) and Go-to-Market teams (Sales, Marketing, Customer Success), by ensuring continuous alignment on program objectives and success measures
• Build program frameworks and operational processes that increase the efficiency and quality of execution of the PMO TPM team.
• Design and manage program communications plans that ensure executive level visibility and transparency on program objectives and status.
• Champion, role model, and embed Samsara’s cultural principles (Focus on Customer Success, Build for the Long Term, Adopt a Growth Mindset, Be Inclusive, Win as a Team) as we scale globally and across new offices
• Lead the program management teams to successfully establish complete end-to-end program plans with well-defined success criteria and effectively track success measures directly impacting our customers

Minimum requirements for this role:

• Exceptional communication skills - Comfortable presenting to executives, internal stakeholders and external customers. Able to successfully adapt your style and leverage strong listening skills to inform your approach
• Able to clearly articulate the value-add of program management to engineering and product organizations; experience being an advocate for program management
• Strong leader, comfortable engaging with people at all levels; successfully manages via influence
• A natural problem solver and strategic thinker, who has a passion for creating a structured approach to solving complex problems, breaking down ambiguous problems and turning them into actionable solutions
• Highly collaborative, and partner-oriented professionally, working effectively with multiple cross-functional teams. across Product, Engineering, Hardware, Finance, Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing
• Experience successfully rolling out changes within a team and across multiple organizations; comfortable with adapting to change
• 8+ years of experience as a Program Manager leader partnering closely with engineering and product teams, as well as other go to market teams; experience providing coaching and mentoring to advance program management (technical, agile or general) skill set of the team
• Versed in planning and tracking tools such as Microsoft Project, Airtable, SmartSheets, JIRA and Confluence
• Experience developing and managing engineering or product portfolio planning and tracking processes and cadences
• A natural problem-solver and strategic thinker; able to bring clarity to chaos and navigate through ambiguity

An ideal candidate also has:

• BS in a relevant technical field e.g. EE, ME, or CS
• MBA or consulting experience is a plus

Samsara’s Compensation Philosophy: Samsara’s compensation program is designed to deliver total compensation (based on role, level, and geography) that is above market. We do this through our base salary + bonus/variable + restricted stock units (RSUs). RSUs are awarded at hire and may be refreshed annually. Additionally, as a pay-for-performance company, there are additional RSU grant awards for top performers which allow employees to achieve higher market positioning.

The range of annual base salary for full-time employees for this position is below. Please note that base pay offered may vary depending on factors including your city of residence, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

$151,936—$237,400 USD

At Samsara, we welcome everyone regardless of their background, race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, etc. We depend on the unique approaches of our team members to help us solve complex problems. We are committed to increasing diversity across our team and ensuring that Samsara is a place where people from all backgrounds can make an impact.

Accommodations

Samsara is an inclusive work environment, and we are committed to ensuring equal opportunity in employment for qualified persons with disabilities. Please email [email protected] or click here if you require any reasonable accommodations throughout the recruiting process.

Benefits

Full time employees receive an above market total compensation package along with employee-led remote and flexible working, health benefits, Samsara for Good charity fund, and much, much more. Take a look at our Benefits site to learn more.

Flexible Working

At Samsara, we have adopted a flexible way of working, enabling teams and individuals to do their best work, regardless of where they’re based. We value in-person collaboration and know a change of scenery and quiet space to work is welcomed from time to time, but also appreciate that the world of work has changed. Our offices remain open for those who prefer to collaborate or work in-office, but we also encourage fully remote applicants. As most roles are not required to be in the office, we are able to hire remotely where Samsara has an established presence. If a role is required to be in a certain location and candidates do not have work authorization for that location, Samsara will conduct an immigration assessment. If the role is not required to be in a specific location, Samsara will move forward with the remote location that works best for the business. All offers of employment are contingent upon an individual’s ability to secure and maintain the legal right to work at the company.

Please note: Samsara does not accept agency resumes and is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes. Please do not forward resumes to Samsara employees.