Program Manager, Operations Readiness

Gatik, the leader in autonomous middle-mile logistics, is revolutionizing the B2B supply chain with its autonomous transportation-as-a-service (ATaaS) solution and prioritizing safe, consistent deliveries while streamlining freight movement by reducing congestion. The company focuses on short-haul, B2B logistics for Fortune 500 retailers and in 2021 launched the world’s first fully driverless commercial transportation service with Walmart. Gatik's Class 3-7 autonomous trucks are commercially deployed across major markets, including Texas, Arkansas, and Ontario, Canada, driving innovation in freight transportation.

The company's proprietary Level 4 autonomous technology, Gatik Carrier™, is custom-built to transport freight safely and efficiently between pick-up and drop-off locations on the middle mile. With robust capabilities in both highway and urban environments, Gatik Carrier™ serves as an all-encompassing solution that integrates advanced software and hardware powering the fleet, facilitating effortless integration into customers' logistics operations.

About the Role

Gatik is looking for a detail-oriented, highly organized Program Manager, Operations Readiness to make sure our operations teams are prepared for every change that reaches the field. In this role, you will manage readiness for software releases, hardware improvements, platform updates, operational process changes, and end-state improvement rollouts, using lean principles and standardized processes. Reporting to the Director of Central Operations, you will act as the primary conduit between Technical Engineering and Operations, and partner closely with Product, Training, and Safety so that every change is enabled, communicated, trained, and validated before launch. You will be instrumental in maintaining safety and operational continuity while driving fast, reliable delivery of improvements across our autonomous fleet.

This role is hybrid, 2 days per week in Santa Clara, Phoenix, Dallas, or Toronto.

What You'll Do

• Own readiness programs end to end. Plan and run readiness for software releases, hardware improvements, platform updates, process changes, and end-state rollouts, from early scoping through launch and post-launch stabilization.
• Standardize the readiness process. Build and maintain standard work, templates, checklists, and go/no-go gates so every launch follows a consistent, repeatable process.
• Apply lean principles. Use lean tools (value stream mapping, waste elimination, root cause analysis) to make readiness and rollout workflows faster, simpler, and less error-prone.
• Bridge Engineering and Operations. Act as the conduit between Technical Engineering and Operations: translate technical changes into operational impact, and bring field realities back into engineering priorities.
• Maintain the operations triage process. Own the triage process for issues coming out of operations, including intake, prioritization, routing to the right engineering or functional owners, and tracking to resolution.
• Escalate field feedback. Collect and synthesize feedback from operations teams, escalate critical issues quickly and clearly, and make sure feedback shapes future releases and improvements.
• Partner across functions. Work with Product, Operations, Training, and Safety to align on scope, dependencies, timelines, and owners for each change.
• Drive training and enablement. Coordinate with Training to make sure documentation, SOP updates, training content, and field communications are delivered and completed before launch.
• Manage risk and safety alignment. Work with Safety to identify operational risks, confirm mitigations are in place, and make sure changes meet safety and regulatory requirements.
• Coordinate rollouts and close the loop. Plan phased or market-by-market rollouts, serve as the single point of coordination at launch, and run retrospectives to improve the process.

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Business, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in program management, operations, or launch management.
• Experience managing cross-functional programs with several stakeholders, including technical engineering teams.
• Experience building or running an issue triage, intake, or escalation process.
• Working knowledge of lean principles and process standardization.
• Experience preparing operations teams for product, technology, or process changes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including turning technical information into clear operational guidance.
• Experience with program management and issue tracking tools such as Jira, Confluence, Asana, or Smartsheet.
• Experience in autonomous vehicles, trucking, logistics, or fleet operations preferred.
• Lean Six Sigma Yellow or Green Belt, or equivalent lean training preferred.
• Experience supporting software or hardware release cycles in a technology or robotics environment preferred.
• Familiarity with safety-critical operations and change management processes preferred.
• Experience working with training and enablement teams to roll out SOPs and field training preferred.
• PMP, CSM, or similar program management certification preferred.
• Experience in a high-growth or startup environment preferred.

More about Gatik

Founded in 2017 by experts in autonomous vehicle technology, Gatik has rapidly expanded its presence to Mountain View, Dallas-Fort Worth, Arkansas, and Toronto. As the first and only company to achieve fully driverless middle-mile commercial deliveries, Gatik holds a unique and defensible position in the AV industry, with a clear trajectory toward sustainable growth and profitability.

We have delivered complete, proprietary AV technology - an integration of software and hardware - to enable earlier successes for our clients in constrained Level 4 autonomy. By choosing the middle mile – with defined point-to-point delivery, we have simplified some of the more complex AV challenges, enabling us to achieve full autonomy ahead of competitors. Given extensive knowledge of Gatik’s well-defined, fixed route ODDs and hybrid architecture, we are able to hyper-optimize our models with exponentially less data, establish gate-keeping mechanisms to maintain explainability, and ensure continued safety of the system for unmanned operations.

Visit us at Gatik for more company information and Careers at Gatik for more open roles.

Notable News

• Forbes: Forget robotaxis. Upstart Gatik sees middle-mile deliveries as the path to profitable AVs
• Tech Brew: Gatik AI exec unpacks the regulations that could shape the AV industry
• Business Wire: Gatik Paves the Way for Safe Driverless Operations (‘Freight-Only’) at Scale with Industry-First Third-Party Safety Assessment Framework
• Auto Futures: Autonomous Trucking Group Gatik Secures Investment From NIPPON EXPRESS HOLDINGS
• Automotive News: Gatik foresees hundreds of self-driving trucks on road soon, and that's just the beginning
• Forbes: Isuzu And Gatik Go All In To Scale Up Driverless Freight Services
• Bloomberg: Autonomous Vehicle Startup Takes Off by Picking Off Easier Routes
• Reuters: Driverless vehicles on limited routes bump along despite US robotaxi scrutiny