Technical Program Manager I

HARMAN’s engineers and designers are creative, purposeful and agile. As part of this team, you’ll combine your technical expertise with innovative ideas to help drive cutting-edge solutions in the car, enterprise and connected ecosystem. Every day, you will push the boundaries of creative design, and HARMAN is committed to providing you with the opportunities, innovative technologies and resources to build a successful career.

A Career at HARMAN

As a technology leader that is rapidly on the move, HARMAN is filled with people who are focused on making life better. Innovation, inclusivity and teamwork are a part of our DNA. When you add that to the challenges we take on and solve together, you’ll discover that at HARMAN you can grow, make a difference and be proud of the work you do everyday.

About the Role

As a Program Manager I, you will be responsible for organizing and executing product development tasks. You will work in a cross-functional role planning, communicating, team building, and executing a development plan to Harman and customer requirements. 

Your Team

This position has direct responsibility for program management and customer interface engineering. The position has indirect responsibility for all engineering-related functions (transducer, hardware, software, mechanical, acoustics, and validation) and cross-functional interfaces (procurement, manufacturing, etc).

 What You Will Do 

• Manage multiple audio system (system, speaker, and/or amplifier) program teams, requiring both applications and international development engineering.
• Define tasks to be performed by the cross-functional team in developing systems. Use a task list to create a work breakdown structure. Use work breakdown structure to establish program schedule.
• Follow corporate product development (or applications) process.
• Ensure the compliance of team members.
• Ensure prompt decision-making is executed by promoting consensus decisions, intervening when consensus decision-making fails, and making unilateral decisions in the case of a deadlock.
• Understand all the technical detail of the products used in all systems, both electrical and mechanical.
• Approve requirements and technical solutions for meeting requirements for all development products.
• Establish and manage program budget.
• Work with Sales, Supplier Engineering, and Design Engineering to set and meet the system cost target.
• Set team goals for timeliness, customer issues, and quality. Lead team to meet goals.
• Interact with all internal functions: design engineering, manufacturing, quality, purchasing, marketing, and sales.
• Negotiate resource allocations from functional managers. When a resource conflict occurs, negotiate a solution with functional managers and other program managers.

• Serve as a lead program interface with the customer.
• Identify and drive program issues at the team level. If resolutions require management intervention, escalate to appropriate management personnel with proposed alternatives.

• Review selected suppliers and quotes, and participate in supplier reviews/selection as appropriate.
• Coordinate and oversee the ordering of prototype and production tooling.
• Audit task completion and report major deviations from plan to appropriate management.
• Recommend continuous improvements development process.

What You Need

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related field.
• 5+ years overall experience. 3+ years global team experience included.
• 3+ years related experience in program management, sales, quality, design, engineering management, process engineering, manufacturing engineering, or equivalent relevant industry experience will be considered.
• Project Planning, problem-solving, multi-tasking, project management skills.
• Technical knowledge of the Audio systems and Automotive Electronics.
• Understanding of embedded software in audio electronics.
• Japanese fluency

What is Nice to Have

• PMP certification.
• Master’s Degree in Engineering or MBA.
• Background in Automotive Electronics and Audio systems.
• Experience working with Japanese OEMs.

What Makes You Eligible

• Be willing to travel up to 10% domestic and international travel and occasionally travel to the customer location and HARMAN Plants.
• Be willing to work in an office in Nagoya, Aichi.
• Successfully complete a background investigation/Aptitude Test as a condition of employment.

What We Offer

• We offer an authentic diverse, equal, and inclusive work environment that fosters and encourages professional and personal development in a truly global organization.
• You will work on products and services that touch people’s lives and will change the industrial standards, being a part of the transformations in our industry.
• Our work environments are fast paced, challenging, empowering, collaborative, flexible and exciting.
• We offer our own HARMAN University with regular updates on the new technologies and trends by utilizing various sessions organized by Self Learning and Development Trainings to help grow and advance talent.
• We offer competitive compensation/benefit programs and recognition programs.

HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.