R&D Hardware Program Manager

Job Title:

Senior R D Hardware Program Manager Job Description The Senior R D Hardware Program Manager drives financial strategy, planning, and execution across a multi-product hardware R D organization. This role partners closely with Product Management, Engineering, Program Management, FP&A, and Sourcing to ensure disciplined investment, accurate forecasting, and clear visibility into R D spend and return on investment. The position is highly strategic and visible, enabling execution across the organization and regularly interacting with Senior leadership. Responsibilities Lead financial strategy and planning for a multi-product hardware R D portfolio, ensuring investments align with business priorities and target return on investment. Partner with Product Management, Engineering, Program Management, FP&A, and Sourcing to create and maintain integrated plans that connect technical roadmaps with financial forecasts. Drive disciplined investment processes by defining, tracking, and optimizing R D budgets, including capital and operational expenditures. Oversee financial forecasting and accruals for R D projects, ensuring accurate budget allocation, tracking, and reporting. Operate proactively with capital to achieve projected ROI, making recommendations on where to invest, reallocate, or reduce spend based on performance and strategic objectives. Manage complex, multi-project initiatives across multiple product lines and potentially global regions, coordinating scope, timelines, and financial outcomes. Support and manage budgets of $1 million or more per quarter, with a focus on handling high complexity across programs rather than solely on budget size. Collaborate with hardware development teams to plan and track New Product Introduction (NPI) phases, including prototypes, pilot builds, and production tooling costs. Ensure clear visibility into prototype, pilot, and tooling expenses and their impact on overall project economics. Build, refine, and maintain structured decision-making processes that support transparent and repeatable investment decisions across R D. Establish and improve processes for data collection, consolidation, and reporting to provide reliable inputs for financial and operational decisions. Develop and maintain dashboards and reports using Power BI or similar data visualization tools to provide transparent, real-time visibility into R D spend, progress, and ROI. Communicate complex financial and technical information clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including Senior directors, product leaders, and executives. Provide regular updates and insights to Senior leadership on R D portfolio performance, risks, opportunities, and recommended actions. Continuously identify opportunities to optimize FP&A-related processes for R D, including accruals, budget tracking, and forecasting methodologies. Support the introduction of new product lines and revenue streams by aligning R D investment plans with the company's evolving clean energy strategy. Essential Skills Proven program management experience in hardware product development environments. Strong background in hardware product development, including deep understanding of New Product Introduction (NPI) phases, production tooling, prototypes, and pilot costs. Demonstrated experience operating with capital to achieve projected ROI, not just monitoring spend. Hands-on knowledge of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), including accruals, budget allocation, tracking, and process optimization. Experience managing complex, multi-project initiatives, ideally across multiple product lines and global regions. Ability to manage and oversee budgets of approximately $1 million or more per quarter, with a focus on complexity and scale. Proficiency with Power BI or similar data visualization platforms for building transparent, insightful financial and operational reports. Proven ability to build and maintain stable, structured decision-making processes for R D investments. Strong communication skills with the ability to translate between technical and financial stakeholders clearly and effectively. Additional Skills & Qualifications Experience working within a multi-product R D organization, especially in sectors undergoing transformation or rapid growth. background supporting or leading initiatives related to new product lines and new revenue streams. Experience presenting to and influencing Senior leadership, including Senior directors, product leaders, and executive-level stakeholders. Interest in or exposure to clean energy, utilities, or related technology sectors. Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with Product Management, Engineering, Program Management, FP&A, and Sourcing. Work Environment The role follows a hybrid work schedule, with on-site work from Monday through Thursday and remote work on Fridays. You will operate in a dynamic, growth-oriented environment as the company transforms into a utility-scale clean energy organization and adds new product lines and revenue streams. The position is highly visible, with regular interaction with Senior directors, vice presidents of product, and the Chief Product Officer, and involves frequent collaboration with cross-functional teams across product, engineering, program management, FP&A, and sourcing. Data visualization and reporting tools such as Power BI are part of the day-to-day toolkit to enable transparent, data-driven decision-making. Job Type & Location This is a Permanent position based out of Fremont, CA. Pay and Benefits The pay range for this position is $175000.00 - $185000.00/yr. PTO Holiday 401k sick pay yearly bonus RSUs Workplace Type This is a hybrid position in Fremont,CA. Application Deadline This position is anticipated to close on May 13, 2026. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion At Actalent, diversity and inclusion are a bridge towards the equity and success of our people. DE&I is embedded into our culture through: Hiring diverse talent Maintaining an inclusive environment through persistent self-reflection Building a culture of care, engagement, and recognition with clear outcomes Ensuring growth opportunities for our people Actalent is an equal opportunity employer. About Actalent Actalent is a global leader in engineering and sciences services. For more than 40 years, we've helped visionary companies advance their goals. Headquartered in the United States, our teams span 150 offices across North America, EMEA, and APAC—with four delivery centers in India led by 1,000+ extraordinary employees who connect their passion with purpose every day. Our Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai delivery centers are hubs of engineering expertise, with core capabilities in mechanical and electrical engineering, systems and software, and manufacturing engineering. Our teams deliver work across multiple industries including transportation, consumer and industrial products, and life sciences. We serve more than 4,500 clients, including many Fortune 500 brands. Learn more about how we can work together at actalentservices.com.