Engineering Program Manager

Do you want to change the world? We do, too.
 
The energy market is roughly $4 trillion globally, and solar penetration is less than 1%.  But just one hour of sunlight, if harnessed, could power the entire world for a year. We have the opportunity to completely change the way energy is produced, distributed and consumed on a global scale, and we’re looking for talented, committed people to help us drive our growth and achieve our goals.
 
SunPower is a global solar energy solutions company with a rich heritage of pioneering the best energy technologies in the world. Our solutions are unrivaled in terms of long-term reliability, efficiency and guaranteed performance, and our company is unmatched in terms of global reach and scale. Through design, manufacturing, installation and ongoing maintenance and monitoring, SunPower provides its proprietary, world-record efficient solar technology to residential, commercial and utility customers worldwide.
 
SunPower is changing the way our world is powered every day with a brilliant, passionate and driven team of more than 7,000 in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. In an industry that is reshaping the world’s energy future, there’s no better place to be than SunPower.
 
We believe that our employees create our brand – with each project, each communication, each task completed and each interaction. Experience is critical to SunPower in regards to not only our customers but also our employees and dealer partners. As such, we strive to hire candidates that are service focused. The experience we would expect the ideal person to deliver is:
 

Your role is to integrate and lead highly cross functional teams to deliver innovative product solutions and services for our customers.

Programs typically span from concept to development thru full release. Scope may include development and integration of hardware,

firmware, software, financial products and energy services. Your role is a mix of driving smooth program execution while continuously

improving and refining our processes to best streamline our organization and work. [Note: This opening will focus on product

solutions and services in our North America Residential or Commercial markets.]

Responsibilities include developing plans, driving and tracking progress against them, proactively responding to change and

readjusting; analyzing impact of technical hurdles faced and recommending possible courses of action to take; understanding when

and what key decisions need to be made, by who, and the relationship with critical knowledge gaps; interfacing with project teams

and upper management to provide status updates and to identify and resolve open issues; acting as focal point for both the working

team as well as Leadership team to resolve business and technical issues and communicate with transparency.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Work closely with engineering teams and NPI Operations teams to manage the development process of the specific

deliverables expected from their projects

Lead/facilitate cross functional teams to ensure project deliverables are met

Drive and track development schedules and milestones

Ensure projects are appropriately resourced

Ensure adherence to business processes

Interface with project teams and upper management to provide status updates and resolve open issues

Interface with various engineering groups within SunPower (modules, mechanical systems, electrical systems, performance,

software, etc.) to ensure the individual deliverables work together as an integrated product.

Interface with the various functional groups (Product Management, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, etc.) to ensure we meet all

our commitments (schedule, functionality, cost targets, etc.)

Interface with functional groups (IT, Finance, Legal, etc) whose involvement may be critical to a program’s success.

Interface with external partners (collaboration partners, suppliers) with whom we are co-developing or upon whom we are

dependent for deliverables.

Perform continuous risk management and elevate critical issues/risk appropriately and initiate corrective actions.

Manage the change management process

Act as focal point for product development groups to resolve issues of a business or technical nature

Work to identify and address problems in the development process flow in order to drive continual improvement.

Other Related Job Functions:

Provide input to other groups whose charters may be to address issues we uncover

Improve support for internal customers

Improve communication within the organization and across SunPower

RELATED EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Minimum Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of related experience

Advanced Degree preferred

OR equivalent combination of education and years of related experience

Preferred Requirements

BS/BA

5+ years technical experience in technology company

Detailed knowledge of project management methodology, processes and tools (e.g., critical path analysis, gantt, resource and

budget planning, etc.

Ability to adopt, execute, and guide in a structured working methodology

Fluent verbal and writing language skills in English

Strong communication skills

Demonstrated interpersonal skills

Self-motivated and self-driving

Problem solving, organized, critical thinker

Strong team player; ability to work with remote team members.

MS or higher (engineering degree highly preferred), MBA helpful

8+ years technical experience in technology company

Demonstrated leadership skills

Proven project/program management experience; hands on experience with all aspects of the project lifecycle, including

detailed deliverable development as well as team management at all levels

Experienced facilitating large planning sessions, kickoffs and/or workshops

Experienced leading team reflections and retrospectives

Experienced with lean product development

Experienced with agile development process

Fluid with using a variety of audio/video communication tools (e.g. zoom, webex, slack, skype, etc.)

Experienced with effectively creating, managing and using team collaboration sites (e.g. wikis, sharepoint, OneDrive,

confluence, jira)

Experienced with effectively creating and using a varity of project management tools and visual representations of project

plans, depending on purpose and audience (e.g. in Powerpoint, Excel, MSProject, visio, etc.)

Experienced with pivotal tracker, jira, confluence, or similar software devleopment tools

Experienced with salesforce, Oracle, and other enterprise tools and understands the relationship between them

Knowledge of RLC (Rapid Learning Cycles) methodlogy

Knowledge of TOC (Theory of Constraints) methodology

Knowledge of ZBB (Zero Based Budgeting) or other prioritization methodologies

#LI-JT

Equal Employment Opportunity
The Company is an equal employment opportunity employer and makes employment decisions, including but not limited to, hiring, firing, promotion, demotion, training, and/or compensation, on the basis of merit. Employment decisions are based on an individual’s qualifications as they relate to the job under consideration. The Company’s policy prohibits unlawful discrimination based on sex (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions, the actual sex of the individual, or the gender identity or gender expression), race, color, religion, including religious dress practices and religious grooming practices, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, familial status, age, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, protected veteran or military status, or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state or local laws, ordinances, or regulations. The Company is committed to complying with all applicable laws providing equal employment opportunities. This commitment applies to all persons involved in the operations of the Company and prohibits unlawful discrimination by any employee of the Company, including supervisors and co-workers.

EOE Minorities/Females/Protected Veterans/Disabled

SunPower Supports EEO

Accommodation for Applicants to SunPower Corporation
SunPower Corporation is an Equal Employment Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer and provides reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in job application procedures. If you have any difficulty using our online system and you need a reasonable accommodation due to a disability, you may use the following alternative email address to contact us about your interest in employment at SunPower Corporation: jobs@sunpower.com. Please indicate in the subject that line of your email that you are requesting accommodation. Only candidates being considered for a position who require an accommodation will receive a follow-up response.

NOTICE TO ALL APPLICANTS AND EMPLOYEES

Availability of Affirmative Action Plan for Review

SunPower is a federal government contractor. As a part of the Company’s obligations under law, it

must develop a written Affirmative Action Program (AAP) for the Disabled, Recently Separated

Veterans, Armed Forces Service Medal Veterans, Disabled Veterans and Active Duty Wartime

Or Campaign Badge Veterans and for Women and Minorities as specified by law.

Non-confidential and non-proprietary aspects of the AAP are available for inspection by applicants

and employees, consistent with applicable law, which will be made available during office hours by

contacting the EEO Officer.