Technical Program Manager, Product & Engineering

Job description

ABOUT CAPE Cape is America’s privacy-first mobile carrier. Our mission is to be a force for good in global wireless. Cape was founded in 2022 by people who believe privacy is a fundamental right, not a luxury to be traded away. Our journey began when our founder recognized a critical vulnerability in our modern world: everyone relies on the same stagnant cellular infrastructure and legacy systems that track our every movement, monitor and profile our connections, and lose and sell our personal data. Instead of accepting the status quo, we decided to fix it. National security professionals, journalists, parents, and everyone in between can stay connected and have privacy. We didn’t just build a layer on top of old tech; we built America’s most private and secure mobile carrier from the ground up. By building our own network from scratch, we are able to design and build a suite of privacy and security features that no other carrier on the planet can offer. Today, Cape provides our secure network to consumers, businesses, and government agencies alike. We closed our Series C in March 2026, and we are scaling rapidly, with the goal of giving people back control of their most personal information. THE TEAM At Cape, we are the architects of a privacy-centric movement that is just getting started. We are relentless builders, constantly innovating at the edge of what's possible in telecommunications. We operate on a foundation of high trust and high expectations. Our structure is flat, and collaboration matters more than hierarchy. As a member of our team, you will collaborate with world-class engineers, architects, and visionaries, and work across organizational lines to solve "impossible" problems and deliver mission-critical results for our users every single day. The Role: Cape has never had a Technical Program Manager, which means our engineering teams are moving fast on some of the hardest problems in telecom without the connective tissue to move even faster. Tickets go untracked, standups happen inconsistently, priorities blur across teams, and brilliant engineers spend more time untangling processes than solving problems. You'll be the first person to fix that. This is a builder's role, there's no playbook to inherit. You will design the systems, rituals, and rhythms our teams need from scratch, and prove their value fast enough that other teams start asking for you. You'll need to earn trust by going deep enough on the technology that engineers see you as someone who can actually unblock them, not just track their tickets. If you want to be the reason talented, overextended teams finally have the time and space to do their best work, this is that job. Here are some ways you’ll make an impact: - This is our first Technical Program Manager opening; we’re looking for someone to bring order and momentum to our product and engineering teams - Reduce friction and streamline workflows across engineering and product teams - Proactively communicate and resolve risks or issues before they impact progress - Empower engineering teams to focus on high-value technical work instead of operational overhead - Support the successful integration of technologies that meet the needs of Government, Enterprise, and Consumer customers - Clarify priorities and ownership across functional and deployment teams - Encourage a culture of open communication - Bring structure to teams that don't fully have it yet; building the systems, rather than just running the ones that already exist - Own Jira hygiene, sprint planning, and ticket triage for teams handling high volumes of inbound work - Run standups and cross-functional syncs that keep engineering, product, and other stakeholders aligned - Go deep on the technical details of the products you support, you'll need to talk to engineers daily and actually understand what they're building - Help engineers stay focused on hard technical problems by taking operational overhead off their plates What We Value: - Autonomy: A proven ability to learn continuously, work independently, and make decisions with minimal supervision. - Partnership: Experience brainstorming and iterating alongside product managers and designers. - Pragmatism: The ability to move quickly while building for the long term. You take a thoughtful, practical approach to solving complex problems, considering tradeoffs and avoiding over-engineering. - Adaptability: Comfort working in a constantly evolving environment with dynamic objectives and direct user iteration. - Communication: The ability to work collaboratively with both technical and non-technical teammates, understanding how technical decisions impact the end user. - Mission-Driven: A deep-seated belief in the importance of digital privacy and security. You understand that the code we ship has real-world consequences and are driven to build systems that protect and empower users. Requirements: - A background as a software engineer (or comparable hands-on technical experience) before moving into a program/product role - The ability to go deep on how a product actually works, hold your own in daily conversations with engineers, and help unblock them - Proven experience working within a startup - Strong Jira proficiency and hands-on experience running sprint planning and agile processes - A track record of understanding technically complex systems, even if you've never written production code yourself (e.g., you can describe how an HTTP request works) - Experience triaging and prioritizing a high volume of inbound tickets, bugs, and feature requests - Excellent communication skills, you can translate between technical and non-technical stakeholders clearly Bonus points: - Prior experience supporting consumer products - Prior experience supporting government or defense products - Prior experience in a startup environment What we offer: We offer competitive compensation that is geo-adjusted based on your location, along with meaningful equity so you share in the value you help create. Salary range for this role based in New York, NY is $170,000 - $190,000 depending on level, experience, and interview performance. Our benefits include: - 401(k) match - 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision premiums for you and your dependents - 12 weeks paid parental leave (for all parents, no waiting period) - Stipends for - Family-forming needs - Gender-affirming care - Unlimited PTO OUR CULTURE & VALUES - We hire excellent people, give them outsized responsibility, and trust them to execute. Every person at Cape has a proven track record of tackling hard problems and winning. - We believe that personal privacy and national security are not at odds, and that they can be reconciled through strong technology. - We believe companies exist to build awesome things and take care of the people who build them, so we offer top-tier healthcare, 401(k) matching, and a generous vacation policy that our team actually uses to recharge. - We believe that a stronger company and a better product are built by people from all walks of life. We hire without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, disability, or Veteran status. If you are great at what you do, you belong here. HOW TO APPLY Click the link below to apply. We reserve the right to make use of any unsolicited resumes received from outside recruiting agencies and / or individual recruiters without being responsible for payment of any fees asserted from the use of unsolicited resumes. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, and without regard to disability or status as a protected veteran, or any other status protected by law.