Staff Engineering Program Manager

At Sonatus, we’re driving the transformation to AI-enabled software-defined vehicles. Traditional automotive software methods can’t keep pace with consumer expectations shaped by the mobile industry—where features evolve rapidly, update seamlessly, and improve continuously. That’s why leading OEMs trust Sonatus to accelerate this shift. Our technology is already in production across more than 6 million vehicles on the road today and rapidly expanding.

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, with 250+ employees worldwide, Sonatus combines the agility of a fast-growing company with the scale and impact of an established partner. Backed by strong funding and proven by global deployment, we’re solving some of the most interesting and complex challenges in the industry. Join us and help redefine what’s possible as we shape the future of mobility.

Sonatus is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California with international locations in Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Korea, China, India, Taiwan and Japan. This is a hybrid position at our Pangyo location. You will report to Customer Integration Director. 

About the Role

At Sonatus, we believe that "Jira is the Single Source of Truth." If it's not in Jira, it doesn't exist.

We are looking for a disciplined and process-driven Engineering Program Manager (EPM) to operationalize this philosophy across our engineering teams. You will act as the "Chief Scrum Master" and "Jira Architect" for the Korea engineering organization, ensuring that every task, bug, and requirement is tracked with precision across multiple cross-functional teams.

Our engineering teams operate as mission-driven units. Your mission is to keep these teams running at peak efficiency — managing sprints, removing blockers, coordinating cross-team dependencies, and maintaining a tight feedback loop between engineering execution and delivery commitments. If you are passionate about Agile methodologies, data integrity, and optimizing workflows in a fast-moving environment, you are the backbone we need.

 

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Jira Governance as "Single Source of Truth"

• Process Architecture: Design, implement, and enforce a uniform Jira workflow across all engineering teams. Ensure that ticket states, fields, and transitions are consistent to prevent data fragmentation.
• Data Integrity: Monitor Jira daily to ensure no ticket is stale. Actively follow up with engineers to update status, work logs, and comments, ensuring the system reflects the actual state of development.
• Dashboarding: Build and maintain advanced Jira Dashboards and Confluence pages to provide real-time visibility into sprint velocity, bug burn-down, and release readiness for leadership.

2. Agile Execution & Scrum Facilitation

• Scrum Master: Facilitate Daily Scrums, Sprint Planning, and Retrospectives across multiple teams to maintain a steady development rhythm.
• Cross-Team Coordination: Identify and manage dependencies between teams. Intervene immediately when blockers or inter-team conflicts emerge that could delay delivery.
• Gap Analysis: Continuously monitor progress during daily stand-ups. Identify bottlenecks between the plan and reality and drive resolution.
• Process Culture: Train engineering staff on Jira best practices and internal processes. Create a culture where updating Jira is part of the engineering work, not an administrative burden.

3. Delivery Alignment & Stakeholder Sync

• TPM Collaboration: Maintain close, continuous communication with the Technical Program Manager (TPM). Provide sprint progress, blocker updates, and engineering capacity. Receive customer requirements, priority changes, and delivery timeline constraints.
• Prioritization: Translate high-level customer milestones into actionable engineering tickets. Consult with Tech Leads to assess technical feasibility and set backlog priority.
• Release Tracking: Track the status of Engineering Change Requests (ECRs) and ensure sprint deliverables are handed off to the release pipeline on schedule.

 

Qualifications and Experience

[Essential Background]

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience: 5+ years of experience in Technical Program Management, Project Management, or as a dedicated Scrum Master in a software organization.
• Jira Mastery: Expert-level proficiency in Atlassian Jira & Confluence. Ability to create complex JQL queries, automation rules, custom workflows, and detailed dashboards is mandatory.

[Core Competencies]

• Process Driven: A strong mindset that "Process is Product." You are organized, detail-oriented, and persistent in enforcing standards.
• Agile Expertise: Deep understanding of Agile/Scrum methodologies. You know how to run a stand-up efficiently and how to calculate velocity accurately.
• Multi-Team Coordination: Proven experience managing dependencies and communication across multiple concurrent teams.
• Communication: Ability to communicate firmly yet collaboratively. You need to be comfortable holding engineers and leads accountable for their updates.

 

Preferred Knowledge and Experience

• Certifications: Atlassian Certified Professional (ACP), PMP, or Certified Scrum Master (CSM) is highly preferred.
• Industry Knowledge: Experience in the Automotive industry (ASPICE, ISO 26262) or Embedded Software development environments. Understanding of how "V-Model" traceability maps to Jira issues is a plus.
• Technical Understanding: Background in software development or QA is helpful to understand the context of tickets (e.g., C++, Networking, Linux).
• AI-Assisted Workflows: Familiarity with AI coding agents (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) and how they integrate into engineering workflows is a plus.
• Tools: Experience with additional project management tools (Microsoft Project, Excel) or CI/CD integration with Jira (Jenkins, GitHub).

 

Office Benefits & Perks Offered:

• Support 4 social insurance plans
• Family leave (Maternity, Paternity)
• Hybrid office work-arrangement
• Complimentary lunches, snacks and beverages during on-site working days
• Wellness benefit allowance
• Phone & Internet reimbursement
• Computer Accessory Allowance
• English Support class
• Annual health checkup
• Holiday Appreciation Gift