Software Operations Manager Jobs in Santa Clara, CA

Who We Are 

Nuro believes self-driving vehicles are the most immediate and profound opportunity for AI to drive positive change in the physical world. Safer streets, more time for what matters, and easier access to the world around us, that's why we're building a universal autonomy platform: self-driving for all roads and all rides.
Founded in 2016, Nuro is a physical AI company developing Level 4 autonomous driving technology for a wide range of vehicles, use cases, and markets. Powered by the Nuro Driver, our universal autonomy platform enables the global mobility ecosystem to deploy autonomy at scale, from robotaxis and logistics fleets to personal vehicles.
With years of real-world deployment experience and a flexible, partner-led business model, Nuro is working toward a future where millions of autonomous vehicles powered by our technology help make everyday life safer, easier, and more connected. Nuro has raised over $2B in capital from Uber, NVIDIA, Google, Softbank, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, and other leading investors.

About the Team

The Software Operations team is at the heart of how Nuro's autonomy software gets built right. We own QC, tool testing, and bug reproduction across labeling workflows, and we care deeply about the craft of doing that work well. You'll sit inside the team, learn the work firsthand, and help build the systems that make quality achievable at scale.

You'll report directly to the Head of Software Operations with real access, real context, and a genuine mandate to make things better.

About the Role

We're looking for someone who can walk into a working system, figure out where it's actually breaking, and build the case for how to fix it, without being told where to look.

Give you a workflow and a few weeks, and you'll come back with a theory of what's wrong, evidence for it, and a specific recommendation, not a request for more direction. The procedures, rubrics, and taxonomy you'll touch are downstream of that investigation. They're how your findings get made permanent; they are not the job itself.

You'll spend real time inside the in-house team's workflow. Your job there isn't to absorb and wait, it's to notice what nobody else has flagged, form a working theory of why it's happening, and test that theory against the actual work before you propose anything. Sometimes the right answer isn't a better rubric or a cleaner taxonomy at all; it's realizing the current one is solving the wrong problem. You'll also keep our offshore QC vendor team calibrated to whatever standard your investigation lands on.

This role is a great fit if you get energized by finding the thing nobody's noticed yet and making an evidence-backed case for fixing it, even when that case meets resistance. If you'd rather build your own read on a problem than follow someone else's checklist, want your work tied directly to a product that matters, and thrive with autonomy and a direct line to leadership, this is the role for you.

This is not a good fit if you do your best work with a defined process to execute against. That's a different, valuable skill, but it's not this role.

About the Work:

Finding What's Actually Wrong

• Spend real time in the workflow and form your own read on where it breaks, not just where you're told to look
• Build a working theory, then go test it against real cases before you propose anything
• Be willing to conclude that the rubric, the taxonomy, or the process itself is the actual problem

Making the Case

• Turn what you find into a specific, evidence-backed recommendation, not a vague observation
• Defend that recommendation when someone pushes back, and update it fast when the pushback is right
• Report findings and recommendations to the Head of Software Operations on a regular cadence, without being asked

Making It Stick

• Translate your findings into procedures and rubrics that are unambiguous and executable, and taxonomy that reflects how the work actually happens
• Keep changes traceable so the team knows what changed and why
• Own documentation that's genuinely usable, current, and not dependent on you personally to maintain

Offshore Vendor Alignment

• Translate whatever standard your investigation lands on into instructions the offshore QC team can apply consistently
• Run calibration sessions to catch drift between how a standard is written and how it's actually applied
• Build relationships with vendor account managers so problems surface early, not late

About You

• 4+ years in a role where you were measured on judgment calls and outcomes, not on adherence to an existing process, such as project management, operations, process design, or QA in a software or tech environment
• A track record of finding a problem nobody assigned to you, building your own case for the fix, and pushing it through
• Comfortable forming an independent hypothesis with incomplete information, then stress-testing and revising it fast as you learn more
• Experience making a case for a change that someone disagreed with, backed by evidence rather than conviction, and either winning the argument or changing your own view when the pushback was right
• Sharp pattern recognition and the communication skills to turn observations into a clear, specific recommendation
• Strong written communication: your procedures and rubrics leave no room for misreading
• Comfort with tools like Notion, Confluence, Airtable, Jira, or similar

Bonus Points:

• Experience in robotics, autonomy, mapping, or visual software environments
• Familiarity with U.S. roadways and driving behavior
• Experience coordinating offshore or distributed contractor teams
• A background in taxonomy, ontology, or classification system design
• Experience running inter-rater reliability or calibration programs

Autonomy software is being built right now, and the systems supporting that work need to keep up. The improvements you make here will be felt by the engineers, the QC team, and ultimately in the reliability of what Nuro ships into the world.

If that sounds like the kind of work you were made for, we'd love to hear from you.

At Nuro, your base pay is one part of your total compensation package. For this position, the reasonably expected base pay range is between $99,000 and $149,300 for the level at which this job has been scoped. Your base pay will depend on several factors, including your experience, qualifications, education, location, and skills. In the event that you are considered for a different level, a higher or lower pay range would apply. This position is also eligible for an annual performance bonus, equity, and a competitive benefits package.

At Nuro, we celebrate differences and are committed to a diverse workplace that fosters inclusion and psychological safety for all employees. Nuro is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and expressly prohibits any form of workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristics. #LI-CD1