Chief of Staff to CTO

Location

Torrance, CA

Full time

On-site

Engineering

Northwood is on a mission to build a data highway between earth and space and bring the benefits of space to the masses through innovations in space communications technologies. If you like building quickly and seeing your work deployed in locations around the globe with real impact, we want you at Northwood.

Northwood is looking for a Chief of Staff to the CTO to help scale the impact of Northwood’s engineering leadership by translating technical expertise into execution across the company. In this role, you’ll act as the CTO’s force multiplier – owning the operational, coordination, and execution work required to keep complex product and engineering efforts moving forward. You’ll work closely with the CTO, engineering Heads, and business development teams to translate strategy into clear plans, track progress, and ensure teams stay aligned as Northwood scales.

This is a highly trusted, hands‑on role at the intersection of technical leadership, execution, and organizational clarity.

• Serve as a strategic thought partner to the CTO, pressure-testing priorities and shaping technical direction

• Drive complex, cross‑functional initiatives to completion, ensuring clear ownership, sequencing, and outcomes

• Act as an extension of the CTO in key forums, aligning teams and reinforcing engineering priorities across the company

• Partner with engineering leadership to define and continuously rebalance resource allocation across product and technical priorities

• Maintain clear ownership models and execution visibility across major engineering initiatives

• Design and run lightweight operating rhythms (planning reviews, roadmap syncs, weekly execution checkpoints)

• Synthesize progress, risks, and dependencies into concise updates for leadership

• Ensure alignment across engineering, product, and BD through structured, consistent communication

• Support the development and maintenance of long‑term technical and product roadmaps

• Help manage the process of aligning engineering execution with business and customer priorities

• Surface tradeoffs and constraints to support executive decision‑making

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline

• 5+ years of experience in technical program management, engineering, product operations, or similar roles

• Experience coordinating complex work across multiple engineering teams

• Strong organizational skills and comfort operating with ambiguity

• Experience operating as an information hub for senior technical leadership

• Excellent systems thinking and the ability to reason about dependencies and tradeoffs

• High judgment, discretion, and ability to operate in a trusted leadership role

• Ability to drive clarity, alignment, and momentum without formal authority

• Bias toward action and ownership – seeing gaps and filling them