# Changwoo Kim **Senior Program Manager, Advanced Technology Portfolio** — Irvine, CA, United States > Senior program manager who takes emerging technologies from pilot validation to commercial deployment. Spent 8+ years at Hyundai Motor Company running a 22-program, $10M+ portfolio and carrying three external technologies to deployment, including one now sold by Kia. Career Archetype: **Launchpad Navigator** (HS-DG) — One of the first Launchpad Navigators on Saywise ## Links - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/changwookim - changwoo-pm.github.io: https://changwoo-pm.github.io/ ## Experience ### Operations & Commercialization Lead, Stealth Startup (2024-06 – present) Supporting an early-stage startup on operations and technology commercialization. ### Senior Program Manager, Advanced Technology Portfolio, Hyundai Motor Company (2015-08 – 2024-03) Mountain View, California, United States · Ran a 22-program, $10M+ portfolio covering AI, robotics, mobility, and EV charging, reprioritizing mid-cycle and lifting budget utilization from 40% to 85%. Designed the Jira intake-to-launch system and Power BI reporting, redesigned approval routing, and cut approval lead time from 10 weeks to 4. Took three external technologies from pilot to deployment, including a camping module now sold as an official Kia product. ### Program Manager, Technology Strategy, Hyundai Motor Company (2015-08 – 2020-01) Seoul, South Korea · Led 12-week McKinsey and AT Kearney engagements that scanned 1,258 emerging technologies across 7 domains and set the group's focus areas. Established an emerging-technology organization with a 4-stage, 3-gate process, approved by the chairman and adopted across five affiliates. Set up the decision cadence for enterprise technology reviews, tracking each decision to a closed action item. ### Product Manager, webOS Smart TV, LG Electronics (2012-08 – 2015-09) Seoul, South Korea · Led cross-functional launch programs for LG's webOS Smart TV platform. ▸ Cross-functional launch readiness: Orchestrated hardware, software platform, design, sales, marketing, and QA teams for the webOS UHD8000 and LB6000 series through CES unveil, demo builds, and executive briefings. ▸ 40+ bi-weekly CEO briefs: Delivered competitive positioning analysis against Apple, Google, and Samsung to LG's CEO (2013–2015), grounded in 100+ customer and partner interviews, supporting a go-to-market strategy that drove 17% YoY growth and $400M in launch-year sales. ### Robot Engineering Researcher, Samsung Electronics (2008-06 – 2011-08) Suwon · Led Samsung's first robotic vacuum platform from R&D to global launch. ▸ Coordinated R&D, manufacturing, QC, and suppliers through the first-generation launch of Samsung's robotic vacuum platform, reducing the development cycle 20% through CAE-based dynamics optimization. ▸ 18 patents in robot motion control, navigation, and multibody dynamics optimization (Google Scholar). ## Education ### Master of Science - MS in Applied Data Science, University of Michigan - School of Information (2024-08 – 2026-09) GPA 3.86 ### Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Business Administration, Management and Operations, Seoul National University ### Master of Science - MS in Mechanical Engineering (Robotics), University at Buffalo ### Bachelor of Science in Mechanical and Computer Engineering, Hanyang University ## Skills Programme Office, Managing Large Scale Projects, Go-to-Market Strategy, Operations Management, Microsoft Power BI, Program Delivery Management, Technical Program Leadership, Cross-functional Leadership, System Integration & Validation, Technical Program Coordination, Process Optimization & Cycle Time Reduction, Product Lifecycle Management, Stakeholder Alignment & Delivery, Cross-functional Program Execution, Technical Project Leadership, Global Cross-Functional Team Leadership, Senior Stakeholder Management, Product Management, MVP Development, Strategic Project Management, Complex Project Management, Product Identification, Product Analysis, Technical Program Management, Business Process Improvement, New Business Development, Business Intelligence (BI), Collaborative Problem Solving, Leadership, Business Development, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Business Strategy, Project Management, Strategic Planning, Business Analysis, Consumer Electronics, Market Research, Product Development, Product Launch, Portfolio and Program Planning, Stage-Gate Governance, Requirements Management, Risk and Dependency Management, Budget Forecasting and Variance Reporting, KPI and Metrics Reporting, Change Management, Cross-Functional Stakeholder Alignment, Vendor and Partner Management, Contract and SOW Management, Executive Reporting, Technology Validation and Qualification, Pilot and Proof-of-Concept (POC) Design, Pilot-to-Production Deployment, Hardware-Software Integration, Manufacturing AI, Robotics and Autonomous Mobile Robots, Digital Twin, Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, Six Sigma Black Belt, Jira, Confluence, Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, Planview, Tableau, Looker, Asana, Monday, SQL, Excel, Power Query, Python (pandas), Generative AI Tools (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini) ## Credentials - **Supervised Machine Learning: Regression and Classification** — DeepLearning.AI, Stanford University (issued 2025-04) - **Intermediate PostgreSQL** — University of Michigan (issued 2024-08) - **Model Thinking** — Coursera Course Certificates (issued 2017-06) ## Q&A ### [What are your biggest strengths?](https://saywise.com/q/16458e492490) - Over eight years across manufacturing, consumer electronics, and automotive, I've learned that connecting technology to business means understanding what customers actually want. At Hyundai, I managed a 22-program, $10M+ portfolio covering AI, robotics, and EV charging. Before that, I led Samsung's robot vacuum from R&D to global launch and drove LG's webOS smart TV platform to market. Now I'm supporting operations and commercialization at an early-stage startup. (https://saywise.com/s/ba7f412527db) --- Source: https://saywise.com/changwookim (last modified 2026-10-13T04:10:05.248Z)