David Gallegos
@davidgallegos07
Technical product and program leader with 12 years taking complex systems from requirements to production across global teams in EUR, CHN, USA and MEX
MexicoWhat I'm looking for
I'm a technical product and program leader with 12 years taking complex systems from requirements to production across global teams in Europe, China, the USA, and Mexico.
In 2023, as Product Area Manager for Infotainment at Zeekr, I led the team that took one of the first in-vehicle LLM voice assistants into production — an open model (Llama 2) with RAG, grounded in the owner's manual and live vehicle context, with the evaluation discipline most AI pilots skip: hallucination-rate tracking, latency budgets, and cost-aware routing. Before that, I led body-systems architecture on the Zeekr × Waymo robotaxi program. Most recently, as Program Manager at BWI Group, I was the turnaround PM for escalated OEM programs — recovering a $500K loss with GM and cutting software issues 45% on a Stellantis program — owning scope, quality, P&L, and the customer across teams in 5 countries. Co-inventor of 2 granted European patents.
I'm based in Chihuahua, Mexico, on US Central Time — full US-workday overlap. Cross-border hiring is a solved problem on my side: I'm set up as an independent contractor or via EOR (Deel/Remote), with a 3.5-year track record of 100% remote cross-border work (Mexico→Sweden, 2019–2023). Fluent EN/ES.
I'm looking for senior AI Product Manager, Technical Program Manager, or deployment-focused product roles at companies building AI that has to survive contact with the real world.
Experience
Work history, roles, and key accomplishments
Founder
Sayo Clinics
Jan 2026 - Present (6 months)
Founded a clinical-research operations and coordination center (GCP / COFEPRIS) while building operations, systems, and brand. Upskilling in AI/automation and AWS tooling.
Program Manager
BWI Group
May 2024 - Jan 2026 (1 year 8 months)
Recovery/turnaround program manager for at-risk damper & brake programs for OEMs, stabilizing delivery and owning scope, quality, timeline, P&L, and customer relationships end-to-end. Led multiple concurrent programs with global cross-functional teams.
Function Domain Owner & Product
Zeekr Europe Technology
Jun 2023 - May 2024 (11 months)
Conceived and led “Zeekr GPT,” one of the first production in-vehicle LLM voice assistants, including Llama 2 + RAG grounded in vehicle/owner-manual context and intent routing between deterministic and cloud LLM responses. Owned roadmap and priorities, evaluated hallucination/latency, led a 6-person team, and handled localization compliance plus ECE type approval, automotive cybersecurity homologa
Function & Product Area Owner
Zeekr Europe Technology
Jun 2023 - May 2024 (11 months)
Conceived and led “Zeekr GPT,” an in-vehicle LLM voice assistant grounded in vehicle context and the owner’s manual, delivered across two Zeekr models. Designed intent routing, evaluation discipline (hallucination/latency), and contributed to regulatory/safety and privacy compliance for owned functions.
Function Owner Team Lead
Zeekr / CEVT
Feb 2021 - Jun 2023 (2 years 4 months)
Led a Function Owners team for in-cabin monitoring and body-domain systems, expanding the team’s portfolio and improving delivery performance and onboarding. Led body-domain architecture work on the Zeekr × Waymo robotaxi program, including autonomous-drive safety fallbacks and digital-key access integration.
Function & Subsystem Tech Expert
Zeekr
May 2020 - Feb 2021 (9 months)
Technical lead for Zeekr body-domain systems, resolving technical questions for Function/Subsystem Owners and training new team members. Served as key user for ISO 26262, GDPR, and FMVSS/ECE homologation activities.
Function & Subsystem Technical Expert
Zeekr
May 2020 - Feb 2021 (9 months)
Provided technical leadership across the Body-domain by resolving issues for 14–18 Function/Subsystem Owners. Served as a key user for ISO 26262, GDPR, and FMVSS/ECE homologation and trained 6+ new team members while working 100% remote from Mexico for the Swedish organization.
System Owner - Locking & Alarm
Zeekr Europe Technology
Apr 2019 - May 2020 (1 year 1 month)
Owned embedded-system architecture for locking and alarm, including communications/signal I/O and regulatory/safety compliance. Designed Zeekr’s first Power Operated Doors (POD) system and verified the approach via HIL testing, including ISO 26262 functional safety work.
System Engineer - Immobilizer & Alarm
CEVT
Oct 2017 - Apr 2019 (1 year 6 months)
Owned embedded-system architecture for immobilizer and alarm under ISO 26262, including ASIL decomposition judgment for lock concept selection. Key user during the company-wide Elektra to SystemWeaver requirements-platform migration.
Function Owner - Locking & Windows
CEVT
May 2016 - Oct 2017 (1 year 5 months)
Product-owner-type role on Lynk & Co 01 and 02, owning locking and window maneuvering functions and authoring user-level and realization requirements. Coordinated hardware/electronics/software delivery under ISO 26262, with ownership of UX/UI.
Requirements Analyst
CEVT
Nov 2015 - May 2016 (6 months)
Owned Engineering Statements of Work for four vehicle system areas. Worked on requirements scoping activities within CEVT.
Manufacturing/Welding Engineer
Emerson (Flow Technologies)
Jan 2014 - Jan 2015 (1 year)
Worked as a manufacturing and welding engineer in Mexico for Emerson (flow technologies) during 2014–2015.
Education
Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework
New Mexico State University
Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering
Earned a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from New Mexico State University (NMSU) in 2014.
Availability
Location
MexicoAuthorized to work in
Social media
Job categories
Skills
Interested in hiring David?
You can contact David and 90k+ other talented remote workers on Himalayas.
Message DavidGet matched with your dream remote job
Sign up now and join over 250,000+ remote workers who receive personalized job alerts, curated job matches, and more for free!
