Leadership built at the intersection of technology, operations, and mission.
Joseph R. Erwin brings 25 years of leadership across autonomy, transportation, logistics, engineering, and government operations to IKANEVO.
Joseph R. Erwin
Joe Erwin runs the seam between autonomous software and the humans who supervise it. As Vice President of Operations, Global at Transdev, he supported every Waymo site Transdev operated, across the United States and internationally, optimizing human in the loop while pulling COGS down and taking the division from $580M to $780M in revenue.
His work is the operating layer that AV programs live or die on: centralized command centers, remote assist and recovery, escalation and contingency design, and the staffing and software models that keep intervention rates falling as fleets grow. He has built that layer at Aurora for driverless trucking, at Transdev for Waymo and May Mobility robotaxi and transit operations, and at Amazon Robotics for autonomous sortation moving $4M of product a day. He now advises Grab on autonomous vehicle deployment in Southeast Asia.
Twenty-five years of leadership across autonomy, transportation, logistics, and engineering, with the P&L ownership and contract authority to match. He now applies the same discipline at IKANEVO, where AI systems are only worth deploying if the people around them can run them.
Human in the Loop
Remote assist and recovery, escalation paths, and the staffing models that hold service quality while intervention rates fall.
Command Centers
Multi-region centralized operations with contingency planning and SLA and KPI accountability across clients and subcontractors.
Software and Cost
Data-driven scheduling and real-time resource allocation: utilization up, idle time and COGS down, measured on the P&L.
Experience at scale.
Advisor, Autonomous Vehicle Operations
Advises Grab's autonomous vehicle division on robotaxi deployment strategy, command center and depot operations design, driverless-transition workforce planning, and AV partner ecosystem selection across Southeast Asia.
Director of Scaled Operations & Command Center, Global
Multi-region autonomous trucking operations, remote assist, and recovery from a single global command center. Grew to seven major driverless clients and a fourth state, $50M+ in realized revenue and 45% year-over-year growth, while lifting truck utilization 15% and removing $2M in annual logistics cost.
Vice President of Operations, Global
Operational head for global AV operations, remote response, and command center functions, supporting every Waymo site under Transdev operation across the United States and internationally. Deployed the platform market by market while optimizing human in the loop, taking the division P&L from $580M to $780M at +12% EBIT, leading 15 directors and managers over 3,500+ AV specialists, and opening London and Japan.
Head of Operations, then Regional General Manager
Owned a $15M+ global budget across facilities, fleet, and payroll for 1,500 employees, and the cost-plus and fixed-fee models behind $15M in monthly billable revenue.
Senior Operations Manager
Launched robotic autonomous sortation centers across California. Ran multiple 800,000+ sq ft facilities moving $4M of product daily with 8 managers and 2,000+ associates.
United States Coast Guard · 2001–2020
Joe served as Chief Warrant Officer, Diver, Dive Force Manager, and Pacific Area Command ICS Safety Officer, with command responsibility, secure communications, government networks, and emergency response.
MBA and Master of Industrial Organizational Psychology, Golden Gate University.
TS/SSBI clearance adjudicated 2019.
That perspective shapes IKANEVO: AI and intelligent automation backed by the architecture, integration, cloud, cybersecurity, and production deployment depth that turns a pilot into a running program.