Program Manager

The Program Manager is responsible for overseeing programs, tracking their status, and leading conflict resolution to ensure said programs remain on plan, are delivered on time, and meet both customers’ expectations as well as the company’s revenue and profitability goals. This includes interfacing with sales and customers to provide updates and seek input as needed, and with engineering, operations, and quality to coordinate design, sourcing, prototyping, production, and shipping activities.

• Support business development activities.
  • Support the drafting of RFI, RFP, and RFQ responses.
  • Inform sales about new opportunities with existing customers.
  • Support the capture of follow-on business through existing programs.
• Cooperate with Salesperson and Product Manager to ensure smooth transition of programs from closing (PO received) to fulfillment process.
  • Ensure all functional groups have reviewed, as applicable, customer and contractual requirements and have provided a methodology to address.
  • Review new customer contracts/POs and provide acknowledgement to customers.
  • Create “Jobs” folders post-award.
  • Assume responsibility as the main point of contact after a contract is awarded/PO is received.
  • Support engineering efforts on assigned programs, including review of technical requirements, participation in design reviews, and oversight of system integration activities.
  • Provide technical input and coordination between engineering and program stakeholders to ensure compliance with aerospace/defense standards and customer requirements.
• Plan and manage programs through the fulfillment process.
  • Lead development and management of the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) in accordance with program requirements, customer milestones, and contractual obligations. Craft and deploy project management tools as needed.
  • Maintain open, effective communication among all functions involved in the fulfillment process.
  • Maintain constant communication with customers and sales on program status, issues, and resolutions.
  • Assess customer satisfaction and provide internal awareness of customer issues and concerns if any.
  • Organize and direct program milestones with the customers – for example, KOM (kick-off meeting), SRR (system readiness review), CDR (critical design review), PDR (preliminary design review), SOI (stages of involvement), etc.
  • Coordinate and lead customer visits or meetings at customer sites.
  • Prepare and deliver reports for customers as needed.
  • Promptly and thoroughly answer all questions and concerns from the customers regarding their programs.
  • Lead the response to post-award customer documentation such as test results, certificate of conformity (CoC), shipping documents, etc.
  • Negotiate scope change impacts with customers.
  • Manage commercial or technical changes in programs in cooperation with all functions affected.
  • Keep the “Jobs” folders up to date.
  • Ensure all contract deliverables are met in a timely and comprehensive manner.
  • Establish priorities for each program for the matrixed team, clearly communicate these priorities, and reconcile any resource or other conflicts.
  • Oversee schedule attainment by all functions as well as drive for timely functional hand-offs.
  • Track the status of programs through the fulfillment process and lead the development of countermeasures whenever programs are falling behind in the schedule or failing to meet customers’ expectations.
  • Identify program risks and lead the mitigation of the same.
  • Manage and prioritize Engineering requests through the fulfillment process.
  • Collaborate with Engineering to ensure products meet customer requirements.
  • Coordinate qualification test activities with Engineering and review results for adequacy.
  • Work with Product Manager and Supply Chain to address end-of-life components impacting on‑going programs.
  • Enforce comprehensive production readiness reviews (PRR) and coordinate seamless transition from development/prototyping to production.
  • Lead program review meetings (PRM) monthly to communicate program status to the organization.
  • Elevate significant issues to upper management.
  • For each program, calculate estimate to complete (ETC) and estimate at completion…