Mission Project Lead

Locations: Denver, CO / Los Angeles, CA / Washington, D.C.

Type: Full-time, hybrid

We are partnering with a fast-growing space software company developing mission-management and command-and-control technology for U.S. Government space programs.

The team supports a mixture of defense, intelligence, and civil space missions, including NASA-related programs, and is looking to develop the next generation of technical program leadership as its customer base and program portfolio continue to grow.

We are looking for a Mission Project Lead to work closely with engineering teams and Technical Program Managers to drive the day-to-day execution of government space programs.

This is not a traditional project-management position. The role is expected to remain approximately 50% technical
, making it particularly well suited to a software engineer, systems engineer, systems architect, product owner, or similar technical professional who has started taking on broader ownership and coordination responsibilities.

The long-term opportunity is to develop into a Technical Program Manager
, taking on increasing ownership of customer programs as the company grows.

• Work directly with software and systems engineering teams to drive execution against mission priorities and milestones
• Maintain visibility across technical tasks, owners, dependencies, deadlines, and completion criteria
• Identify technical, resource, and coordination blockers and drive them through to resolution
• Facilitate planning sessions, stand-ups, milestone reviews, and other engineering team cadences
• Continue contributing technically while taking on increasing responsibility for program execution
• Coordinate across engineering, product, program, and leadership teams
• Provide clear updates on progress, risks, blockers, and upcoming milestones
• Support customer and government-facing discussions as your responsibilities grow
• Help translate program objectives into clear, actionable engineering work
• Develop toward ownership of larger technical programs and eventual TPM responsibilities

• 3+ years of experience in a technical environment such as:
• Software engineering
• Systems architecture
• Mission operations
• Space or ground systems
• Technical product ownership
• Experience taking ownership beyond your individual technical tasks
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to keep multiple technical activities moving simultaneously
• Comfortable identifying blockers, asking questions, and following actions through to completion
• Experience working closely with engineering teams in an iterative or Agile environment
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Comfortable collaborating across technical and non-technical teams
• Previous mentoring, technical leadership, project ownership, Scrum Master, or Product Owner experience is beneficial
• Space, government, defense, or NASA program experience is advantageous but not essential
• Must be eligible to obtain a U.S. Government security clearance; an active clearance is not required

You may currently be a Software Engineer, Systems Engineer, Systems Architect, Product Owner, Scrum Master, or Technical Lead who enjoys staying close to the engineering but increasingly finds yourself:

• coordinating other engineers;
• resolving blockers;
• driving technical work to completion;
• communicating with customers or stakeholders; and
• taking ownership for delivery rather than simply completing your own tasks.

If you want to remain technically involved while developing toward Technical Program Management
, this role offers a clear progression path.