Sr. Manager, Configuration Management

About us

One team. Global challenges. Infinite opportunities. At Viasat, we're on a mission to deliver connections with the capacity to change the world. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the globe communicate. We're looking for people who think big, act fearlessly, and create an inclusive environment that drives positive impact to join our team.

What you'll do

The Senior Configuration Data Management (CDM) Manager is an operational execution leader responsible for managing the government CDM team and implementing and operationalizing configuration management practices across government programs by deploying and sustaining CDM leadership-approved strategy, governance, standards, and tools.

Enterprise CDM strategy, standards, and tool decisions are owned by CDM leadership; this role is accountable for deploying, operationalizing, and sustaining those decisions, ensuring adoption, consistency, and operational effectiveness across assigned programs.

This role ensures deployment and consistent application of established expectations for data integrity, traceability, and change control across the product lifecycle and ensures alignment with company, contractual, and regulatory requirements, supporting effective execution even when standard CM practices are not explicitly defined or broadly adopted.

The Senior CDM Manager provides cross-functional leadership, drives execution of CDM leadership-approved improvements, and actively influences program and functional leadership to adopt and apply established Configuration Management governance and practices. The role represents the government CDM function to programs, customers, auditors, and external authorities within defined areas of responsibility, and reports directly to the Director of Configuration Data Management.

This role provides direct people leadership for an approximately 8-10-person Configuration Data Management team of individual contributors supporting both hardware and software development and sustainment programs, with responsibility for performance management, prioritization, and professional development.

This is a US-hybrid opportunity.

The day-to-day

* Provides operational leadership and direction for hardware and software configuration management execution, while ensuring integrated hardware and software CM governance, including lifecycle control, change management, and cross‑discipline integration, in support of enterprise CDM strategy and standards.

* Provides configuration management leadership and subject matter expertise to proposal and capture activities, including review of RFPs and SOWs for hardware, software, and integrated systems programs, contribution to CM scope definition, and input to Basis of Estimate development.

* Accountable for operationalizing and sustaining organizational configuration management capability across programs and business areas by deploying established CM expectations and governance, including assessing prime and subcontract contractual, technical, and program documentation to identify CM responsibilities, risks, and dependencies (configuration identification, traceability, data management, change control, and life-cycle governance).

* Ensures appropriate CM work requirement flow-down, mitigation, staffing, and execution are established in partnership with program and technical leadership, including programs where CM requirements must be clarified, interpreted, or matured during execution.

* Leads execution of CDM practices across multiple programs or product lines, ensuring consistency, compliance, and alignment with organizational and contractual requirements.

* Accountable for configuration data integrity, traceability, and change control outcomes across hardware and software baselines, including audit readiness, deficiency resolution, and sustained compliance.

* Provide leadership and direction to the CDM team, ensuring clear priorities, performance management, and development of talent within a team of individual contributors.

* Provide cross-functional leadership and build partnerships with engineering, operations, quality,…