Cyber Range Operations Manager

Company Overview

By Light Professional IT Services LLC readies warfighters and federal agencies with technology and systems engineered to connect, protect, and prepare individuals and teams for whatever comes next. Headquartered in McLean, VA, By Light supports defense, civilian, and commercial IT customers worldwide.

Cole Engineering Services (CESI), a By Light company, is recognized as a premier provider of modeling and simulation (M&S) training solutions to the Federal Government and industry. Since 2004, CESI has been at the forefront of developing, maintaining, and integrating simulation-based training, serious gaming, technical services, training and other support in live, virtual, constructive, and gaming (LVCG) domains. CESI also designs, builds and runs infrastructure, platforms, applications and processes that enable cyber training for the integrated multi-domain force.

Our vision is to become a worldwide full spectrum LVCG and cyber training/analysis developer, integrator and services provider.

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Cole Engineering Services Inc. (CESI) is seeking a highly motivated Cyber Range Operations Manager to support the Persistent Cyber Training Environment Operations Group (PCTE-OG). The Cyber Range Operations Manager will provide direct people management and day-to-day operational management for assigned Range Operations pods, ensuring that exercise delivery, testing validation, project development, engineering execution, and personnel readiness remain aligned to customer objectives, technical standards, and organizational priorities.

This role serves as the first formal management layer within the Range Operations organization. The Cyber Range Operations Manager is responsible for first-level people escalations, performance management, timesheet review and approval, employee mentoring, professional development, workload management, and team accountability. The manager will work closely with the Range Operations Lead and Deputy Range Operations Lead to maintain consistent standards for execution, communication, personnel readiness, and employee performance across assigned pods.

The Cyber Range Operations Manager also coordinates directly with customers, exercise planners, technical leads, test teams, and external stakeholders to understand requirements, assign work, track execution, manage risks, and report status. The manager is responsible for leading agile execution using Atlassian tools, maintaining pod-level accountability, and ensuring assigned teams deliver range builds, validation activities, project tasks, and operational support on schedule.

The Cyber Range Operations Manager may support exercise delivery pods or testing and project development pods. In the Exercises area, the manager oversees assigned exercise builds, coordinates with exercise planners, manages tasking across senior and junior/mid range engineers, and ensures delivery milestones are met. In the Testing & Projects area, the manager coordinates structured validation cycles, project priorities, research efforts, tool development, and agile execution across test engineers and range engineers.

This is a full-time on-site position located in Annapolis Junction, MD, Ft. Meade, MD, or as specified by the task order.

• Provide direct people management for assigned Range Operations personnel, including senior/mid/junior engineers and senior/mid/junior test engineers.
• Serve as the first-level escalation point for personnel matters, team conflicts, workload concerns, performance issues, and day-to-day employee support needs.
• Conduct performance management activities, including setting expectations, providing feedback, documenting performance, supporting goal development, and contributing to formal performance reviews.
• Review, validate, and approve employee timesheets in accordance with company policy, contract requirements, and assigned work activities.
• Mentor assigned personnel and support employee development through coaching, technical growth planning, training recommendations, and regular feedback.
• Monitor team workload, availability, morale, skill gaps, and operational readiness to ensure assigned personnel are properly aligned to mission needs.
• Manage day-to-day execution for assigned Range Operations pods, including exercise delivery, testing validation, project development, and operational support activities.
• Coordinate directly with customers, exercise planners, PCTE-OG teams, and external stakeholders to understand scope, requirements, milestones, dependencies, and risks.
• Translate customer and leadership priorities into actionable team tasks, sprint objectives, Jira issues, Confluence documentation, and delivery schedules.
• Assign exercise and project epics and user stories to range engineering pods based on skill set, availability, priority, and operational need.
• Lead agile execution using Atlassian tools, including backlog management, sprint planning, daily task tracking, risk management, status reporting,…