Technical Program Manager

This is an opportunity for an experienced technical leader to drive execution across a defense company's most complex product development and production-support programs. Sitting at the intersection of engineering, business development, production, supply chain, quality, and leadership, this role brings structure and visibility to fast-moving technical efforts without adding unnecessary bureaucracy. The ideal candidate is an engineer who has moved into program leadership and is ready to own schedule, risk, and cross-functional coordination on programs that matter to national defense customers.

Job Responsibilities:

• Lead project kickoff activities in coordination with engineering, business development, production, and leadership
• Translate customer commitments and internal objectives into executable project plans
• Track schedules, milestones, risks, dependencies, deliverables, and action items across active engineering programs
• Coordinate cross-functional communication between engineering, production, supply chain, quality, and business stakeholders
• Identify resource conflicts, schedule risks, long-lead items, technical blockers, and decision points early
• Maintain project dashboards, status reports, risk registers, decision logs, and meeting notes
• Facilitate program reviews and ensure follow-up actions are assigned, tracked, and closed
• Develop lightweight program management practices, project templates, and kickoff processes
• Partner with engineering leadership to prioritize work and protect teams from uncontrolled scope growth
• Support proposal planning, customer updates, and internal leadership briefings

Experience Required:

• Technical degree (Engineering or related discipline) or equivalent hands-on engineering background
• 3+ years managing technical projects, engineering programs, hardware development efforts, or complex cross-functional initiatives
• Experience in defense, aerospace, robotics, electronics, or hardware product development
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate work across engineering and non-engineering teams
• Strong organizational skills managing multiple priorities, schedules, and stakeholders
• Clear communicator across technical and non-technical audiences
• Track record identifying risks, dependencies, and blockers, and driving them to resolution
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment with incomplete information
• Strong ownership mindset, able to build structure where process is still maturing
• Preferred: experience supporting both development and production-transition efforts
• Preferred: familiarity with requirements tracking, design reviews, ECO processes, configuration management, or production readiness reviews
• Preferred:
  Microsoft 365, Teams, Planner, Project, Jira, or Smartsheet
• Preferred: experience in a small or rapidly growing engineering organization
• Preferred: PMP, DAWIA, Agile, or similar certification