the client is seeking a senior Technical Program Manager to lead complex aerospace and defense product initiatives in a fast-moving, highly collaborative environment. This hands-on role provides meaningful ownership and close partnership with engineering and operations, with the opportunity to guide advanced electronics programs from early planning through production readiness and transition. The position emphasizes shaping schedules, managing risk, aligning cross-functional teams, and serving as a key technical point of contact for technically demanding customer programs.
Responsibilities include leading aerospace and defense programs from proposal support and kickoff through qualification, manufacturing readiness, and production transition. You will coordinate cross-functional teams across engineering, operations, supply chain, quality, and other stakeholders to achieve technical, cost, and schedule objectives; build and maintain program plans, timelines, and action trackers; and manage multiple development efforts simultaneously, including new product introduction and non-recurring engineering activities. The role also involves monitoring financial performance and tracking costs against plan, identifying and mitigating schedule, technical, and cost risks, driving change management to keep scope and requirements aligned, supporting manufacturability and production planning, and communicating program status, metrics, milestones, and issues to customers and internal leadership.
Required qualifications include 7 to 10 or more years of program management or closely related project leadership experience, with background in aerospace, defense, electronics, RF, microwave, radar, communications, or another advanced technical manufacturing environment. You should be able to lead cross-functional teams in engineering-driven product development, and have working knowledge of development lifecycles, program scheduling, budgeting, and risk management. Strong customer-facing communication skills and the ability to influence without direct authority are essential, along with comfort in a smaller, fast-paced organization where broad ownership is expected; U.S. citizenship is required for site access and the work environment. A bachelor’s degree in engineering, business, or a related discipline is preferred, along with experience with NPI or NRE execution, regulated or high-reliability manufacturing exposure, familiarity with earned value concepts or formal program management tools, and prior success in customer-facing aerospace or defense programs.