Engineering Program Manager

Description

Founded in 2023, the company builds autonomous defense platforms, with scalable, decentralized systems meant to support the United States and its allies.

The company has about 350 employees and works at a startup pace.

Responsibilities

• Run the day-to-day program mechanics for a vehicle program, including schedule tracking, the risk and issue register, the review rhythm and cross-team coordination, so the Chief Engineer can focus on technical authority.
• Act as the Chief Engineer's execution partner, raising schedule and resourcing risk early and keeping leadership commitments tied to what the schedule and risk register show.
• Set up and manage how the program tracks and reports schedule, risk, dependencies, key metrics and KPIs.
• Own the timeline for SRR, CODR, PDR and CDR. The Chief Engineer and Responsible Engineers keep content ownership of each review, while you track and report against the timeline.
• Track overall program cost and budget with Finance.
• Flag schedule and resourcing risk to the Chief Engineer and relevant Department Heads as soon as the tracking data shows it, not at the next scheduled review.
• Coordinate Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Finance and Staffing on a given vehicle program.
• Prepare accurate, consolidated program status updates for company leadership, the Growth team and customers.
• Work with the Capability Development Manager (CDM) to keep customer commitments and internal schedule tracking aligned.
• Send scope changes and extra resourcing requests to the relevant Department Head for review before they enter the schedule.
• Together with the Chief Engineer and Department Head, escalate schedule or resourcing risks they cannot resolve, supplying the supporting data.

Requirements

• You have worked in a program or project management role on hardware, engineering or technical products, ideally with several parallel workstreams and cross-functional dependencies.
• You have built and maintained schedule, risk and dependency tracking that technical leads trust and use.
• You raise bad news early, flagging slips or risks as soon as they appear.
• You coordinate well across engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and finance.
• You communicate clearly in writing and speech, turning detailed tracking data into short status summaries for leadership.
• Preferred: You have worked in aerospace, defense or another regulated hardware industry with formal design-review gates (SRR, CODR, PDR, CDR or equivalents).
• Preferred: You have acted as execution partner to a technical architecture owner, such as a Chief Engineer, without owning the technical decisions yourself.
• Preferred: You have coordinated with a customer-facing counterpart, such as a CDM, TAM or customer program manager, to align external and internal timelines.
• Preferred: You know formal risk and issue register tools and structured scheduling methods such as critical path and earned value.
• Preferred: You have resolved a scope or resourcing conflict jointly with technical and department leaders rather than alone.
• You can work extended hours and weekends as needed.
• You must be a U.S. citizen or national, a U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), a refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or an asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Conditions

Base salary range: $160,000 to $220,000 USD.

The range is an estimate covering base salary only. Actual offers may vary based on experience, education and training, critical skills and business needs.

Most offers include highly competitive equity grants, which count as part of total compensation.

The role may require access to export-controlled information under the EAR and ITAR, and any offer may depend on authorization to receive that technology without sponsorship for an export license.

Benefits

• Bonuses tied to both individual and company performance.
• Stock options or equity.
• Healthcare, dental and vision plans, retirement savings and paid time off.
• Funding for continuing education, training and career growth.
• Openness about compensation tiers and how pay decisions are made.