Senior Program Manager I - Laser Communications

Description

The company builds rockets, spacecraft and critical subsystems that support communications, protection and missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

The Space Systems team has supported more than 1,700 missions, from interplanetary exploration and in-space manufacturing to national security and defense work with NASA, the Space Development Agency and the U.S. Space Force.

The team builds complete spacecraft, precision payloads and subsystems such as solar panels, flight software, star trackers, optical systems, separation systems, radios and laser communication terminals.

Laser communication underpins today's and tomorrow's satellite constellations, and demand is climbing fast. The company is scaling its optical communication terminals to be high performing, affordable and available in the volumes that commercial and government constellation operators need.

In this Senior Program Manager I role you will be the customer's advocate and the delivery lead for the optical terminal programs. You will own the day-to-day relationship, delivery commitments, schedule, reviews, risk and program health. You will extend a proven standard terminal product with the Product team on configuration, pricing and new customer needs. Engineering, production and the business sit close by, and you will connect them across two continents.

Responsibilities

• Take terminal programs from award through qualification, production at rate, delivery and on-orbit checkout, covering current production and next-generation variants.
• Keep each program on plan, meeting its schedule, technical performance and every customer commitment.
• Run several customer programs at once. Work with Chief Engineers on link performance, data rate, SWaP, environmental qualification and optical terminal interoperability, and get hands-on with the hardest delivery problems.
• Own each program's delivery profile. Catch yield, supplier and test capacity risks early and close them out with Operations and the Product team.
• Work with Supply Chain to treat critical suppliers as strategic partners, building the relationships and accountability that keep customer deliveries on time.
• Manage program startup and baselining, milestone and qualification reviews, export and ITAR obligations with Trade Compliance, customer acceptance and closeout across the U.S. and European sites.
• Be the customer's trusted contact through milestone reviews, interoperability campaigns, acceptance and delivery. Work with BD & Strategy on proposals and with Product on pricing and configuration, bringing the customer's view to each decision.
• Mentor colleagues, set a high bar for how the team engages customers, and develop the program leaders who will run future laser communications programs.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics or math.
• Working knowledge of free-space optical or RF communications, including link budgets, pointing, acquisition and tracking, modems and coding, and space or airborne environmental qualification.
• 5+ years on space, aerospace or photonics hardware programs, including multiple full program cycles. The hardest thing you have shipped counts for more than the number of years.
• A track record of leading a complex hardware program to delivery, covering customer, schedule, risk and acceptance, through real pressure.
• Evidence that you have moved real hardware from prototype to qualified, rate-production delivery to customers.
• Experience managing program cost, EAC and customer contract changes with finance and product teams on a program of meaningful scale.
• Proof that you have delivered hardware at rate to a demanding customer and kept their trust through a hard moment, such as a slip, a test failure or a contract change.
• U.S. person status under ITAR/EAR is required. Ability to obtain a security clearance is preferred.
• Nice to have: direct experience with optical inter-satellite links or optical ground or airborne terminals.
• Nice to have: a proven approach to moving low-volume, hand-built optical or electro-optical hardware into high-rate production without losing reliability.
• Nice to have: experience delivering to large commercial or defense constellation programs.
• Nice to have: experience as the primary customer interface for constellation operators or satellite primes, from kickoff through acceptance.
• Nice to have: experience leading program work across geographically dispersed sites, including export-control and dual-use compliance.
• Nice to have: a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Optics/Photonics, Physics or a related field.
• Nice to have: working knowledge of systems engineering (trade studies, interface control, requirement integrity) and of Jira, Confluence and ERP/MRP to keep program health visible.
• Nice to have: practical use of AI tools in program management, from schedule and risk analysis to status reporting and customer communications.

Conditions

Based at the company's global headquarters in Long Beach, CA.

The role may require long periods of sitting, standing, walking and computer work, with occasional exposure to moderate noise, dust and fumes in production areas.

Base pay range (CA only): $125,300 to $187,850 USD.

Level and base salary are set case by case, based on job-related knowledge and skills, education and experience.

US offices: to meet US government space technology export rules, including ITAR, employees must be a US citizen, a lawful permanent resident, a refugee or asylee admitted to the US, or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the US Department of State and/or Department of Commerce.

New Zealand offices: background checks, including nationality checks, are completed before any offer. The role requires eligibility to access ITAR-regulated equipment and data. You may be ineligible if you do not hold citizenship of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the European Union or a NATO member country, or if you hold ineligible dual citizenship or nationality.

Benefits

• Competitive base pay, plus company stock as part of total compensation, giving you a direct stake in the company's results.
• Stock value may grow as the company expands to new launch sites, missions and global markets.
• A stock purchase plan for employees with a 15% discount on company stock.
• Medical plans: HMO, PPO, and a zero-cost HDHP with a significant HSA company contribution.
• Dental and vision coverage, disability and life insurance, and flexible spending and dependent care accounts.
• Paid vacation, paid sick time, 11 paid holidays and paid parental leave.
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match.
• Subsidized EV charging, onsite fitness centers where available, discounted gym memberships, complimentary snacks and beverages, 50% off the merch store, and other employee discounts.