Deputy Program Manager, Shipbuilding

Saronic Technologies•Austin, TX

21h

About The Position

Saronic Technologies is seeking a Deputy Program Manager to own execution and delivery of major shipbuilding programs. The role is accountable for cost, schedule, scope, quality, and customer outcomes from contract award through delivery and sustainment. Shipbuilding takes place at the company’s shipyard in Franklin, Louisiana, and Port Alpha in Brownsville, Texas. The Deputy Program Manager supports large-scale production of ships built at production scale for a wide and evolving range of missions. The role requires expertise in large-scale shipbuilding and rate production, along with the ability to manage modular kits, payloads, and mission-package integration on common hulls. The position balances production throughput with mission flexibility and serves as a customer-facing stakeholder, partnering with growth, engineering, production, and quality teams to manage government stakeholders and contracts and support technical decisions aligned with customer needs and contractual requirements. The role also coordinates a cross-functional program team across Production, Engineering, Software, Mission Services, and Forward Deployed Engineering. It requires disciplined program planning, configuration management, customer engagement, and oversight of production, mission-package integration, and contractual delivery.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Naval Architecture, or a related technical field.
4–6+ years of experience in program management of large-scale production, shipbuilding, or complex defense development programs.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to interface confidently with technical and non-technical audiences.
Demonstrated ownership of cost, schedule, and scope on programs of significant size and complexity.
Ability to own a large, complex program end-to-end while balancing production throughput against mission flexibility.
Ability to connect production and configuration decisions to program cost, schedule, and mission outcomes.
Ability to translate evolving customer requirements into disciplined, executable program plans.
Leadership of high-performing, cross-functional, and distributed teams.
Established track record of clear, consistent, and correct communication with peers, leaders, and external stakeholders.
Comfort guiding customers through ambiguous or evolving requirements and shaping actionable solutions.
If the role is based in the United States, eligibility for U.S. Person status as defined by U.S. law is required because the role requires access to export-controlled information or items.

Nice To Haves

Program management experience with Unmanned Surface Vessels.
Experience managing production at rate, including supply chain, build sequencing, and delivery of large or complex hardware systems.
Experience managing government or defense customers, contracts, and deliverables.

Responsibilities

Support daily execution of commercial and/or government shipbuilding programs, with responsibility for cost, schedule, scope, and quality from award through delivery and sustainment.
Steward the customer contract, deliverables, milestones, CDRLs, and contractual obligations.
Execute the integrated program plan, aligning production schedules, engineering milestones, and integration timelines with customer commitments.
Manage program risks and opportunities, escalating and resolving issues that threaten cost, schedule, or performance.
Report and brief program health, forecasts, and decisions to Saronic leadership and customer stakeholders.
Partner with production teams in Franklin and/or Port Alpha to plan and execute rate production of large ships, from long-lead procurement through hull construction, outfitting, and delivery.
Monitor build sequencing, work breakdown, and production milestones to protect throughput while meeting quality and acceptance criteria.
Monitor and mitigate production risks involving supply chain, labor, tooling, and facility constraints.
Coordinate with Quality and Production to ensure build configurations and acceptance events meet customer and contractual standards.
Execute the ship-class configuration strategy across mission packages, kits, and payloads on a common production hull.
Work with Mission Package Integration Managers to plan integration of bespoke and commercial-off-the-shelf kits into production and delivery.
Balance production standardization with mission-driven variation while protecting throughput and enabling flexibility.
Ensure integration timelines, dependencies, and configuration baselines are reflected in the master program plan.
Capture mission-package lessons learned and feed them into production and product roadmaps.
Serve as a customer point of contact, managing expectations, requirements, and relationships throughout the program lifecycle.
Elicit and clarify evolving mission needs and translate them into actionable program and technical direction.
Lead program reviews, delivery events, and technical exchanges with government stakeholders, operators, and evaluators.
Provide clear program updates and after-action reporting to leadership and customer audiences.
Support and synchronize a cross-functional program team spanning Production, Engineering, Software, Mission Services, and Forward Deployed Engineering.
Align technical execution with programmatic commitments in partnership with cross-functional and technical partners.
Synthesize tradeoff decisions across capability, schedule, cost, and risk.
Maintain disciplined configuration management across vessels, kits, payloads, and software versions.

Benefits

Saronic pays 100% of employee medical insurance premiums and 80% of dependent premiums.
Dental and vision insurance, with Saronic paying 100% of the basic plan premium for employees and 80% for dependents.
Generous paid time off and holidays.
Paid maternity and paternity leave.
Competitive salaries with opportunities for performance-based bonuses.
401(k) plan with company match.
Stock options.
Basic life insurance and short- and long-term disability coverage.
Discounted pet insurance options, including a 24/7 telehealth helpline.
Free lunch benefit and unlimited free drinks and snacks in the office.