Director, Program Management

RED CAT HOLDINGS•San Diego, CA

1d•$176,000 - $205,000•Onsite

About The Position

Apium Swarm Robotics (ASR) is revolutionizing swarm autonomy software for air, surface, undersea, and ground vehicles operating across dual-use commercial and defense environments. Our systems are deployed on real platforms, tested in the field, and delivered to customers operating in complex, uncertain, and safety-critical conditions. We do not build research prototypes or slideware. Our software is integrated into real vehicles, tested in the field, and delivered to customers who depend on operational reliability, speed of execution, and mission relevance. We prioritize performance over hype. ASR systems represent the next phase in autonomy: collaborative swarming. These are not like pre-programmed drones for light shows. We are creating real-time cooperative management that lets one operator control dozens to hundreds of vehicles in real-time with the ease of controlling a single vehicle. As such, this role requires comfort with responsibility, ambiguity, and operational accountability. ASR seeks a Director of Program Management for Air Systems to own the execution, requirements, and test strategy behind Apium’s family of unmanned air systems. This is a senior, cross-functional leadership role that sits at the intersection of product management, test and evaluation, and program and event execution — accountable for making sure ASR’s air systems are well-specified, exhaustively tested, and delivered through events and demonstrations that meet both mission and margin objectives. On the product side, you will own the product requirements documentation for all of ASR’s air systems — working with ASR leadership to ensure requirements reflect company vision and customer expectations, and are detailed enough to be actioned directly by the engineering team. On the test side, you will develop and own the test strategy for current and future air systems across software and hardware, spanning software-in-the-loop (SITL), hardware-in-the-loop (HITL), and real-world flight testing, partnering with DevSecOps, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Manufacturing to ensure coverage across all modalities. On the program side, you will own execution of both paid events and strategic demonstrations, tracking cost and revenue at the event level to ensure gross profit margin targets are met. You will also serve as ASR’s coordination point with Red Cat’s global product management organization, documenting and tracking Apium’s dependencies on other Red Cat air platforms and tying them together in Jira so that cross-program commitments are visible and managed. This position is an individual contributor at the director level today, with an explicit pathway to build a program management team as ASR scales. The right candidate is comfortable operating strategically — owning requirements, test strategy, and margin accountability at a functional level — while personally executing the work and building the processes the next several hires will inherit. Travel may be required for events, demonstrations, and flight testing.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in program management, product management, systems engineering, or test and evaluation, including demonstrated ownership of a function or major program
Demonstrated experience owning product requirements for a hardware or hardware-plus-software product, from vision through engineering-actionable specification
Demonstrated experience developing and executing test plans across simulation and real-world environments, ideally including SITL, HITL, and live flight or field testing
Experience owning program or event execution with direct accountability for cost, revenue, or margin outcomes
Strong cross-functional leadership skills, with a track record coordinating software, electrical, mechanical, and manufacturing teams toward a shared delivery
Rigorous approach to change management and documentation, balanced with the pragmatism to move quickly on high-priority business needs
Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to brief executive leadership and translate between technical teams and business stakeholders
Working technical fluency with unmanned air systems, autonomy, or comparable complex engineered systems — sufficient to earn the trust of engineering teams
Comfort working independently with limited oversight
Ability to remain calm and effective under operational pressure

Nice To Haves

Prior experience at a defense technology startup or scale-up, particularly during commercial-to-defense transition
Prior US military service, particularly in aviation, test and evaluation, operational planning, or program management roles
Direct experience with UAS, counter-UAS, or autonomous air platform programs
Formal test and evaluation (T&E) background, including test plan development, verification and validation, and requirements traceability
Experience managing programs within a multi-subsidiary or matrixed corporate structure with cross-organization dependencies
Familiarity with SITL/HITL frameworks, autopilot ecosystems (PX4, ArduPilot, MAVLink), or comparable systems
Experience with product requirements and program tooling such as Jira, Confluence, DOORS, or comparable systems
PMP, SAFe, or comparable program-management certification
Experience building or scaling a program management or product management function from the ground up
Familiarity with ITAR/EAR and defense acquisition or contracting environments
Experience owning P&L or event-level margin accountability for demonstrations, trials, or customer programs
Advanced degree in engineering, business, or a related field
U.S. security clearance or ability to obtain one

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end execution of paid events and strategic demonstrations, establishing integrated plans spanning scope, schedule, milestones, dependencies, and budget, with direct accountability for event-level cost, revenue, and gross-margin performance
Own test strategy and execution across the full development lifecycle for current and future air systems, including system-level verification and validation, test phasing, and prioritization across SITL, HITL, ground, and flight-test environments
Coordinate cross-functional test execution across DevSecOps, Electrical, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Engineering to ensure comprehensive coverage of every hardware and software modality, managing test readiness and risk at each gate
Develop, own, and publish product requirements documents and roadmaps for ASR’s air systems, serving as the voice of the customer and translating operational needs and leadership vision into a prioritized product direction
Decompose ambiguous, complex requirements into concrete, engineering-actionable specifications, partnering hands-on with engineering to scope features and drive execution through the full product lifecycle
Serve as ASR’s coordination point with Red Cat’s global product management organization, documenting and actively managing cross-platform dependencies and interlocking commitments in Jira
Establish disciplined, auditable change-management and requirements-traceability processes that remain responsive to short-horizon, high-priority business needs
Capture and distill feedback from customers and partners to identify new business development and product-offering opportunities, feeding them into ASR’s product roadmap and growth strategy
Establish and lead a consistent cadence of program reviews, surfacing critical-path risks, bottlenecks, and mitigation options to executive leadership
Build and mature the program-management processes, tooling, and documentation standards that will scale as ASR’s air-systems portfolio grows