Program Manager, Software Development

Vantor•Herndon, VA

35d•$134,000 - $195,800•Remote

About The Position

Vantor is seeking a Senior Program Manager to lead the Kestrel and FALCON efforts. This role can be performed remotely within the continental United States. As a Senior Program Manager, you will own overall program execution across customer engagement, financial performance, personnel management, deliverables, schedule, risk, and technical delivery. Your work will have a direct impact on supporting mission partners through software, data science, analytics, and mission-focused capability development. In this role, you will serve as the primary program leader for a cross-functional team of approximately 12-16 team members, including software engineers, data scientists, systems engineers, and mission-focused technical staff. You will work closely with customer stakeholders, internal leadership, contracts, finance, recruiting, and delivery teams to ensure Kestrel and FALCON are executed with transparency, accountability, and strong mission alignment.

Requirements

Must be a US citizen.
Current DHS/CBP suitability
Bachelor's degree in business, engineering, computer science, information systems, data science, program management, or a related field. Four additional years of relevant experience may be substituted for a bachelor's degree. A master's degree may count as an additional 2 years of experience.
6+ years of demonstrated professional experience in program management, technical project management, software delivery management, systems engineering management, data science support, or related technical leadership roles.
Demonstrated experience managing software, data science, analytics, systems engineering, or mission technology programs or teams.
Experience leading multidisciplinary technical teams, including direct or matrixed leadership of engineers, data scientists, analysts, or technical support personnel.
Experience managing customer-facing program execution, including status reporting, planning, deliverable coordination, risk management, issue resolution, and stakeholder engagement.
Experience supporting contract, cost, schedule, staffing, and deliverable performance in a government contracting environment.
Working knowledge of agile software development practices and tools, such as Jira, Confluence, and Git-based workflows.
Technically fluent and comfortable engaging with engineering and data science teams on software delivery, data pipelines, analytics, APIs, cloud-like environments, integration challenges, and operational support considerations.
Must be willing to work in a remote setting or nearby Vantor facility and comfortable communicating via video calls.
Must be a U.S. Citizen.
This position requires an active U.S. Government security clearance, applicants who do not currently hold the required clearance will not be eligible for consideration.
Export Control/ITAR: Certain roles may be subject to U.S. export control laws, requiring U.S. person status as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).
This position requires current DHS/CBP Suitability.

Nice To Haves

Experience serving as the Program Manager or Deputy Program Manager for a CPFF, T&M, or mixed contract environment.
Experience managing program execution, including cost performance, staffing plans, burn rates, EAC inputs, funding awareness, and coordination with finance and contracts stakeholders.
Experience supporting Department of Homeland Security, specifically CBP and DHS S&T
Hands-on background in software engineering, systems engineering, data engineering, data science, analytics, or technical delivery prior to moving into program or technical management.
Experience managing teams that build, deploy, and sustain software applications, analytical capabilities, data pipelines, or mission support tools in a cloud environment.
Exposure to cloud or cloud-like environments, containerized deployments, CI/CD workflows, streaming data architectures, APIs, databases, and modern software delivery practices.
Experience leading roadmap, backlog, sprint, release, and prioritization activities in partnership with technical leads and customer stakeholders.
Strong ability to translate between customer mission needs, technical implementation details, contractual requirements, and business execution priorities.
Ability to identify program risks early, communicate tradeoffs clearly, and drive timely resolution across internal and external stakeholders.
Demonstrated ability to build trust with customers while maintaining accountability for scope, cost, schedule, quality, and team performance.
You are a creative problem-solver who wants to apply breakthrough technologies for the good of humanity and to keep our country safe.
Strong verbal, written, documentation, briefing, facilitation, and organizational skills.

Responsibilities

Owning end-to-end execution of the Falcon program, including customer engagement, CPFF contract execution, financial performance, staffing, personnel management, technical delivery, deliverables, schedule, risk, and issue management.
Leading a multidisciplinary team supporting software engineering, data science, analytics, and mission-focused capability development, while maintaining close alignment with customer priorities and internal business objectives.
Being heavily involved in customer-facing engagements, including regular status meetings, technical discussions, program reviews, deliverable reviews, planning sessions, and executive-level updates.
Translating between mission needs, technical implementation, contractual requirements, and business execution to ensure the team delivers meaningful outcomes while maintaining a strong customer partnership.
Serving as the primary Program Manager responsible for overall Kestrel and FALCON execution, performance, delivery, and customer satisfaction.
Leading, coordinating, and supporting a team of approximately 12-16 personnel across software engineering, data science, systems engineering, and technical support functions.
Owning program financial management, including CPFF execution, cost tracking, burn rates, staffing plans, forecasts, EAC inputs, invoice support, and coordination with finance and contracts teams.
Managing program deliverables, milestones, schedules, risks, dependencies, and action items with clear ownership and follow-through.
Leading customer-facing communications, including status updates, program reviews, technical discussions, planning meetings, and issue resolution.
Partnering with technical leads to ensure software, data science, and analytics efforts are scoped, staffed, prioritized, and delivered in alignment with mission needs.
Supporting agile planning and execution across sprint, release, roadmap, and backlog management activities.
Translating customer priorities into actionable program plans, technical workstreams, and measurable delivery outcomes.
Providing hands-on technical management and informed decision-making across software development, data pipelines, analytics, system integration, and operational support activities.
Supporting recruiting, onboarding, performance feedback, team development, and personnel issue resolution.
Maintaining strong internal coordination with leadership, capture, contracts, finance, security, and talent acquisition stakeholders.
Identifying growth opportunities, shaping future work, and helping position Falcon for continued mission impact and customer partnership.