Program Manager

Hadrian Automation • Los Angeles, CA

18d

About The Position

Hadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America. By combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing, we help aerospace and defense companies build rockets, satellites, aircraft, ships, and other mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at significantly lower cost. Following our $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation, Hadrian is rapidly expanding our manufacturing footprint, launching new capabilities across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more, while scaling our Factory-as-a-Service platform to transform how critical products are built. Backed by leading investors including JPMorgan Chase, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Lux Capital, T. Rowe Price, and Morgan Stanley, we’re building the future of American manufacturing—and looking for exceptional people to help make it happen. If you’re ready to take on the most challenging and rewarding work of your career while helping create American manufacturing jobs for generations to come, you’re exactly who we’re looking for.

The Role: Hadrian builds autonomous, scalable manufacturing to strengthen the national security supply chain. As Program Manager, customer deployments, you’ll scope, execute, and ultimately own the high-impact customer programs and factory stand-ups necessary to enable Hadrian’s mission to reindustrialize defense and aerospace.
You’ll turn ambiguous customer problem sets into structured analyses, program strategies, and business cases that drive go/no-go decisions and execution. Applying first-principles thinking, you’ll produce the executive-ready deliverables that move programs forward: customer proposals, pricing analyses, execution plans, and schedules. You’ll also run and execute these programs with direct P&L responsibility.
You’ll work directly with the CEO and senior leaders, connecting shop-floor reality, executive priorities, and government opportunities to define and launch new programs across the U.S. defense industrial base. We’re looking for someone who can own outcomes and can seamlessly move from a conversation with a C—suite customer to making sure your colleagues complete their badge paperwork.

Requirements

• 6+ years in management consulting, federal programs, manufacturing, or operations/strategy roles, ideally within aerospace, defense, or industrial environments. You’ve owned programs or workstreams, not just supported them.
• Bachelor’s in Business, Economics, Operations, Engineering, or a related field.
• Willingness to travel 20–40% domestically to customer and manufacturing sites.
• Direct work in aerospace and defense manufacturing — with Primes, OEMs, Tier 1/2 suppliers, or large industrial programs.
• Strong written and verbal skills. You build executive-grade PowerPoint independently and present to senior internal and external stakeholders on your own.
• You thrive in fast-paced, evolving environments — proactive, organized, and able to bring structure to complex problems without being told how.
• U.S. person status required.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance is a plus.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree is a plus.
• Cross-functional experience across Operations, Finance, Engineering, Program Management, or Business teams is a plus.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Define new programs and their early execution phases alongside the CEO and senior leaders
• Run customer discovery, working meetings, and site visits to gather unstructured data and shape programs
• Surface cost, schedule, and delivery risks early, and drive the mitigation and execution plans
• Own factory and production-line stand-ups end to end — capital plan, long-lead equipment, site readiness, workforce ramp, and the reviews that clear a line to start producing
• Drive high-impact initiatives that accelerate Hadrian’s growth across aerospace and defense
• Build quantitative models that turn operational and customer problems into roadmaps, investment cases, and ROI frameworks
• Connect manufacturing performance data to business priorities and government program needs
• Bring structure and decisions to ambiguous, high-stakes manufacturing and execution challenges
• Support proposal development and capture management, including for follow-on business (e.g., RFP submissions, Statement of Work development)
• Own program financials: budget, cost-to-complete, and margin, with a clear forecast of where each program lands
• Work with contracts, quality, and legal to keep programs inside their contractual and regulatory obligations, and flag early where contract terms, export rules, or security requirements drive cost and schedule
• Drive execution across engineering, operations, supply chain, and software
• Own cross-functional workstreams end to end — scope, schedule, risk, and stakeholder alignment
• Stand up and scale PMO systems (e.g., Work Breakdown Structures, Integrated Master Schedules, Earned Value Management)
• Run the operating rhythm: recurring reviews, milestone and dependency tracking, and program dashboards
• Carry programs from qualification and first-article approval through full rate production and handoff to steady-state operations
• Build and deliver executive presentations, business cases, customer proposals, and internal program materials
• Synthesize technical, operational, and strategic inputs into clear narratives
• Lead program reviews, status updates, and risk reporting
• Act as the primary point of contact for customer program offices, including on site at customer facilities, and position Hadrian for follow-on work

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans for employees
• 401k
• Relocation support may be provided for certain situations, based on business need.
• Flexible vacation policy
• Equity

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior