Program Manager

Spectra Defense Technologies•Alpharetta, GA

33d•$125,000 - $16,500•Hybrid

About The Position

The Program Manager is responsible for overseeing programs, tracking their status, and leading conflict resolution to ensure said programs remain on plan, are delivered on time, and meet both customers’ expectations as well as the company’s revenue and profitability goals. This includes interfacing with sales and customers to provide updates and seek input as needed, and with engineering, operations, and quality to coordinate design, sourcing, prototyping, production, and shipping activities.

Requirements

10+ years relevant experience in Program Management and/or Operations Management of Aerospace and Defense programs.
Bachelor’s Degree, Engineering Preferred.
PMP Certifications preferred.
This position requires up to 25% travel to customer sites, suppliers, and company facilities (domestic and international).
Excellent customer relations skills.
Demonstrated experience interfacing with customer’s engineering, subcontracts, program management, and executive management organizations.
Understanding of defense-related avionics/electronics technology. Airborne recording, processing, and routing experience a plus.
Understanding of and experience with all phases of mil/defense programs including design and development; Qual testing; SDRL’s; pilot production; rate production; and aftermarket support.
Understanding of DFAR’s and government contracting rules and requirements.
Business development experience with major Aerospace and Defense Prime contractors and with DoD agencies (USAF, USN/USMC, Army, other). Experience on international Aerospace and Defense programs a plus.
Demonstrated experience collaborating closely with internal engineering, finance, manufacturing, and supply chain cross-functional teams.
MS Project understanding and scheduling experience.
Understanding of the application of Earned Value Measurement (EVM) techniques.
Experience assembling and evaluating complex bids and proposals, including non-recurring engineering, qual test, and recurring manufacturing content.
Experience developing and tracking key performance metrics.
Quality First: Plan & execute accurate, complete, timely and reliable work. Integrity never compromised.
Respect for People: Appreciates and leverages diversity in experience, heritage, education, organization level and gender.
Design by Fact: Gathers, analyzes and summarizes data to draw rational, fact-based conclusions.
Blameless: Seeks root-cause solutions and fixes processes rather than finding someone to blame.
Teamwork: Collaborative with customers, suppliers & associates at all levels towards mutual objectives.
Sense of Urgency: High energy, bias for taking action. Spontaneously recognizes and resolves issues.
Customer Focus: Makes customers a primary focus, develops and sustains loyal, productive relationships.
Continuous Improvement: Develops and implements creative solutions to systems and processes.
Deliver Results: Driven to deliver short and long-term results. Maintains focus on what’s most important.
Adapting to Change: Able to effectively adapt to an environment of change, uncertainty, and ambiguity.
Intellect: Understands the conceptual, strategic, tactical and technical aspects of an issue.
Innovative: Generates and implements creative solutions. Challenges current methods and seeks alternatives.
Work Group: Ability to work within a small, high-performance group.
MS/BS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business or equivalent preferred.

Nice To Haves

Engineering degree preferred.
PMP Certifications preferred.
Airborne recording, processing, and routing experience a plus.
Experience on international Aerospace and Defense programs a plus.

Responsibilities

Support business development activities, including drafting RFI, RFP, and RFQ responses, informing sales about new opportunities, and supporting the capture of follow-on business.
Cooperate with Salesperson and Product Manager to ensure smooth transition of programs from closing (PO received) to fulfillment process, including ensuring functional groups have reviewed requirements, reviewing new customer contracts/POs, and creating “Jobs” folders post-award.
Assume responsibility as the main point of contact after a contract is awarded/PO is received.
Support engineering efforts on assigned programs, including review of technical requirements, participation in design reviews, and oversight of system integration activities.
Provide technical input and coordination between engineering and program stakeholders to ensure compliance with aerospace/defense standards and customer requirements.
Plan and manage programs through the fulfillment process, including leading the development and management of the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS), maintaining communication among all functions, and communicating program status to customers and sales.
Assess customer satisfaction and provide internal awareness of customer issues and concerns.
Organize and direct program milestones with the customers (e.g., KOM, SRR, CDR, PDR, SOI).
Coordinate and lead customer visits or meetings at customer sites.
Prepare and deliver reports for customers as needed.
Promptly and thoroughly answer all questions and concerns from the customers regarding their programs.
Lead the response to post-award customer documentation (e.g., test results, certificate of conformity, shipping documents).
Negotiate scope change impacts with customers.
Manage commercial or technical changes in programs in cooperation with all functions affected.
Keep the “Jobs” folders up to date.
Ensure all contract deliverables are met in a timely and comprehensive manner.
Establish priorities for each program for the matrixed team, clearly communicate these priorities, and reconcile any resource or other conflicts.
Oversee schedule attainment by all functions and drive for timely functional hand-offs.
Track the status of programs through the fulfillment process and lead the development of countermeasures when programs fall behind schedule or fail to meet customer expectations.
Identify program risks and lead the mitigation of the same.
Manage and prioritize Engineering requests through the fulfillment process.
Collaborate with Engineering to ensure products meet customer requirements.
Coordinate qualification test activities with Engineering and review results for adequacy.
Work with Product Manager and Supply Chain to address end-of-life components impacting on-going programs.
Enforce comprehensive production readiness reviews (PRR) and coordinate seamless transition from development/prototyping to production.
Lead program review meetings (PRM) monthly to communicate program status to the organization.
Elevate significant issues to upper management.
For each program, calculate estimate to complete (ETC) and estimate at completion (EAC), monitor actual vs. budgeted expenses, track cost and gross margin, and report on all of them.
Own full Profit & Loss (P&L) responsibility for assigned program(s), including forecasting, budget management, cost control, and variance analysis.
Partner with Finance and Operations to ensure program profitability, monitor key performance metrics, and drive corrective actions when necessary.
Support customers through the post-sale process by maintaining regular contact after delivery, leading the resolution of warranty and non-warranty issues, and providing follow-on support.
Respond to subsequent RFQs, redesign efforts, etc.