Senior Program Manager, Payload and Space Systems

BlackSky • Seattle, WA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

BlackSky is a real-time intelligence company that owns and operates a space-based intelligence platform, providing satellite imagery, automated analytics, and high-frequency monitoring. This role supports payload development and performance verification, managing vendors, communicating trades to stakeholders, and optimizing for BlackSky's business needs. The position requires managing hardware and test assets, supporting and documenting testing, tracking program schedules, risks, and system performance, and distilling data for team consumption. The ideal candidate is an independent contributor who can forge solutions and risk mitigations within critical constraints, identifying areas for process and technical improvement.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in an engineering discipline or equivalent experience
• Eight years of direct Project Management Experience or related experience
• Experience working complex systems with hardware and integrated software dependencies
• Experience working with vendors and highly integrated MS project schedule reporting
• Experience working with integrated product teams
• Highly skilled at managing schedules with critical dependencies and requirements or system engineering
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 10% to support supplier activities and testing

Nice To Haves

• Experience with aerospace systems
• Possess strong team leadership and inter-team cooperation and organization skills
• Experience presenting information to external customers a plus
• Hardware and test lab experience a plus

Responsibilities

• Support vendor management, trade study development, risk and program tracking for key subsystem development of the satellite prioritizing payload and satellite cross link systems.
• Develop and maintain relationships with suppliers for emerging technologies.
• Interface with the engineering teams to evaluate compliance to the specification and opportunities to improve the subsystem to business benefit.
• Track action items and schedules across engineering teams including maintaining accurate logs of vendor discussions and decision points.
• Drive technical communications with vendors and internal teams shaping the development framework to support integrated product solutions.
• Shepard the engineering team through key milestone reviews including but not limited to Preliminary Design, Critical Design and Test Readiness.
• Support the entire development lifecycle for optimization and identify design and decision gates along with the developing the associated criteria.
• Track action items and schedules across engineering teams, including maintaining accurate logs of design release status.
• Coordinate with the procurement team to hand off new developments ready for stable production delivery cadences.
• Shepard the engineering team through key milestone reviews including, but not limited to, Preliminary Design, Critical Design, Test Readiness, and early production deliveries, as well as launch readiness review.
• Manage reports and support development of standard documentation with respect to payload system qualification and flight testing to support our internal business targets.
• Interface with the full system level schedule and identify key milestones to manage risk.
• Facilitate and become an expert in satellite system testing including developing training material for other team members and longer term hand off to production.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, disability, group term life and AD&D, voluntary life and AD&D insurance
• BlackSky pays 100% of employee-only premiums for medical, dental and vision and contributes $100/month for out-of-pocket expenses!
• 15 days of PTO, 11 Company holidays, four Floating Holidays (pro-rated based on hire date), one day of paid volunteerism leave per year, parental leave and more
• 401(k) pre-tax and Roth deferral options with employer match
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Employee Stock Purchase Program
• Employee Assistance and Travel Assistance Programs
• Employer matching donations
• Professional development
• Awesome swag

What This Job Offers

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