Sr. Program Manager (Remote- D.C, Maryland, Virginia)

Fairwinds Technologies, L•Washington, DC

13d•Hybrid

About The Position

Senior Program Manager —Unmanned Platform Airspace Operations Location: DMV Region Only (remote w/ on‑site presence as required in Maryland and D.C) Clearance: Active Top Secret Mission Objective: Lead the end‑to‑end delivery of a multi‑agency program with a cross-functional industry team to achieve sovereignty over low‑altitude critical government airspace. Stand up the governance, technology, operations, and continuous‑improvement mechanisms to achieve Initial Operational Capability (IOC) and Full Operational Capability (FOC) within 24 months.

Requirements

15+ years leading complex, multi‑agency or enterprise programs with mission‑critical operations and aggressive timelines; proven delivery of IOC/FOC milestones.
Demonstrated experience with large scale, rapid acquisition and performance‑based management under direct award contracts (prototype and follow‑on production structures).
Knowledge and understanding of 24/7 operations centers (or analogous command/control) and interoperability across multiple vendor solutions.
Proven background in managing program risk (e.g. Jurisdictional, privacy, cybersecurity, funding and schedule)
Mastery of risk, privacy, and cybersecurity governance, including RMF/ATO artifacts and role‑based access/audit logging.
Must hold an ACTIVE Top Secret Clearance

Nice To Haves

Strong familiarity with UAS/C‑UAS operational concepts, sensor fusion, UTM/LAANC/Remote ID, and incident response workflows.
Experience standing up joint SOPs/MOUs across Federal or State partners and running multi‑agency exercises.
Familiarity with open, modular architectures, government data‑rights strategies, and supplier plug‑and‑play ecosystems.
Certifications: PMP or PgMP
Experience working with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Responsibilities

Stand up and chair (as delegated) the program cadence across the Task Force PMO, Executive Steering Committee, and agency working groups. Establish charters, decision trees, roles & responsibilities matrices, and escalation paths.
Lead a diverse industry team of technical subject matter experts and business professionals in operationalizing and managing the platform ecosystem.
Translate Government security policy intent into program plans, schedules, budgets, and risk registers with clear exit criteria for IOC/FOC and operational maintenance phases.
Drive interagency and interindustry alignment ensuring SOPs for detection, identification, tracking, authorization, and mitigation are developed with clear objectives and metrics for measuring compliance.
In the capacity of Prime Contractor, responsible for all aspects of execution of the effort. Serve as the single accountable lead; ensure open, modular system architecture for all systems and effects.
Enforce configuration management, interoperability testing before go‑live, and shared case management for incidents.
Oversee design of the system architecture including all hardware and software aspects (i.e. sensor fusion, flight authorization/interfaces, Platform ID ingestion, mitigation frameworks) and all Joint Operational Center (JOC) site builds.
Manage cost, schedule and performance across tasks. Ensure financial accountability to the customer by providing accurate and detailed financial statements, invoicing and overall cost forecasting.
Stand up a 24/7 JOC and the unified communications/situational‑awareness platform to support it.
Lead operational readiness: operator training/certification, experimentation & exercises, and integrated incident response teams with law‑enforcement partners.
Oversee the development of a system operational Risk Management Framework (RMF). Ensure systems adhere to Role‑/attribute‑based access, minimum‑necessary data collection, retention limits, and independent oversight as required.
Oversee Authorization To Operate (ATO) policies and procedures. As part of the process, establish interim plans for testing, and ensure cyber security documentation (System Security Plans, POA&Ms), culminating in a full system authorization. Maintain cyber security controls and continuous monitoring IAW USG Cyber policies and bulletins.
Proactively manage contractual, funding, technology, and cyber risks, with clear mitigations and decision milestones for Government review as needed.
Track program Key Performance Indicators (KPI)s such as detection‑to‑mitigation time, incident reduction vs. baseline, accuracy, coverage/reliability, interagency execution, etc...