Sr. Technical A&D Program Manager

Fathom Mfg • Hartland, WI

3d

About The Position

Fathom is seeking a Senior Technical Program Manager to serve as the technical expert for complex Aerospace & Defense opportunities. The position focuses primarily on pre-sale technical activities, including technical discovery, manufacturing-solution development, requirements flow-down, value-based selling, and bid/no-bid decisions. The role collaborates with customers and Fathom’s Engineering, Sales, Operations, Quality, and Supply Chain teams to develop technically sound, commercially competitive solutions and ensure customer requirements, technical risks, and proposed commitments align with Fathom’s capabilities and execution plans.

After a program is awarded, the role provides a structured technical handoff to the execution team and targeted technical support for complex quality issues, nonconformances, and RMAs. It emphasizes technical leadership and decision-making rather than day-to-day program administration or order management. Periodic travel to customer locations, Fathom facilities, and approved supplier locations is required.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, manufacturing engineering, or a related technical discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• At least 10 years of progressive experience in Aerospace & Defense manufacturing, applications engineering, manufacturing engineering, or technical program management, including significant pre-sale technical qualification and solution-development responsibility.
• Experience supporting complex, recurring manufacturing programs with multiple part families, interdependent technical requirements, and production qualification expectations—not solely individual orders or transactional quoting.
• Strong technical knowledge of precision CNC machining, multi-axis manufacturing, complex assemblies, aerospace materials, tooling, finishing, and inspection processes.
• Ability to interpret engineering drawings, GD&T, specifications, quality clauses, and customer flow-down requirements and translate them into executable manufacturing requirements.
• Experience in regulated A&D manufacturing environments and working knowledge of AS9100, ITAR-controlled work, configuration management, traceability, and first-article inspection expectations.
• Ability to assess technical feasibility, challenge assumptions, identify manufacturing and supply-chain risks, and make well-supported bid/no-bid decisions.
• Customer-facing and commercial skills, including presenting differentiated technical solutions, explaining cost drivers, justifying nonrecurring engineering investments, and supporting value-based selling.
• Experience investigating manufacturing quality issues and RMAs using structured root-cause analysis and corrective-action methods.
• Excellent communication, analytical, and cross-functional leadership skills, with the ability to influence customer and internal decisions without direct reporting authority.
• Periodic travel to customer locations, Fathom manufacturing facilities, and approved supplier locations is required.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting aerospace OEMs, defense prime contractors, or major tier suppliers through technical capture, qualification, and production launch.
• Experience developing manufacturing solutions across multiple facilities and external supplier networks.
• Familiarity with Nadcap-accredited special processes and additional manufacturing technologies, including additive manufacturing, sheet metal fabrication, and molding.
• Experience developing technical business cases for tooling, automation, capital investment, or alternative manufacturing approaches.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead for complex A&D program opportunities involving multiple part families, qualification requirements, phased production releases, and recurring manufacturing demand.
• Lead technical discovery with customer engineering, procurement, quality, and program management stakeholders to understand applications, performance requirements, production expectations, qualification milestones, and supplier-selection criteria.
• Collaborate with customers and Fathom engineering to develop and value-sell manufacturing solutions, communicating potential improvements to manufacturability, total cost, quality, lead times, and program risk.
• Determine whether to bid or pass on opportunities by evaluating capability fit, technical feasibility, requirements compliance, qualification burden, capacity constraints, supply-chain dependencies, and commercial viability; document rationale, risks, and conditions for proceeding.
• Review and interpret customer drawings, models, specifications, GD&T, material and special-processing requirements, inspection criteria, and quality clauses; resolve ambiguities with customers before they become quote or production commitments.
• Establish and maintain documented requirements flow-down, ensuring requirements are captured, reviewed by functional owners, and incorporated into manufacturing plans, supplier requirements, inspection plans, and quotation assumptions.
• Partner with Applications Engineering, site engineering, Operations, and approved manufacturing partners to define process selection, routing, tooling, fixturing, outside processing, inspection, and production scalability; identify capability gaps and validation needs.
• Lead design-for-manufacturability and design-for-assembly discussions, develop alternatives, explain technical, cost, quality, and schedule trade-offs, and obtain customer approval when changes are needed.
• Work with Sales, estimating, Finance, and engineering to develop technical proposal inputs, including production assumptions, nonrecurring engineering, tooling, capital requirements, qualification activities, and lead times.
• Support customer presentations and technical negotiations while protecting feasibility and margin.
• Coordinate with Quality and Compliance to validate quality-system, export-control, customer-specific, and approved-source requirements, and ensure manufacturing locations, supplier participation, and technical-information sharing follow approval processes.
• Lead pre-award technical reviews and provide a complete technical handoff after award, transferring the approved requirements baseline, manufacturing concept, customer decisions, quote assumptions, technical risks, and qualification requirements to the Program Manager and execution team.
• Provide senior technical support after award for quality issues, nonconformances, and RMAs; work with customers, internal teams, and suppliers to assess evidence, determine root cause, and develop corrective actions.
• Support technical evaluation of rework, repair, replacement, process changes, and requalification, with dispositions and approvals handled through established Quality and customer processes.
• Incorporate lessons learned into future technical reviews, manufacturing approaches, and bid decisions.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Company-paid life insurance and short-term and long-term disability insurance.
• Paid time off, floating holidays, volunteer time off, and sick time off (depending on state of employment).
• 401(k) plan.
• Discounts on products and services.

What This Job Offers

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