Staff Project Engineer, Digital

Neon Aerospace•Irvine, CA

About The Position

The Staff Project Engineer, Digital drives execution across Neon Aero’s enterprise digital programs, including deployment and integration of PLM, ERP, MES, QMS, supply chain, data, and AI platforms. The role serves as a connective point among Digital teams, engineering and business stakeholders, implementation partners, and software vendors, coordinating deliverables, dependencies, decisions, blockers, and technical risks. Operating similarly to a technical program manager for enterprise systems, this position keeps programs aligned from requirements and design through configuration, integration, validation, cutover, and adoption while maintaining accountability, schedule integrity, and compliance rigor for a regulated aerospace supplier handling export-controlled data. The position coordinates concurrent Digital workstreams and their dependencies across engineering, operations, supply chain, finance, and other functions. It supports system deployments through planning, integration, testing, release readiness, migration, cutover, hypercare, legacy-system retirement, and user adoption. The role also tracks budgets and partner spend, communicates program status to Digital and executive leadership, and ensures that information security, export control, quality-system, and documentation considerations are addressed.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, information systems, industrial engineering, or a related technical field; equivalent professional experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
At least 8 years of progressive experience in technical program management, enterprise systems program management, systems integration, technical project engineering, or a closely related role.
Experience leading deployments of enterprise systems such as PLM, ERP, MES, or QMS from requirements through go-live.
Experience managing integrated schedules, dependencies, risks, action registers, and program reviews across concurrent technical workstreams.
Experience managing implementation partners and software vendors against statements of work and milestones.
Strong working knowledge of system integration, data migration, cutover planning, user acceptance testing, and release management.
Working knowledge of how engineering and manufacturing data flows across the product lifecycle, including requirements, CAD and BOM, engineering change, production, and quality records.
Ability to communicate credibly with engineers, business users, partners, and executive leadership.
Experience in fast-paced environments with shifting priorities, aggressive milestones, and concurrent deployments.
Proficiency with Jira, Confluence, or similar tools for work tracking, scheduling, and program reporting.

Nice To Haves

Experience in aerospace, defense, or other regulated manufacturing environments.
PMP or PgMP certification is a plus; certifications are not required.

Responsibilities

Drive end-to-end execution of enterprise digital programs, including PLM, ERP, MES, QMS, supply chain, data platform, and AI tooling deployments from requirements through go-live and adoption.
Build, maintain, and communicate integrated program plans, roadmaps, milestones, and critical paths across concurrent Digital workstreams and dependencies.
Coordinate activities among Digital, IT, information security, export control, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, finance, and operations stakeholders.
Manage implementation partners and software vendors against statements of work, deliverables, and milestones; track performance and escalate gaps.
Track system integration dependencies, interface points, data flows, open actions, and decision logs across the enterprise application landscape.
Plan and coordinate environment promotion, data migration, cutover, and hypercare for system deployments, including retirement of legacy systems and tools.
Coordinate user acceptance testing, validation, and release readiness with business owners, ensuring deployments meet quality-system and documentation requirements.
Engage information security and export control early so deployments respect ITAR and controlled unclassified information (CUI) boundaries.
Identify technical, schedule, integration, and adoption risks; drive mitigation planning, escalation, and follow-through to closure.
Lead program reviews, steering meetings, partner syncs, and go-live readiness reviews with clear agendas, action ownership, and status reporting.
Partner with Digital technical leads and platform owners to translate strategy into executable workstreams, timelines, and measurable checkpoints.
Coordinate training, communication, and change management to support adoption of new systems and processes.
Track program budgets, partner spend, and license commitments against plan.
Prepare concise program status updates for Digital and executive leadership, covering schedule, top risks, decisions needed, budget status, and mitigation plans.
Promote disciplined execution through structured planning, Jira-based work tracking, change control, and documentation aligned with Digital team standards.
Build strong relationships across technical and business teams while maintaining accountability for execution and follow-through.