Technical Program Manager, Flight Software
About The Position
K2 is hiring a Technical Program Manager embedded with its Flight and Ground Software teams to own the schedule for software across satellite programs. The software spans embedded code on microcontrollers and cloud-based ground and operations services, and is on the critical path of nearly every mission milestone. This role provides structure, cadence, and visibility to help engineers deliver on schedule; it does not involve writing code. The position is onsite at K2’s Torrance office. The manager works day to day with software engineering leads to build and maintain development schedules, track dependencies against hardware and test milestones, and identify risks and blockers early. The role also coordinates software milestones with multidisciplinary teams, communicates software status to leadership, program stakeholders, and customers, supports resource and capacity planning, and improves planning and tracking practices as K2 scales production across multiple satellite programs. K2 is building high-power satellite platforms for missions from low Earth orbit to deep space. The company describes itself as a high-growth, Series D-funded business with multiple launches planned in 2027 and plans to scale production to 100 satellites a year. The person hired will access information and items controlled by U.S. export regulations and must be a U.S. person as defined by ITAR or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- At least 5 years of technical program or project management experience working directly with software engineering teams, ideally on embedded, flight, or other high-reliability software.
- Demonstrated ability to build and maintain detailed schedules, track dependencies, and keep a software team on track against firm external milestones such as integration, test, or launch dates.
- Technical fluency to work closely with software engineers and understand what is actually blocking progress.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to provide leadership with a clear, honest schedule picture without diluting or overstating risk.
- Ability to operate in a fast-paced, aggressive-timeline environment with shifting priorities and high ambiguity.
- Must be a U.S. person as defined by ITAR or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Nice To Haves
- Experience program-managing flight software, embedded software, or firmware for aerospace, satellite, or other high-reliability systems.
- Background as a software engineer or in a technical role, sufficient to read a schedule critically and ask the right questions of the team.
- Familiarity with modern software program tools such as Jira, Confluence, Git-based workflows, and CI/CD, and experience building schedule or status dashboards.
- Experience coordinating software milestones against hardware integration and test schedules on a multidisciplinary program.
- Experience supporting resource and capacity planning for an engineering team.
Responsibilities
- Own and maintain the software team’s development schedule, including sprint and release plans, integration milestones, and dependencies on hardware, test, and other software subsystems.
- Track day-to-day progress against the schedule, identify slips early, and drive resolution of blockers with the responsible engineers and leads.
- Coordinate flight and ground software milestones—including integration drops, flight readiness reviews, and customer emulators—with systems, avionics, AI&T, and mission operations.
- Maintain the flight software risk register, flag emerging risks, drive mitigation plans, and determine when and how to escalate schedule or scope decisions to leadership.
- Run and facilitate recurring flight software program reviews and planning sessions, keeping them focused, actionable, and tied to schedule commitments.
- Translate engineering status into clear, concise updates for engineering leadership, program management, and customers, tailoring detail to the audience.
- Partner with software leads to right-size processes such as ticketing, sprint cadence, and release planning so schedule tracking scales without slowing engineers down.
- Support resource and capacity planning for the flight software team and help forecast staffing needs against upcoming program milestones.
- Continuously improve how the team plans and tracks work as K2 scales production across multiple concurrent satellite programs.
Benefits
- Equity in the company.
- Comprehensive benefits package including paid time off, medical, dental, and vision coverage, life insurance, paid parental leave, and other perks.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
