Technical Project Manager

9 Mothers•Austin, TX

4d•$125,000 - $150,000•Onsite

About The Position

9 Mothers is seeking a dedicated Technical Project Manager to establish and own the company's project management practices. This role is crucial for managing the work breakdown structure and integrated schedule across product lines, ensuring all engineering, manufacturing, test, and delivery tasks are clearly defined with owners, durations, dependencies, and dates. The Project Manager will maintain a Gantt-based master schedule, identify and track the critical path, and translate customer commitments into actionable plans. A key responsibility is proactive risk and dependency management, focusing on issues common in hardware programs such as long-lead parts, manpower shortages, skill gaps, and equipment/infrastructure needs. The role involves facilitating weekly coordination meetings, meticulously recording tasks and decisions, and providing leadership with clear, current status updates. This position requires building project management practices from scratch in a lean, fast-paced startup environment, selecting and administering appropriate tools, and establishing lightweight processes that enhance efficiency without creating bureaucracy.

Requirements

5+ years of project management experience on complex hardware / electromechanical development programs in robotics, defense, aerospace, automotive, industrial equipment, or similar.
Technical background: an engineering degree or hands-on engineering experience on hardware products.
Demonstrated ownership of a WBS and integrated schedule on a multi-disciplinary program.
Expert fluency in Gantt-based scheduling tools (Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, or similar).
Proven risk management on hardware programs, with a track record of catching long-lead, staffing, and equipment problems before they hit the schedule.
Strong meeting facilitation and action-tracking discipline.
Comfortable leading through influence rather than authority.
Self-sufficient in a low-process environment.
US person (citizen or lawful permanent resident), required for ITAR compliance.

Nice To Haves

PMP, PMI-SP, or similar project management certification.
Experience in a defense, ITAR-regulated, or government-customer environment.
Experience taking a hardware product from prototype through production transfer.
Experience standing up project management practices at a startup or small company.
Working familiarity with manufacturing and machine-shop workflows.

Responsibilities

Build and own the work breakdown structure across product lines, decomposing work into tasks with owners, durations, dependencies, and dates.
Build and maintain the integrated master schedule in a Gantt-based tool, ensuring it is the trusted single source of truth.
Identify and track the critical path, flagging slips early and quantifying their downstream impact.
Translate customer commitments, demo dates, and test events into backward-planned schedules with explicit margin.
Maintain a living risk register for hardware program derailers like long-lead parts, manpower shortages, skill gaps, and equipment/infrastructure needs.
Chase dependencies across engineering, purchasing, and the shop floor to identify and resolve issues proactively.
Coordinate with the buyer on long-lead procurement timing and with leadership on staffing gaps.
Run weekly coordination meetings, setting agendas, driving decisions, and recording action items with owners and due dates.
Capture tasks and decisions from all communication channels into a single tracked system.
Follow up on open actions between meetings and keep status honest.
Provide leadership with a clear, current picture of status, risks, and upcoming decisions.
Establish the company’s project management practices from scratch, including task tracking, schedule reviews, action-item discipline, and deliverable definitions.
Select and administer scheduling and task-tracking tools suitable for a lean team.
Establish just enough process to bring order to tasking and project planning without slowing down the R&D team.