Customer Programs Manager, Nuclear

Customer Programs Manager, Nuclear

Location: Chattanooga, TN Type: Direct Hire

Responsibilities

Serve as the day-to-day owner and primary point of contact for assigned strategic customer programs. Establish trusted relationships with customer stakeholders while ensuring internal alignment before commitments are made. Lead program kickoff, contract handoff, milestone, status, risk, and closeout discussions for assigned customer programs.

Ensure customer requirements, commitments, delivery expectations, documentation requirements, and scope changes are captured, understood, and communicated internally. Provide customers with timely, factual, well-coordinated updates on schedule, production status, technical matters, risks, recovery actions, and deliverables.

Escalate material customer concerns, scope changes, schedule risks, quality issues, and commercial matters promptly through the appropriate leadership channels. Support customer visits, source inspections, witness and hold points, program reviews, and post-delivery follow-up as needed.

Coordinate assigned customer programs across Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Planning, Finance, and Sales. Translate contractual and customer requirements into clear internal actions, deliverables, owners, due dates, and decision points.

Lead recurring internal program reviews to confirm schedule status, production readiness, material availability, engineering progress, quality requirements, customer deliverables, and open risks.

Maintain clear visibility to critical activities, milestones, dependencies, constraints, and recovery actions. Partner with Manufacturing and Planning to ensure commitments are realistic and supported by an executable production plan.

Partner with Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, and Sales to ensure smooth execution, address issues, and support billing, change management, and margin protection.

Develop and maintain program schedules, milestone trackers, risk registers, and customer communication logs for assigned accounts.

Identify emerging risks and drive timely resolution. Prepare customer-facing status reports, executive summaries, dashboards, and recovery plans.

Support Sales and Business Development by identifying customer needs and follow-on opportunities. Ensure aligned messaging and reinforce a customer-first culture grounded in quality, safety, and realistic commitments.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Operations, Supply Chain, or a related field preferred. Equivalent relevant experience considered.

Five or more years of experience in program management, project management, customer program management, or a related customer-facing role.

Experience managing complex, cross-functional programs involving engineering, manufacturing, quality, procurement, and customer stakeholders.

Demonstrated ability to manage customer expectations and communicate effectively during schedule, technical, quality, or commercial challenges.

Strong working knowledge of project controls, schedules, risk management, and status reporting.

Strong organizational discipline, attention to detail, follow-through, documentation, and closure.

Ability to influence cross-functional teams without relying solely on direct authority.

Excellent written and verbal communication, presentation, and customer interaction skills.

Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in nuclear industry or other highly regulated environments.

Knowledge of NQA-1, ASME Section III, 10 CFR 50 Appendix B, or related frameworks.

Experience supporting contract execution, change orders, claims, and billing.

PMP or project management certification, engineering degree, or equivalent credentials.