Program Manager

Program Manager

The Program Manager is responsible for overseeing programs, tracking their status, and leading conflict resolution to ensure said programs remain on plan, are delivered on time, and meet both customers' expectations as well as the company's revenue and profitability goals. This includes interfacing with sales and customers to provide updates and seek input as needed, and with engineering, operations, and quality to coordinate design, sourcing, prototyping, production, and shipping activities.

Duties & Responsibilities

Support business development activities. Support the drafting of RFI, RFP, and RFQ responses. Inform sales about new opportunities with existing customers. Support the capture of follow-on business through existing programs.

Cooperate with Salesperson and Product Manager to ensure smooth transition of programs from closing (PO received) to fulfillment process. Ensure all functional groups have reviewed, as applicable, customer and contractual requirements and have provided a methodology to address. Review new customer contracts/POs and provide acknowledgement to customers. Create "Jobs" folders post-award. Assume responsibility as the main point of contact after a contract is awarded/PO is received. Support engineering efforts on assigned programs, including review of technical requirements, participation in design reviews, and oversight of system integration activities.

Plan and manage programs through the fulfillment process. Lead development and management of the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) in accordance with program requirements, customer milestones, and contractual obligations. Craft and deploy project management tools as needed. Maintain open, effective communication among all functions involved in the fulfillment process. Maintain constant communication with customers and sales on program status, issues, and resolutions. Assess customer satisfaction and provide internal awareness of customer issues and concerns if any. Organize and direct program milestones with the customers – for example, KOM (kick-off meeting), SRR (system readiness review), CDR (critical design review), PDR (preliminary design review), SOI (stages of involvement), etc. Coordinate and lead customer visits or meetings at customer sites. Prepare and deliver reports for customers as needed. Promptly and thoroughly answer all questions and concerns from the customers regarding their programs. Lead the response to post-award customer documentation by customer such as test results, certificate of conformity (CoC), shipping documents, etc. Negotiate scope change impacts with customers. Manage commercial or technical changes in programs in cooperation with all functions affected. Keep the "Jobs" folders up to date. Ensure all contract deliverables are met in a timely and comprehensive manner. Establish priorities for each program for the matrixed team, clearly communicate these priorities, and reconcile any resource or other conflicts. Oversee schedule attainment by all functions as well as drive for timely functional hand-offs. Track the status of programs through the fulfillment process and lead the development of countermeasures whenever programs are falling behind in the schedule or failing to meet customers' expectations. Identify program risks and lead the mitigation of the same. Manage and prioritize Engineering requests through the fulfillment process. Collaborate with Engineering to ensure products meet customer requirements. Coordinate qualification test activities with Engineering and review results for adequacy. Work with Product Manager and Supply Chain to address end-of-life components impacting on-going programs. Enforce comprehensive production readiness reviews (PRR) and coordinate seamless transition from development/prototyping to production. Lead program review meetings (PRM) monthly to communicate program status to the organization. Elevate significant issues to upper management. For each program, calculate estimate to complete (ETC) and estimate at completion (EAC), monitor actual vs. budgeted expenses, track cost and gross margin, and report on all of them. Own full Profit & Loss (P&L) responsibility for assigned program(s), including forecasting, budget management, cost control, and variance analysis. Partner with Finance and Operations to ensure program profitability, monitor key performance metrics, and drive corrective actions when necessary.

Support customers through the post-sale process. Maintain regular contact with customers after the delivery of products. Lead the resolution of programs' warranty and non-warranty issues. Provide follow-on support for the life of the programs such as responding to subsequent RFQs, redesign efforts, etc.

Required Skills/Abilities

• 10+ years relevant experience in Program Management and/or Operations Management of Aerospace and Defense programs.
• Bachelor's Degree, Engineering Preferred.
• PMP Certifications preferred.
• This position requires up to 25% travel to customer sites, suppliers, and company facilities (domestic and international).
• Excellent customer relations skills.
• Demonstrated experience interfacing with customer's engineering, subcontracts, program management, and executive management organizations.
• Understanding of defense-related avionics/electronics technology. Airborne recording, processing, and routing experience a plus.
• Understanding of and experience with all phases of mil/defense programs including design and development; Qual testing; SDRL's; pilot production; rate production; and aftermarket support
• Understanding of DFAR's and government contracting rules and requirements.
• Business development experience with major Aerospace and Defense Prime contractors and with DoD agencies (USAF, USN/USMC, Army, other). Experience on international Aerospace and Defense programs a plus.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating closely with internal engineering, finance, manufacturing, and supply chain cross-functional teams.
• MS Project understanding and scheduling experience.
• Understanding of the application of Earned Value Measurement (EVM) techniques.
• Experience assembling and evaluating complex bids and proposals, including non-recurring engineering, qual test, and recurring manufacturing content • Experience developing and tracking key performance metrics.

Personal Traits and Characteristics

• Quality First: Plan & execute accurate, complete, timely and reliable work. Integrity never compromised.
• Respect for People : Appreciates and leverages diversity in experience, heritage, education, organization level and gender.
• Design by Fact : Gathers, analyzes and summarizes data to draw rational, fact-based conclusions.
• Blameless: Seeks root-cause solutions and fixes processes rather than finding someone to blame.
• Teamwork: Collaborative with customers, suppliers & associates at all levels towards mutual objectives.
• Sense of Urgency : High energy, bias for taking action. Spontaneously recognizes and resolves issues.
• Customer Focus: Makes customers a primary focus, develops and sustains loyal, productive relationships.
• Continuous Improvement: Develops and implements creative solutions to systems and processes.
• Deliver Results: Driven to deliver short and long-term results. Maintains focus on what's most important.
• Adapting to Change: Able to effectively adapt to an environment of change, uncertainty, and ambiguity.
• Intellect: Understands the conceptual, strategic, tactical and technical aspects of an issue.
• Innovative: Generates and implements creative solutions. Challenges current methods and seeks alternatives.
• Work Group : Ability to work within a small, high-performance group.

Education and Experience

MS/BS degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business or equivalent preferred.

Physical Demands The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, talk, see, and hear. The employee is frequently required to walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel and reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. This position requires travel of approximately 20%. Work Environment The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Office environment with temperature control; may be exposed to chemicals related to the manufacturing process. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.