Program Manager

RESPONSIBILITIES

• 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.

• 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.
• “Provide technical input and coordination between engineering and program stakeholders to ensure compliance with aerospace/defense standards and customer requirements.

• 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.

• 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.