Project Manager

Job Description

Job Description

The Role

This is not a coordinator job. It's not administrative support. It's the person who owns every project from the day a contract lands to the day the product ships, and who makes sure the team knows exactly what has to happen this week to hit next month's deadline.

 

We win contracts. We build well. What we still need is someone whose full-time job is schedule discipline, proactive risk management, and keeping every moving piece connected. That's what you do. You carry the schedule in your head, you know which commitments real and which ones are are wishful, and you don't let the latter go unchallenged.

 

You'll work closely with our CEO, CTO, Principal Engineer, and Procurement and Ops Specialist. You're the connective tissue between them. When something is about to slip, you're the one who catches it first and figures out what to do about it.

 

What You'll Do

Project Inception and Planning

• Take ownership of a new contract from award through kickoff, translating contract requirements into a working project plan with milestones, owners, and material need-by dates
• Build and maintain a master schedule that reflects real production capacity, engineering timelines, and procurement lead times, not best-case assumptions
• Establish a formal risk register for each active project, identify the top risks at kickoff, and track mitigation actions through delivery
• Coordinate with the engineering team to maintain an accurate production schedule

 

Day-to-Day Execution

• Own daily schedule visibility across all active contracts. Know the status of every open deliverable.
• Check with the assembly team each morning to confirm the team is working the right tasks to keep projects on track
• Track procurement commitments and vendor delivery dates against the project schedule. Flag misalignments before they become shortages.
• Push back on soft dates, missed check-ins, and vague status updates. Get specifics. Document them.
• Coordinate across engineering, procurement, and assembly to close gaps before they widen

 

Customer and Contract Deliverables

• Track all CDRL's, data submittals, and contractual reporting requirements. Ensure nothing is late and nothing is submitted incomplete.
• Prepare internal and customer-facing status updates with accurate schedule, cost, and risk information
• Serve as the primary point of contact for project-related customer communications, working closely with the CEO on anything that requires executive judgment

 

Cost and Compliance

• Monitor project spend against contract value. Flag budget variances early so leadership can act before they compound.
• Support CMMC compliance efforts by maintaining accurate project documentation, access logs, and records required for audit readiness
• Ensure ITAR handling requirements are observed throughout the project lifecycle

 

Process and Tools

• Maintain and improve our Excel-based project tracking systems in the near term
• Identify where our current tools are creating blind spots or manual effort, and bring recommendations to leadership
• Roll up your sleeves when a project needs it. This is a small team and everyone contributes.

 

What We're Looking For

You've worked in government contracting. You know how milestone-based billing works and what happens when a delivery date slips on a federal contract. You've also spent time around manufacturing, enough to walk a shop floor and know whether a project is on track or in trouble.

You're not a passive tracker. You don't send a status report and wait to be told what to do next. You see a problem forming, you name it out loud, and you drive toward a solution. You're comfortable telling a senior engineer or a founder that their date is not realistic, and you do it without drama.

Required Qualifications

• 3 or more years of project management experience in a GovCon or defense manufacturing environment
• Demonstrated ownership of contract schedules from award through delivery, not just support or coordination
• Solid working knowledge of federal contracting: delivery orders, milestone billing, FAR compliance basics
• Proficiency in Excel for project tracking and schedule management
• Experience coordinating across engineering, procurement, and production teams
• The temperament to hold people accountable directly, including people senior to you
• Ability to work independently in a fast-moving small business where you won't be handed a playbook
• Understands production processes

Preferred Qualifications

• PMP certification or equivalent credential
• Familiarity with ITAR-regulated manufacturing environments
• Working knowledge of CMMC requirements and experience supporting compliance documentation or audit preparation
• Active security clearance
• Direct experience with DoD customers including Army, Air Force, or Navy programs
• Background at a small or mid-size defense contractor where you had to build process, not just follow it
• Mechanical aptitude