Project Manager, Government Contracts

Key Responsibilities:

• Own the integrated master schedule for your program across space, ground, and payload workstreams
• Own contract deliverables end to end — CDRLs, milestone submittals, technical reports: the deliverable list, the schedule behind it, review and submittal, and customer acceptance
• Serve as the day-to-day programmatic point of contact for the government customer on your program: cost and schedule status, deliverable status, contractual actions, and the informal calls in between. Technical authority sits with the mission systems engineer
• Track cost and schedule performance against the award: burn rate versus funding, milestone payment triggers, and early warning when the two diverge
• Maintain the risk register and drive mitigations to closure
• Run the gated review lifecycle — SRR, PDR, CDR, and other milestone and program reviews — owning entry/exit criteria, logistics, action tracking, and closure, while engineering owns the technical content presented
• Partner with the mission systems engineer assigned to your program, who reports through the Chief Systems Engineer or project chief engineer. They own the technical baseline; you own the plan and the commitment
• Pull on the functional organization to get your program the engineering it needs, and escalate cleanly when priorities collide across the portfolio
• Work across contracts, finance, export compliance, and security to keep the program compliant
• Contribute schedules, basis of estimate inputs, and technical volume content to follow-on scope and task orders on your program

You will work daily with systems, spacecraft, and ground engineers, and directly with your government program office. You need enough technical depth to challenge an estimate, recognize a risk before it shows up in a status report, and hold a credible programmatic conversation with a customer without an engineer in the room. You do not need to design the system or own the technical answer, but you need to understand what the engineers are telling you and notice when the technical reality and the contractual commitment have quietly drifted apart.

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years managing government programs in aerospace, defense, or a comparable regulated environment
• Direct experience executing against government agreements — OTAs, FAR/DFARS-based contracts, SBIR/STTR, or task order vehicles — including deliverable management and modifications
• Track record carrying a single program through a full lifecycle, not just coordinating across many
• Track record building and maintaining an integrated master schedule that engineering actually uses, not one that exists for reporting
• Experience as a customer-facing program point of contact, including running formal reviews with real entry/exit criteria, action tracking, and closure
• Demonstrated ability to deliver in a matrix organization, holding a program together when the engineers doing the work report through a different chain
• Working knowledge of systems engineering practice: requirements flow-down, verification and validation planning, interface management
• Comfort in a fast-moving environment where the plan changes weekly and the project manager is the one keeping it coherent
• Clear, direct communication up and down: engineers get context, leadership and the customer get truth
• US person status, and eligibility to obtain and maintain a US Government security clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• Active US Government security clearance (Secret or above)
• Spacecraft, payload, or ground segment experience through an integration and test campaign
• Familiarity with government space customers — SSC, SDA, AFRL, DIU, NRO, or equivalent
• Working familiarity with ITAR/EAR and technology control plans in a program context
• Domain experience in a relevant capability area: ground-based radar, space-based radar, SIGINT, or satellite communications
• Earned value or equivalent cost/schedule performance management experience
• Experience supporting proposals and follow-on task orders from an execution seat

Work Environment & Expectations

This is a full-time, on-site position based in Santa Clara, California. The role requires daily collaboration with contracts, business development, program management, finance, engineering, and executive leadership teams in a fast-paced government contracting environment.

Occasional travel to customer locations, government facilities, industry events, consortium meetings, or other company sites may be required. The position operates with a high degree of autonomy and independent judgment while partnering closely with cross-functional stakeholders to support company growth, contractual compliance, and successful program execution.

Additional Requirements

This is a fast-paced, high-impact environment - flexibility to work extended hours or weekends during critical periods is expected.