The Program Manager possesses leadership skills and has responsibility for the company's planning and performance of major business programs throughout all phases of the program lifecycle. The Program Manager II is responsible for the cost, schedule, quality, customer satisfaction and technical performance of company programs and for using that successful execution to drive future growth. The Program Manager II understands the customer’s perspective, proactively responds to the customer, and gains customer trust by continually meeting commitments and quality standards. Helps to develop and communicate succinct competitive analysis during proposal activities. This position will be required to forecast sales, new business, and gross profit on their programs, and to meet the strategic and operational goals of the business unit. The Program Manager II will direct a program management/ engineering staff in achieving excellence in program execution through the use of Earned Value and other techniques to identify program issues and monitor program performance. Manages programs that typically have combined contract values of over $50M and will include an established development program for a major component or small system and managing multiple programs (depending on size, impact and risk). Programs are based on established technologies that require the application of critical thinking and advanced principals/concepts.  

Responsibilities & Tasks:

 Leadership

• Understands and communicates strategic plans to the team. Relates how the program accomplishes the strategic plans of the Company and Business Unit, and fosters and recognizes strategic thinking.
• Leads and inspires cross functional teams to achieve successful execution of company programs and to expand their technical knowledge. Holds self and team accountable for high performance standards and coaches the team to effectively manage changing priorities. 
• Acts as principal point of contact with senior management to assure management understanding of program status, fosters resolution of problems, and coordinates efforts among management as necessary to assure corrective action. 

Customer

• Builds, develops, and maintains close customer relationships, proactively addresses customer issues, and continually pursues open communications to strategically expand the business.
• Assures customer satisfaction in terms of product performance, delivery, cost and contracted scope as the primary point of contact for the customer. Provides sufficient details of program performance, risk assessments, and identification of opportunities for improvement.
• Coordinates with marketing personnel and assists efforts to grow the business through external marketing.
• Conducts periodic program status review meetings with customers and execution team to monitor program execution and collect program performance feedback, risk assessment inputs, and identification of opportunities for improvement

Schedule

• Plans and executes programs per contractual obligations, directly and/or indirectly managing the performance of multiple suppliers, affiliates, or peer organizations. Establishes and monitors adherence to master program plans and schedules, preparing and issuing operational and program directives and controlling product configuration.
• Coordinates design for manufacturability efforts, and ensures smooth transition to production for development programs.

Technical

• Leads high level technical discussions, both internally and externally, to ensure all technical requirements are met.
• Continually benchmarks processes to best practices. Assists teams in exploring new concepts that will deliver innovative solutions and significant advancements. 
• Defines and directs the performance of program functional task elements such as procurement, manufacturing, quality, configuration, logistics, administrative functions, contracts administration, facilities, etc.

Financial 

• Prepares and interprets risk analyses and earned value management reports to anticipate problems and take corrective action to prevent/mitigate problems, and plan for management reserves.
• Prepares forecasts of new business, sales, and gross profit for annual operating plans for assigned programs and statuses those plans at regular intervals.
• Establishes budgets and holds Cost Account Managers responsible for adherence.
• Reviews and approves all contract changes with attention paid to cost, schedule and risk elements.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities Required:

• 2 + years of Program Management experience. Preferred PMI Certification.
• Demonstrated experience managing programs over some of the various phases of the product life cycle (pursuit through support and closure).
• Proven capability of:

• Driving cost down on ongoing production programs
• Transitioning products from development into production
• Creating and maintaining constructive customer relationships
• Leading proposal teams

• Capable of managing cross functional team with competing priorities (manufacturing, supply chain, engineering, etc.). Demonstrated experience working in these functions or successfully leading a cross functional team.
• Capable of creating and maintaining constructive customer relationships.
• Moderate understanding of industry trends and our customers and competitors’ strategies, strengths and weaknesses.
• Strong experience in the applicable technical area or product line. Ability to complete programs within scope, on time, within budget and delivering a quality product to the customer with a high level of satisfaction.
• Working knowledge of the defense acquisition process and an understanding of Defense Acquisition Regulations (DFARS).
• Ability to manage disciplined internal processes by knowledge of industry standard tools and holding others accountable for the following:

1.     Earned value management

2.     Phase gate (e-gates) process

3.     Program Planning

4.     Risk Management

5.     Requirements Management

• Working knowledge and understanding of financial data such as P&L statements, ROI analysis, and cash flow. High degree of business acumen.
• Strong knowledge of Design to Unit Production Cost (DTUPC) methods.
• Knowledge of relevant type of contracts for the Business Unit supported, e.g. fixed price, cost plus, time and materials, performance-based logistics, contract logistics support, master repair agreement.
• Exposure and working knowledge in negotiation, collaborative problem solving, conflict management, meeting facilitation skills, and applying tact and diplomacy with internal/external customers and foreign personnel.
• Understanding of program documentation, requirements, expectations, and deliverables, i.e., the RFP, proposal, contract, SOW, assumptions, constraints, CDRLs, etc.
• Ability to clearly communicate ideas verbally and in writing.
• Ability to influence without authority.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities Desired:

• Experience with DoD Engineering Change Proposal (ECP) process, including identification, proposing, and production cut-in.
• Experience with DoD Electro-Optical Programs
• Experience working with US DoD Research Labs