Program Manager

Program Manager

Required Skills & Experience• Bachelor's degree from four-year college or university; four years of experience may be substituted for the degree. • Minimum of 10 years of experience in managing projects. Understanding of project life cycles and budgeting. • Prior experience with managing programs within DHS required • PMP, ACP, or PgMP certification

Job DescriptionThe Program Manager is responsible for the disciplined planning, execution, financial performance, quality, and customer experience of assigned programs and projects. This individual-contributor role coordinates cross-functional resources and ensures contractual commitments, Statement of Work (SOW) requirements, schedules, budgets, and deliverables are achieved. The Program Manager serves as a primary customer-facing leader, builds trusted relationships, responds promptly to customer needs, communicates candidly and professionally, and drives timely resolution of issues to support long-term customer satisfaction and program success.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform the following satisfactorily; other duties may be assigned. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Manage assigned programs and projects meet organizational goals, contractual requirements, customer expectations, and defined performance standards.
• Develop and maintain integrated program plans, schedules, reporting, risk controls, and quality requirements for assigned work.
• Plan, organize, and manage one large or several small-to-medium programs and projects while maintaining strict adherence to SOW deliverables, milestones, acceptance criteria, and suspense dates.
• Manage program execution across scope, schedule, cost, quality, staffing, risk, technical compliance, customer communication, and delivery performance.
• Serve as the primary day-to-day point of contact for customers; establish clear communication rhythms, provide accurate status, actively listen to concerns, and promote a responsive, solutions-oriented customer experience.
• Build and sustain trusted customer relationships by understanding operational priorities, anticipating needs, honoring commitments, and resolving concerns professionally and promptly.
• Coordinate with customers to obtain feedback, validate priorities, manage expectations, document decisions, and confirm acceptance of deliverables.
• Escalate material risks, service concerns, schedule impacts, and customer issues with clear facts, recommended actions, and recovery plans.
• Coordinate cross-functional activities among Engineering, Operations, Logistics, Maintenance, Operational Training, Procurement, Manufacturing, Test Engineering, Quality, Finance, and subcontractors, as applicable.
• Accurately track and manage direct labor, subcontract agreements, other direct costs, budgets, forecasts, and financial performance; report results to Executive Management.
• Support development of program budgets and identify corrective actions to protect cost, schedule, and performance objectives.
• Review, develop, implement, and monitor recovery plans for off-schedule work, performance gaps, customer concerns, and unanticipated events.
• Recommend and implement process improvements that strengthen quality, efficiency, consistency, on-time delivery, and customer satisfaction.
• Ensure program and project activities are performed ethically and consistently with company policies, mission, values, management system requirements, safety practices, and applicable contractual obligations.
• Conduct program and project feasibility assessments and support development of RFQs, RFIs, RFPs, estimates, and proposal content.
• Provide direct operational support to programs and projects as needed, including travel to customer and remote work locations.
• Coordinate project team activities through clear expectations, organized follow-up, collaboration, and influence without exercising formal supervisory authority.
• Provide objective program-related observations to functional managers when resource, performance, or delivery concerns affect program outcomes.
• Perform other duties as assigned.