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Saronic Technologies is seeking a Senior Program Manager to own the execution and delivery of major shipbuilding programs for autonomous surface vessels. The role is based in Arlington, VA and manages large-scale production across shipyards in Franklin, LA and Port Alpha in Brownsville, TX.
You will serve as the primary customer-facing relationship owner and hold end-to-end accountability for cost, schedule, scope, and quality from contract award through delivery and sustainment. Key responsibilities include:
**Program Ownership & Delivery**: Own execution of commercial and/or government shipbuilding programs. Serve as leader of customer contracts, deliverables, milestones, and contractual obligations. Build and maintain integrated program plans aligning production schedules, engineering milestones, and integration timelines to customer commitments. Drive risk and opportunity management, escalating issues that threaten cost, schedule, or performance. Report program health and forecasts to leadership and customer stakeholders.
**Large-Scale Production Interface**: Partner with production teams to plan and execute rate production of large ships from long-lead procurement through hull construction, outfitting, and delivery. Monitor build sequencing, work breakdown, and production milestones to protect throughput while meeting quality and acceptance criteria. Monitor and mitigate production risks including supply chain, labor, tooling, and facility constraints. Coordinate with Quality and Production to ensure build configurations meet customer and contractual standards.
**Kit & Mission Package Integration**: Own configuration strategy for ship classes across mission packages, kits, and payloads on common production hulls. Partner with Mission Package Integration Managers to plan integration of bespoke and commercial-off-the-shelf kits. Balance production standardization against mission-driven variance. Ensure integration timelines and configuration baselines are reflected in master program plans. Capture lessons learned and feed back into production and product roadmaps.
**Customer & Stakeholder Engagement**: Serve as primary point of contact for customers, managing expectations and relationships across the program lifecycle. Elicit and clarify evolving mission needs, translating them into actionable program and technical direction. Lead program reviews, delivery events, and technical exchanges with government stakeholders. Deliver clear program updates and after-action reporting.
**Cross-Functional Leadership**: Direct and synchronize cross-functional program teams spanning Production, Engineering, Software, Mission Services, and Forward Deployed Engineering. Partner with Technical Program Managers to align technical execution with programmatic commitments. Make and defend tradeoff decisions across capability, schedule, cost, and risk. Drive disciplined configuration management across vessels, kits, payloads, and software versions.
**Requirements**: Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Naval Architecture, or related technical field. 9+ years of experience in program management of large-scale production, shipbuilding, or complex defense development programs (Unmanned Surface Vessel experience highly desirable). Excellent verbal and written communication skills with ability to interface with technical and non-technical audiences. Demonstrated ownership of cost, schedule, and scope on programs of significant size and complexity. Experience managing production at rate, including supply chain, build sequencing, and delivery of large or complex hardware systems highly desirable. Proven ability to manage government or defense customers, contracts, and deliverables. Willingness to travel up to 25% of the time. Secret security clearance eligibility required; active clearance preferred. U.S. Person status required (U.S. citizen, legal permanent resident, or protected asylee/refugee).
