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Vulcan Elements manufactures American rare-earth permanent magnets for defense, aerospace, and automotive applications. As Technical Program Manager, you will lead the master schedule and engineering integration for a 1.1 million square foot manufacturing facility expansion—a massive, high-impact program requiring deep technical fluency and exceptional leadership.
You will serve as the central hub connecting all engineering disciplines (Process, Equipment, Industrial, Controls, Factory Engineering) to ensure equipment design, procurement, installation, and commissioning occur on schedule. Your core responsibilities include:
• Building and maintaining the comprehensive program timeline, integrating feedback from all engineering teams into a single source of truth
• Tracking critical-path equipment from initial design through vendor RFQs, Factory Acceptance Tests (FATs), Site Acceptance Tests (SATs), and production commissioning
• Proactively identifying bottlenecks and technical risks that could delay the program; predicting delays and developing recovery plans with engineering teams
• Leading weekly leadership program reviews, synthesizing complex technical data into clear, actionable visual updates for executives
• Acting as connective tissue across departments, understanding technical dependencies between facility utilities, electrical systems, and process schedules
• Mastering Gantt charts, Critical Path Method (CPM) networks, and milestone tracking dashboards
• Managing program risk registers, escalation matrices, and milestone-gated PFMEA timelines
• Producing weekly executive summaries, department OKR tracking, and vendor delivery schedules
The role requires regular presence on the production floor, ability to navigate all facility areas, climb stairs, stand and walk for extended periods, and work in hot, humid, or noisy environments while wearing personal protective equipment including respirators.
REQUIREMENTS:
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Management, or related technical discipline with 5+ years of experience
• Proven experience as a program manager in high-volume, large-scale manufacturing environments with technical depth to understand what engineers are building, not just calendar tracking
• Expert-level proficiency in Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, JIRA, and other enterprise project management software
• Exceptional ability to distill complex engineering challenges into simple, transparent executive summaries
• Proven track record of gathering timeline deliverables from technical teams and holding them accountable to milestones without direct reporting authority
• Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export-controlled information or facilities
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
• Experience in massive-scale facilities, heavy industrial manufacturing, or automotive/aerospace gigafactories
• PMP (Project Management Professional) or Agile/Scrum certifications
• Experience with physical equipment FAT/SAT execution and managing international equipment vendors
• Experience in highly regulated industries such as Defense (DoD), Aerospace (AS9100), or Automotive (IATF 16949)
