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Xona Space Systems is building Pulsar, an advanced positioning and navigation technology (PNT) satellite infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit designed to provide real-time, centimeter-level precision globally.
As Software Technical Program Manager, you will own the execution of software programs across three critical domains: navigation service, mission operations, and flight software (GNC, FSW, payload core). You'll work closely with program leadership and engineering teams to keep a fast-moving, highly interdependent software organization on track through design, build, test, and on-orbit operations phases.
Key responsibilities include:
- Owning and maintaining the software development schedule across all three domains, tracking progress against milestones, managing critical path, and ensuring program honesty through transitions into on-orbit operations
- Serving as the program hub across Nav Service, Mission Ops, and flight software teams, translating technical progress into shared plans and clear accountability
- Partnering tightly with the Satellite TPM to keep software and hardware programs synchronized at every shared interface
- Supporting release management and dependency tracking across all software teams to ensure coordinated, tested deployments
- Identifying and eliminating manual operational overhead by building lightweight tooling, bots, and integrations that connect GitHub/GitLab, Wrike/Linear, Teams, and monitoring tools into a single operational source of truth
- Surfacing risks early, maintaining the risk register, and working directly with technical leads to resolve blockers before they impact the schedule
- Preparing and delivering regular software program status to leadership with clear visibility into schedule health, open risks, delivery predictability, and upcoming decisions
- Developing lightweight, effective program management processes suited to a small team moving fast, minimizing meeting bloat through automation and async workflows
- Maintaining working fluency in bus and payload development to sit credibly in integration and test reviews, understand hardware-software interfaces, and provide flex coverage on hardware program coordination when needed
You'll have real ownership, proximity to the code and the constellation, and a chance to build both the program and the systems that run it.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 4–7 years of program or project management experience in complex software development, with meaningful exposure to aerospace, robotics, or another hardware-adjacent technical field
- Direct experience program-managing software teams through both active development and live/operational phases; understanding that priorities, cadence, and risk differ once something is running in production or in orbit
- Strong systems thinking ability to track interdependencies across multiple software workstreams and their interfaces with hardware without losing the critical path
- Comfort operating in hardware environments; you don't need to have owned a bus or payload schedule, but you've been close to spacecraft, robotics, or other complex hardware programs involving avionics, RF, or integration/test
- Proficiency as a programmer (Python, TypeScript/Node.js, or Go) to build and deploy lightweight internal tools, bots, and automations yourself
- Self-directed and comfortable operating with limited oversight
- Clear communicator who can work credibly with engineers and summarize status cleanly for leadership
- U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent resident status, or other protected individual status as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) to comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Familiarity with GNSS, PNT systems, or mission operations concepts (telemetry, commanding, ground segment software, on-orbit anomaly response)
- Experience building bots and custom integrations across developer toolchains (GitHub, Linear/Wrike, Teams, Datadog, AWS/GCP) or internal developer portals
- Hands-on experience with satellite bus subsystems or RF/navigation payloads, or having worked through a full satellite program cycle from PDR/CDR through integration, test, and launch/operations
- Hands-on knowledge of workflow automation platforms (Temporal, n8n, Airflow, or similar)
- Prior experience as a software engineer or DevOps engineer before moving into technical program management
- PMP, Agile, or other PM certifications (nice to have, not a substitute for real program experience)
