Sr. Program Manager

Loft Orbital Solutions; United Arab Emirates; Remote; AED 367,000 - 551,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading aerospace firm in the United Arab Emirates seeks a motivated Senior Program Manager to oversee complex space projects. You will support project planning, manage budgets, and work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure compliance with standards. The ideal candidate should have a strong background in aerospace engineering, experience managing significant budgets, and excellent organizational skills. Collaboration with business development teams is essential for success.

Qualifications

• Proven experience managing projects with budgets between $1M–$10M.
• Demonstrated ability to work with Business Development teams at the bid and proposal stage.
• Solid understanding of space systems, mission lifecycles, and AIT processes.

Responsibilities

• Support the development and maintenance of project plans, timelines, and budgets.
• Track and report project performance metrics to stakeholders.
• Identify and mitigate project risks and dependencies early.

Skills

Experience in the satellite or space sector

Project management

Strong communication skills

Organizational skills

Education

Background in aerospace engineering or systems management

Tools

MS Project

Smartsheet

Jira

Job description

Wanna join the adventure?

The role requires a highly motivated Senior Program Manager with experience in overseeing the planning, execution, and delivery of complex space projects. This role involves supporting the Program Manager to deliver spacecraft systems, payloads, and supporting the business development team as they strive to bring in new business. The ideal candidate has a background in aerospace engineering or systems management and thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

About the Role

• Support the development and maintenance of detailed project plans, timelines, budgets, and risk management strategies.
• Support Business development activities.
• This role is required to work closely with the PM Manager, Business development, AIT, Procurement, Test Infrastructure, and external partners (Loft) and sub-contractors.
• Ensure compliance with technical, regulatory, and quality standards (ITAR, export Control).
• Track and report project performance metrics to stakeholders and executive leadership.
• Support Configuration Management in managing change requests, scope modifications, and project pivots.
• Identify and mitigate project risks and dependencies early.
• Support proposal development and cost estimation for future projects.

Must Haves

• Experience in the satellite or broader space sector with strong technical grounding.
• Proven experience managing projects with budgets between $1M–$10M.
• Demonstrated ability to work with Business Development teams at the bid and proposal stage.
• Solid understanding of space systems, mission lifecycles, and AIT (Assembly, Integration, and Test) processes.
• Proficiency in project management tools such as MS Project, Smartsheet, Jira, or similar.
• Strong communication and organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Nice to Haves

• Experience using PLM tools (e.g., Arena).
• Familiarity with PDM or SolidWorks.
• Awareness of ITAR/EAR regulations and basic export control requirements.
• Prior experience with Smartsheet as a primary scheduling or tracking tool.

Orbitworks' mission is to make space simple for organizations that want to deploy physical and virtual missions to space. Building on Loft Orbital's heritage, Orbitworks will be the first commercial firm in the United Arab Emirates to mass-manufacture satellites. Orbitworks aims to manufacture tens of satellites annually and operates out of a 50,000-square-foot facility in Abu Dhabi.