Contractor Senior Technical Director

Socket.dev; Tampa (FL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Apogee seeks a Contractor Senior Technical Advisor to support SOF AT&L PEO-M at MacDill AFB, FL. This full-time role requires senior acquisition expertise to guide cross-portfolio strategy and program execution across surface, undersea, and aviation domains.

You will advise on governance, cost/schedule/performance risk, and develop playbooks, reviews, and metrics to improve discipline across PMOs, collaborating with industry partners and government stakeholders.

Qualifications

• MS in Engineering or related field preferred.
• US citizenship required; TS/SCI clearance desired.
• DAWIA Practitioner Equivalency in Engineering/PM or S&T fields is required or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Advise PEO-M leadership on governance and execution frameworks across multiple programs.
• Develop playbooks, battle rhythms, templates, and escalation paths to improve consistency.
• Coordinate inputs across engineering, contracting, logistics, and finance for decision-making.
• Translate leadership intent into acquisition strategies and execution plans.
• Review acquisition documents, program status reports, and milestone artifacts.
• Support government-led reviews and preparation of Q&A books and program narratives.

Skills

Executive writing

Portfolio governance

Program execution

Vendor management

Open systems

Modular architecture

Budget execution

Documentation quality

Cross-functional leadership

Systems integration

Security mindset

Education

MS in Engineering

DAWIA Practitioner Equivalency

Job description

Overview

Apogee has an exciting new opportunity for a Contractor Senior Technical Advisor in support of Special Operations Forces Acquisition, Technology and Logistics’ (SOF AT&L) Program Executive Office for Maritime (PEO-M). PEO-M leads a diverse maritime portfolio that develops, fields, and sustains SOF-unique surface and undersea mobility and mission solutions—spanning crewed and uncrewed platforms, combat diving systems, and mission equipment. Through close collaboration with Naval Special Warfare operators and strong government/industry partnerships, PEO-M drives modernization, integration, testing, and lifecycle replacement to ensure maritime forces retain lethality and survivability advantages in denied and contested environments. The organization also transitions emerging technologies into operational use, advancing navigation, communications, situational awareness, and training capabilities across the SOF maritime enterprise.

This is a full-time opportunity located at MacDill AFB, FL

Responsibilities

• Serve as senior acquisition advisor to PEO-M on cross-portfolio integration and execution (i.e., Surface, Undersea, Combat Diving, PMS 340, and PMS 390 programs of record)
• Provide portfolio-level to PEO-M leadership on cost/schedule/performance risk, integration, and industrial base execution strategies for high-visibility programs
• Develop, implement, and refine a PEO-M acquisition program manager development approach (e.g., playbooks, battle rhythms, review templates, escalation paths, metrics) to improve consistency and execution discipline across multiple PMOs
• Advise PEO-M leadership on governance and performance frameworks that strengthen accountability, transparency, and first-time quality with industry partners (shipyards, OEMs, integrators), including use of incentives and outcome-based performance measures
• Provide strategy-to-execution alignment support: translate leadership intent into actionable execution guidance (e.g., acquisition strategies, execution plans, risk reduction plans, integrated master schedules)
• Develop and review acquisition and program documentation: acquisition strategies, briefings, issue papers, decision memos, program status reports, and other milestone artifacts
• Support congressional/OSW-level engagement by developing materials and rehearsals (e.g., Q&A books, program narratives, performance metrics, industrial base risk framing)
• Facilitate cross-portfolio lessons-learned (e.g., vendor management, schedule recovery, production readiness, sustainment planning) and coordinate best practices among PMOs
• Advise on sustainment and lifecycle considerations early in acquisition planning (product support strategy, readiness outcomes, logistics feasibility), consistent with SOF AT&L lifecycle management expectations
• Provide senior-level support to program reviews, PMRs, and leadership touchpoints; recommend corrective actions and execution improvements based on trend analysis and root-cause analysis
• Coordinate and integrate inputs across internal stakeholders (engineering, contracting, logistics, finance) to support Government decision-making
• Assess and advise on integration risk across platform segments (hull/mechanical, C5ISR, autonomy, navigation, comms, payloads, support equipment), including cross-program commonality opportunities and interface standardization.
• Support Government-led technical reviews and decision forums (as applicable): SRR/SDR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FCA/PCA readiness, and production readiness reviews—focusing on “what leadership needs to know” (risk, decisions, off-ramps, resourcing).
• Advise on verification, validation, and test strategy coherence (DT/OT alignment, measures of effectiveness/suitability, test resource constraints, instrumentation/data rights considerations).
• Provide senior advisory support to open systems architecture / modularity decisions (e.g., MOSA-like approaches), including assessing vendor proposals for upgradeability, interface control, and long-term sustainment impacts.
• Evaluate and recommend approaches for technical debt management on rapid acquisition efforts (e.g., MTA-like rapid prototyping/fielding), ensuring engineering discipline scales with ACAT-I-like visibility/budget.

Qualifications

Minimum Experience:

Citizenship: Must be a US citizenClearance: TS/SCICertifications: DAWIA Practitioner Equivalency (Warfighting Acquisition University "WAU" Practitioner equivalent), in the Engineering, Program Management, or Science and Technology (S&T) fieldsEducation: MS in relevant Engineering degreeYears of Experience: Minimum of 20+ years of relevant position experience, including:

• Expert knowledge of DoD/Joint/Navy acquisition and governance, including DoDI 5000-series principles and Adaptive Acquisition Framework pathways, including MTA fluency
• Demonstrated ability to operate at the senior executive level: concise executive writing, decision framing, and leading high-stakes discussions with senior stakeholders
• Superior skills in enterprise program execution across multiple programs: risk management, performance management, prioritization, and portfolio-level tradeoffs
• Strong experience in industrial base / shipyard vendor management: shaping accountability mechanisms, performance metrics, quality management approaches, and schedule recovery strategies
• Ability to build repeatable management systems: governance models, standard work, review cadences, and KPI dashboards that improve portfolio execution
• Strong understanding of financial and budget execution factors (appropriations awareness, cost realism, affordability framing) sufficient to support leadership decisions
• Ability to draft and quality-control programmatic products (briefings, reports, issue papers) and ensure they are coherent, data-grounded, and leadership-ready
• Proven ability to work across diverse teams and stakeholders and integrate technical, contracting, logistics, and program inputs into actionable recommendations
• Expert ability to translate complex engineering issues into executive decisions, including clear articulation of technical risk, uncertainty, and tradeoffs
• Strong skill in integration management for complex Maritime systems (hardware/software, platform/payload, system-of-systems)
• Ability to evaluate contractor technical approaches for manufacturability, producibility, reliability/availability/maintainability (RAM) and sustainment impacts early
• Knowledge of open systems / modular architecture principles and how they affect vendor lock, upgrade cycles, and long-term cost
• Skilled at technical baseline discipline in fast-moving programs (controlling requirement creep, documenting decisions, maintaining traceability while moving quickly)
• High discretion and ability to operate in classified and sensitive environments; strong security discipline and operations security mindset

Preferred Qualifications:

Additional Experience:

• DAWIA Advanced or Level III equivalency in the Program Management and/or Engineering and Technical Management functional areas
• Senior executive acquisition leadership experience in USN, managing large, complex portfolios (shipbuilding/sustainment/weapon systems), including interfacing with OSW/Congress/flag-level stakeholders
• Senior leadership experience overseeing or advising combat systems / C5ISR / sensor-weapons integration efforts with accountability for integration outcomes
• Shipbuilding / maritime industrial operations experience with major shipyard/vendor partners; demonstrated results improving cost/schedule/quality outcomes
• Experience with shipyard/industrial technical quality frameworks (first-time quality, rework reduction, test/inspection strategy, defect trending) tied to cost/schedule outcomes
• Experience establishing enterprise governance and performance frameworks for large-scale acquisition/industrial organizations
• Experience with portfolio-wide workforce/program manager development
• Executive coaching / business coaching experience

Additional InformationLocation: MacDill AFB, FL On-site/Hybrid/Remote: On-SiteTravel: 10%