Deputy Program Manager, Maritime Autonomy Programs

Saronic Technologies; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental and Vision Insurance

401(k) with company match

Stock Options

Paid time off and holidays

Parental Leave

Free lunch in office

Job summary

Saronic Technologies is a leader in autonomy at sea, delivering advanced maritime solutions. This hands-on Program Manager role focuses on scoping, scheduling, and cross‑functional execution across SOCOM-focused contracts in a fast-paced environment.

You will coordinate engineering, production, quality, and training teams, manage risks, and ensure contractual compliance while supporting field operations and testing efforts. A security clearance is preferred and travel up to 35% may be required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Naval Architecture, Business Administration, Project Management, or a related field.
• 5+ years in program management, preferably in a defense, engineering, or technical environment, including support to SOF or SOCOM programs.
• Familiarity with DoD program requirements, government contracting, and recognized program management standards.
• Working knowledge of maritime and/or autonomous systems, with the ability to read technical documentation and engage credibly with engineers.
• 3+ years working across software-based toolsets, including MS Project, the MS Office suite (Excel, PowerPoint, Word), Confluence, and communicating with cross functional teams via Slack and other applications.
• A bias for action and ownership in a fast-paced, high-trust, rapidly growing environment.
• Willingness to travel up to 35% of the time.
• Secret security clearance eligibility required, active preferred.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Growth to translate SOCOM opportunities and customer demand into clear, defensible scope and schedules.
• Support proposal inputs, including scope, statements of work, and basis of estimate, ensuring what we propose is technically grounded, executable, and aligned to strategic, engineering, and timeline realities.
• Build and maintain work breakdown structures and execution schedules that connect growth commitments to engineering and production reality.
• Track schedules, requirements, budgets, deliverables, and integration milestones, including Government- and Contractor-Furnished Equipment (GFE/CFE).
• Coordinate design, build, on-water testing, and readiness activities to meet contract milestones, and de-risk critical path items.
• Maintain configuration and documentation compliance across all program phases.
• Serve as a day-to-day point of contact across Engineering, Production, Quality, and Training, communicating objectives, milestones, and changes so everyone knows what they own and when.
• Lead recurring coordination meetings to keep execution aligned to the delivery schedule.
• Engage confidently in technical discussions and interpret engineering documentation (BOMs, CAD, wire diagrams) to resolve issues and keep teams aligned.
• Relay feedback from field operations, testing, and customer reviews back to internal teams for continuous improvement.
• Identify, track, and help mitigate program risks and issues, maintaining risk registers and after-action reports across assigned programs.
• Work with Contracts and Legal to keep scope, terms, and deliverables (CDRLs) accurately captured and compliant with contractual, DoD, ABS, and DCMA standards.
• Support field operations, demos, and test events (readiness, integration, documentation, and after-action reviews), plus sustainment and logistics planning that keeps fielded systems mission-ready for operators downrange.

Skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Scheduling

Communication

Travel readiness

Critical thinking

Ownership

Problem solving

Agile/PM tools

Vendor/contract coordination

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field

Tools

MS Project

MS Office (Excel/PowerPoint/Word)

Confluence

Slack

Job description

Saronic Technologies is a leader in autonomy at sea, delivering advanced maritime solutions. This hands-on Program Manager role focuses on scoping, scheduling, and cross‑functional execution across SOCOM-focused contracts in a fast-paced environment.

You will coordinate engineering, production, quality, and training teams, manage risks, and ensure contractual compliance while supporting field operations and testing efforts. A security clearance is preferred and travel up to 35% may be required.