Lead Payload & Space Systems Program Manager

BlackSky; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision

Disability insurance

401(k) matching

PTO

Job summary

BlackSky is seeking a Senior Program Manager to lead payload and space systems development in Seattle, with hybrid work options and some Tukwila testing support. You will manage cross-functional teams, vendors, and schedules to optimize cost, schedule, and performance while delivering robust satellite capabilities.

Ideal candidates bring engineering PM experience with complex hardware/software systems and a proven track record of milestone reviews, risk management, and supplier collaboration in

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in an engineering discipline or equivalent experience.
• Eight years of direct Project Management experience or related experience.
• Experience working complex systems with hardware and integrated software dependencies.
• Experience working with vendors and highly integrated MS project schedule reporting.
• Experience working with integrated product teams.
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 10% to support supplier activities and testing.

Responsibilities

• Support vendor management, trade study development, risk and program tracking for key subsystem development of the satellite prioritizing payload and satellite cross link systems.
• Develop and maintain relationships with suppliers for emerging technologies.
• Interface with the engineering teams to evaluate compliance to the specification and opportunities to improve the subsystem to business benefit.
• Track action items and schedules across engineering teams including maintaining accurate logs of vendor discussions and decision points.
• Drive technical communications with vendors and internal teams shaping the development framework to support integrated product solutions.
• Shepherd the engineering team through key milestone reviews including Preliminary Design, Critical Design and Test Readiness.
• Support the entire development lifecycle for optimization and identify design and decision gates along with developing the associated criteria.
• Track action items and schedules across engineering teams, including maintaining accurate logs of design release status.
• Coordinate with the procurement team to hand off new developments ready for stable production delivery cadences.
• Shepherd the engineering team through milestone reviews including Preliminary Design, Critical Design, Test Readiness, and early production deliveries, as well as launch readiness review.
• Manage reports and support development of standard documentation with respect to payload system qualification and flight testing to support internal business targets.
• Interface with the full system level schedule and identify key milestones to manage risk.
• Facilitate and become an expert in satellite system testing including developing training material and hand off to production.

Skills

Project management

Vendor management

MS Project

Cross-functional collaboration

Risk management

Scheduling

Hardware/Software integration

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or equivalent

Tools

MS Project

Engineering data tools

Job description

BlackSky is seeking a Senior Program Manager to lead payload and space systems development in Seattle, with hybrid work options and some Tukwila testing support. You will manage cross-functional teams, vendors, and schedules to optimize cost, schedule, and performance while delivering robust satellite capabilities.

Ideal candidates bring engineering PM experience with complex hardware/software systems and a proven track record of milestone reviews, risk management, and supplier collaboration in