Project Manager, Government Contracts

Espace; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salaries

Health and wellness care options

Paid holidays

Paid time off

Continuous learning and development

Job summary

This is a full-time, on-site role based in Santa Clara, California. You will join E-Space on the Government Contracts team and own the program plan, deliverables, and compliance for a high-impact space systems program, coordinating across contracts, finance, and engineering to ensure successful execution.

You will work with systems, spacecraft, and ground engineers, maintain the risk register, and lead formal reviews with clear entry/exit criteria. Occasional travel may be required.

Qualifications

• 5+ years managing government programs in aerospace, defense, or a comparable regulated environment.
• Direct experience executing against government agreements — OTAs, FAR/DFARS-based contracts, SBIR/STTR, or task order vehicles.
• Track record carrying a single program through a full lifecycle.
• Experience as a customer-facing program point of contact with formal reviews.

Responsibilities

• Own the integrated master schedule for your program across space, ground, and payload workstreams.
• Own contract deliverables end to end — CDRLs, milestone submittals, technical reports and reviews.
• Serve as the day-to-day programmatic POC for the government customer: cost and schedule status, deliverables, and actions.
• Track cost and schedule performance against the award; monitor burn rate, funding, and milestones.
• Maintain the risk register and drive mitigations to closure.
• Run gated reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR) with entry/exit criteria and action tracking.
• Collaborate with the mission systems engineer and pull in functional resources as needed.
• Work across contracts, finance, export compliance, and security to ensure program compliance.
• Contribute schedules, basis of estimate inputs, and technical content for follow-on scope.

Skills

Program management

Govt contracts

Integrated schedule

Customer-facing

Matrix organization

Systems engineering

US security clearance

Clear communication

Risk management

Job description

Ready to make connectivity from space universally accessible, secure and actionable? Then you’ve come to the right place!

E-Space is bridging Earth and space to enable hyper-scaled deployments of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and services. We are building a highly-advanced low Earth orbit (LEO) space system that will fundamentally change the design, economics, manufacturing and service deliveryassociated with traditional satellite and terrestrial IoT systems.

We’re intentional, we’re unapologetically curious and we’re 100% committed to innovate space-based communications and deliver actionable intelligence that will expand global economies, protect space and our planet and enhance our overall quality of life.

The Government Contracts team executes E-Space's US Government portfolio: the contracts, the customer relationships, and the delivery of the programs themselves. We are staffing dedicated project management to each of our five flagship programs. This role is assigned to one of them — with scope that may extend across a related capability area such as ground-based radar, space-based radar, or SIGINT and communications — and owns its execution day to day. The work is integrative by nature: a schedule slip in one subsystem becomes a deliverable problem, a funding problem, and a customer conversation within the same week. We are looking for a project manager who can hold all three at once, on one program, with real depth rather than spread across many.

This role reports to the Program Manager, Government Contracts, who owns the portfolio and the overall customer relationship. You own your program.

This position will be based out of our Santa Clara, CA or Arlington, TX location.

• Own the integrated master schedule for your program across space, ground, and payload workstreams
• Own contract deliverables end to end — CDRLs, milestone submittals, technical reports: the deliverable list, the schedule behind it, review and submittal, and customer acceptance
• Serve as the day-to-day programmatic point of contact for the government customer on your program: cost and schedule status, deliverable status, contractual actions, and the informal calls in between. Technical authority sits with the mission systems engineer
• Track cost and schedule performance against the award: burn rate versus funding, milestone payment triggers, and early warning when the two diverge
• Maintain the risk register and drive mitigations to closure
• Run the gated review lifecycle — SRR, PDR, CDR, and other milestone and program reviews — owning entry/exit criteria, logistics, action tracking, and closure, while engineering owns the technical content presented
• Partner with the mission systems engineer assigned to your program, who reports through the Chief Systems Engineer or project chief engineer. They own the technical baseline; you own the plan and the commitment
• Pull on the functional organization to get your program the engineering it needs, and escalatest cleanly when priorities collide across the portfolio
• Work across contracts, finance, export compliance, and security to keep the program compliant
• Contribute schedules, basis of estimate inputs, and technical volume content to follow-on scope and task orders on your program

You will work daily with systems, spacecraft, and ground engineers, and directly with your government program office. You need enough technical depth to challenge an estimate, recognize a risk before it shows up in a status report, and hold a credible programmatic conversation with a customer without an engineer in the room. You do not need to design the system or own the technical answer, but you need to understand what the engineers are telling you and notice when the technical reality and the contractual commitment have quietly drifted apart.

• 5+ years managing government programs in aerospace, defense, or a comparable regulated environment
• Direct experience executing against government agreements — OTAs, FAR/DFARS-based contracts, SBIR/STTR, or task order vehicles — including deliverable management and modifications
• Track record carrying a single program through a full lifecycle, not just coordinating across many
• Track record building and maintaining an integrated master schedule that engineering actually uses, not one that exists for reporting
• Experience as a customer-facing program point of contact, including running formal reviews with real entry/exit criteria, action tracking, and closure
• Demonstrated ability to deliver in a matrix organization, holding a program together when the engineers doing the work report through a different chain
• Working knowledge of systems engineering practice: requirements flow-down, verification and validation planning, interface management
• Comfort in a fast-moving environment where the plan changes weekly and the project manager is the one keeping it coherent
• Clear, direct communication up and down: engineers get context, leadership and the customer get truth
• US person status, and eligibility to obtain and maintain a US Government security clearance

• Active US Government security clearance (Secret or above)
• Spacecraft, payload, or ground segment experience through an integration and test campaign
• Familiarity with government space customers — SSC, SDA, AFRL, DIU, NRO, or equivalent
• Working familiarity with ITAR/EAR and technology control plans in a program context
• Domain experience in a relevant capability area: ground-based radar, space-based radar, SIGINT, or satellite communications
• Earned value or equivalent cost/schedule performance management experience
• Experience supporting proposals and follow-on task orders from an execution seat

This is a full-time, on-site position based in Santa Clara, California. The role requires daily collaboration with contracts, business development, program management, finance, engineering, and executive leadership teams in a fast-paced government contracting environment.

Occasional travel to customer locations, government facilities, industry events, consortium meetings, or other company sites may be required. The position operates with a high degree of autonomy and independent judgment while partnering closely with cross-functional stakeholders to support company growth, contractual compliance, and successful program execution.

This is a fast-paced, high-impact environment - flexibility to work extended hours or weekends during critical periods is expected.

This is a full time, exempt position. The total compensation packaged will be determined by various factors such as your relevant job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.We are redefining how satellites are designed, manufactured and used—so we’re looking for candidates with passion, deep knowledge and direct experience on LEO satellite component development, design and in-orbit activities. If that’s your experience – then we’ll be immediately wow-ed. E-Space is not currently able to provide employment sponsorship for candidates who do not hold work authorization for the location of this role.

Why E-Space is right for you:

As a member of our team, you will play a crucial role in driving our success. Our team members have a strong sense of dedication and responsibility; this includes a strong commitment to our mission to create an entirely new suite of global capabilities to improve lives, business efficiencies and build a smarter planet. This means that there will be times when extra hours, including nights and weekends, may be needed to meet critical deadlines and mission goals. In return, we offer a dynamic work environment with opportunities for professional growth and development and the chance to make a meaningful impact in a high-growth industry.

We want you to make the most of your journey at E-Space. That’s why we support and invest in the physical, emotional and financial well-being of our team members and their families. Some of what you can expect when working at E-Space:

• An opportunity to really make a difference
• Sustainability at our core
• Fair and honest workplace
• Innovative thinking is encouraged
• Competitive salaries
• Continuous learning and development
• Health and wellness care options
• Financial solutions for the future
• Optional legal services (US only)
• Paid holidays
• Paid time off