Senior Payload Program Manager — Space Systems (Hybrid)

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

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

Disability insurance

401(k) with match

Stock purchase program

Paid time off

Job summary

BlackSky in Seattle, WA is seeking a Senior Program Manager for Payload and Space Systems to lead vendor management, risk tracking, and performance verification across spacecraft development.

The role requires a strong PM background, experience with spacecraft test and operation systems, and ability to coordinate cross-functional teams. This hybrid role expects 2 days on-site in Seattle with occasional Tukwila testing support.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in engineering or equivalent experience
• Eight years of direct Project Management experience
• Experience with spacecraft test and operation systems
• 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 studies, 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
• Shepard 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
• Shepard the engineering team through key milestone reviews including, but not limited to, 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 our 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 for other team members and longer term hand off to production

Skills

Project management

Schedule management

Vendor management

Hardware/software integration

Inter-team collaboration

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or equivalent experience

Tools

MS Project

Job description

BlackSky in Seattle, WA is seeking a Senior Program Manager for Payload and Space Systems to lead vendor management, risk tracking, and performance verification across spacecraft development.

The role requires a strong PM background, experience with spacecraft test and operation systems, and ability to coordinate cross-functional teams. This hybrid role expects 2 days on-site in Seattle with occasional Tukwila testing support.