Senior Program Manager, Defense Product Development and Delivery

Powerus; Rock Hill (SC); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Powerus in Rock Hill, SC, seeks a Senior Program Manager to lead a major defense program from contract award through engineering development, qualification, production readiness, and delivery to the customer.

You will coordinate engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, flight test, finance, contracts, and subcontractors while maintaining an Integrated Master Schedule, managing budget and risks, and ensuring evidence-based gate decisions across the lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, program management, business, or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of program management experience in defense, aerospace, autonomous systems, or complex hardware.
• Demonstrated experience leading a hardware product from requirements to production readiness.
• Experience with lifecycle reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, PRR) and phase-gate decisions.
• U.S. Person status for ITAR/EAR-controlled data access.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end program execution for a major defense contract with cost, schedule, and technical performance accountability.
• Lead from contract award through engineering development, production readiness, and customer delivery.
• Develop and maintain the Integrated Master Schedule and program governance artifacts.
• Coordinate engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, flight test, contracts, and customer teams.
• Ensure traceability from requirements to verification and acceptance with objective evidence.

Skills

Program management leadership

Systems engineering

Cross-functional coordination

Cost and schedule management

Technical risk management

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering, program management, or related field

Job description

Powerus is building and scaling advanced autonomous systems for U.S. and allied defense, national security, and critical infrastructure customers. We operate at the intersection of autonomy, advanced manufacturing, and mission-focused technology, moving rapidly from requirements and engineering development into production and operational deployment.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Program Manager to lead the development, execution, and delivery of a major defense program.

The Role

This position has end-to-end accountability for delivering a significant defense program on time, within budget, and in accordance with technical and contractual requirements. You will own the program across the complete product development and delivery lifecycle—from contract award, requirements definition, and engineering development through prototype builds, design reviews, verification and validation, production readiness, delivery, customer acceptance, and closeout.

The Senior Program Manager will coordinate engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, flight test, finance, contracts, subcontractors, and the customer while maintaining accountability for the program’s integrated technical, cost, and schedule baseline.

This position requires direct experience managing complex hardware development within an engineering environment. The successful candidate must understand systems engineering, requirements traceability, phase-gate reviews, design maturity, configuration control, verification and validation, and the transition from engineering development into repeatable production.

This is not an administrative coordination position. The Senior Program Manager is expected to drive decisions, identify and resolve cross-functional dependencies, challenge unsupported assumptions, maintain objective visibility into program health, and ensure that commitments are supported by executable plans and technical evidence.

Key Responsibilities

Program Execution

• Own overall execution of a major defense contract or customer program, with accountability for cost, schedule, technical performance, contractual compliance, and delivery.
• Lead the program from contract award through engineering development, qualification, production, customer acceptance, and closeout.
• Develop, maintain, and manage the Integrated Master Schedule, ensuring that engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, test, and customer milestones are fully integrated.
• Establish and maintain the program budget, resource plan, risk register, action-item log, decision log, and contractual deliverables schedule.
• Translate contractual requirements and customer commitments into executable work packages, milestones, ownership, and acceptance criteria.
• Identify program dependencies and constraints early and drive their resolution across functional organizations.
• Provide leadership with accurate, evidence-based reporting on cost, schedule, technical performance, risks, decisions, and recovery actions.

Engineering and Product Lifecycle Management

• Own program execution across the complete product lifecycle: requirements, design, prototype builds, integration, verification and validation, production readiness, production, delivery, and sustainment transition.
• Plan and lead formal engineering lifecycle reviews, including System Requirements Review, Preliminary Design Review, prototype build reviews, Critical Design Review, and Production Readiness Review.
• Establish gate entry and exit criteria, required evidence, action ownership, closure requirements, and approval authority for each lifecycle review.
• Ensure the product advances through each lifecycle gate based on objective technical evidence and demonstrated maturity.
• Maintain traceability between contractual requirements, system requirements, engineering deliverables, verification methods, test results, and customer acceptance criteria.
• Integrate engineering development activities into the program schedule, including design releases, prototype builds, software releases, integration events, test activities, configuration baselines, and production-readiness milestones.
• Coordinate prototype builds and ensure technical issues are documented, assigned, resolved, verified, and incorporated into subsequent design iterations.
• Track design maturity, technical performance, verification completion, and risk retirement—not only task completion and schedule status.
• Ensure engineering tradeoffs are evaluated for their effects on requirements, performance, cost, schedule, manufacturability, supply-chain availability, and customer commitments.

Required Qualifications

• Must be located in the United States, within commuting distance of Rock Hill, South Carolina.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, program management, business, or a related discipline.
• Five or more years of program management experience in defense, aerospace, autonomous systems, robotics, advanced manufacturing, or another complex hardware-development environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading at least one complex hardware product from requirements and engineering development through qualification, production readiness, and customer delivery.
• Experience operating within a structured engineering or product-development lifecycle using formal technical reviews and phase-gate decisions.
• Experience managing integrated hardware, software, manufacturing, supply-chain, and test workstreams.
• Working knowledge of systems engineering principles, including requirements decomposition, requirements traceability, interface management, verification and validation, and technical risk management.
• Experience with configuration management, engineering change control, design baselines, Bills of Material, and production-release processes.
• Experience developing and managing an Integrated Master Schedule, program budget, risk register, action-item log, and contractual deliverables.
• Ability to distinguish administrative progress from demonstrated engineering maturity and objective evidence of gate readiness.
• Technical fluency sufficient to challenge assumptions, identify dependencies, and translate engineering issues into program-level cost, schedule, production, and customer impacts.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with engineers, manufacturing personnel, executives, suppliers, and government customers.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-moving organization where processes and products are scaling simultaneously.
• U.S. Person status required (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)); this role involves access to ITAR- and EAR-controlled technical data.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience delivering unmanned aircraft systems, autonomous systems, robotics, defense electronics, or other integrated hardware and software products.
• Experience supporting U.S. Department of Defense programs and working with government contracting, compliance, and acceptance requirements.
• Familiarity with defense acquisition practices, contract deliverables, CDRLs, qualification testing, customer acceptance, and government property requirements.
• Experience leading supplier-dependent programs involving electronics, mechanical assemblies, software, communications systems, or flight-test activities.
• Familiarity with manufacturing readiness, quality-management systems, first-article inspections, production qualification, and production-rate planning.
• Project Management Professional certification or equivalent program-management certification.
• Active or prior U.S. security clearance.

What Success Looks Like

Success means delivering a technically compliant, production-ready system that meets customer requirements, cost objectives, and contractual delivery dates. The Senior Program Manager will ensure the product advances through each engineering lifecycle gate based on objective evidence—not schedule pressure alone. The program will maintain clear visibility into requirements, schedule, cost, technical performance, configuration, production readiness, and risk. Engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and the customer will remain aligned around one objective: delivering the required capability when Powerus committed to deliver it.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Powerus is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.