Senior Program Manager - Maritime Autonomy

NightDragon Acquisition Corp.; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental and Vision Insurance

Time Off & Holidays

Parental Leave

Competitive Salary

Retirement Plan

Stock Options

Life and Disability Insurance

Pet Insurance

Free lunch and daily snacks

Job summary

Saronic Technologies, a leader in autonomy at sea, seeks a hands-on Program Manager to own scoping, scheduling, and execution across SOCOM-focused contracts. The role emphasizes close collaboration in person, with cross-functional teams spanning engineering, production, and legal to ensure timely, compliant delivery.

The ideal candidate has DoD exposure, maritime systems knowledge, and a track record of coordinating complex programs with strong written and verbal communication.

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

• 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 (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.
• Lead recurring coordination meetings to keep execution aligned to the delivery schedule.
• Engage in technical discussions and read BOMs, CAD, wire diagrams to resolve issues.
• Relay feedback from field operations, testing, and customer reviews to internal teams.

Skills

Program management

DoD familiarity

Maritime/autonomy knowledge

MS Project / MS Office

Travel 35% willingness

Security clearance eligible

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering or related field

Tools

MS Project

MS Office

Confluence

Slack

Job description

Saronic Technologies, a leader in autonomy at sea, seeks a hands-on Program Manager to own scoping, scheduling, and execution across SOCOM-focused contracts. The role emphasizes close collaboration in person, with cross-functional teams spanning engineering, production, and legal to ensure timely, compliant delivery.

The ideal candidate has DoD exposure, maritime systems knowledge, and a track record of coordinating complex programs with strong written and verbal communication.