Senior Project Director, Large-Scale Scientific Programs

California Institute of Technology; Big Pine (CA); On-site; USD 145,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

California Institute of Technology seeks a Lead Project Manager for the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA) to oversee design, construction, and future operations. You will coordinate governance, budgets, scheduling, risk, and regulatory activities across a large, multi-institution collaboration.

Working closely with PI teams, engineers, and stakeholders, you will drive execution from conceptual design through construction and long-term operation, travel to Caltech and partner sites as needed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in a relevant field and significant leadership of large scientific or engineering projects.
• Ph.D. in a related discipline is preferred for advanced leadership roles.
• Experience coordinating multidisciplinary teams across large organizations.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership for the DSA project scope, schedule, budget, and PM functions.
• Lead integrated project planning across conceptual design, construction, and long-term operations.
• Direct governance, document control, reporting, and organizational practices to support execution.
• Manage risk, contingency planning, issue resolution, and mitigation strategies with senior leadership.
• Coordinate executive-level collaboration among investigators, engineers, staff, partners, and funding agencies.
• Prepare for major technical and external reviews and oversee resulting actions.
• Oversee organizational planning and cross-functional coordination across the collaboration.
• Oversee Environmental Impact Study processes with regulators and communities.
• Plan procurement and implementation of project infrastructure including buildings and power systems.
• Ensure alignment of objectives, schedules, budgets, and quality with project goals.

Skills

Leadership

Project management

Cross-functional coordination

Strategic thinking

Communication

Multi-disciplinary leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in Project Management/Astronomy/Engineering/Physical Sciences

Ph.D. in Astronomy/Engineering/Physics or related

Tools

Microsoft Project

Jira

Slack

Microsoft Teams

Job description

California Institute of Technology seeks a Lead Project Manager for the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA) to oversee design, construction, and future operations. You will coordinate governance, budgets, scheduling, risk, and regulatory activities across a large, multi-institution collaboration.

Working closely with PI teams, engineers, and stakeholders, you will drive execution from conceptual design through construction and long-term operation, travel to Caltech and partner sites as needed.