Senior Technical Program Lead - Electric Marine & Defense Systems

Motive Companies, LLC; Monroe (MI); On-site; USD 95,000 - 144,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Dental benefits

PTO

Equity consideration

Job summary

Motive Workforce seeks a Technical Program Manager to lead electric marine, autonomy, and defense programs from concept through prototype, testing, and delivery. This is a hands-on, onsite role based in Southeast Michigan with up to 50% travel.

You will coordinate hardware and software development across propulsion, battery systems, controls, autonomy, and mission systems, while aligning engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, suppliers, customers, and government partners to maintain the

Qualifications

• 6+ years leading complex hardware and software programs.
• Experience with electric propulsion, battery systems, vehicle controls, autonomy, robotics, marine, or defense platforms.
• Demonstrated experience managing cross-functional engineering programs through development, integration, testing, and delivery.
• Experience delivering hardware programs to government or defense customers under milestone-based agreements.
• Strong understanding of technical schedules, program risk, suppliers, testing, and system integration.
• Comfortable working directly with engineers and technical teams in a fast-moving development environment.
• U.S. citizenship required.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance.
• Ability to travel up to 50%.

Responsibilities

• Lead electric marine, autonomy, and defense programs from concept through prototype, testing, demonstration, and delivery.
• Own program scope, schedules, milestones, budgets, resources, dependencies, risks, and deliverables.
• Coordinate mechanical, electrical, software, autonomy, manufacturing, supply chain, and field teams.
• Drive system integration across battery systems, electric propulsion, vehicle controls, onboard networks, autonomy, navigation, and third-party payloads.
• Partner with engineering leads to define integration plans, test objectives, acceptance criteria, and readiness reviews.
• Lead prototype sprints, government test events, customer demonstrations, and milestone reviews.
• Manage government program deliverables, reporting, statements of work, milestone schedules, and supporting documentation.
• Coordinate government-furnished equipment and third-party payload integration, including interface, power, data, and configuration requirements.
• Support proposals and capture efforts for defense and government programs.
• Coordinate bench, dockside, HIL, and on-water testing.
• Maintain clear program reporting covering schedule, technical risk, test results, open issues, and required decisions.
• Support prototype builds, sea trials, customer demonstrations, and field deployments.

Skills

Program leadership

Cross-functional coordination

Systems integration

US citizenship

Security clearance

Travel readiness

Education

Engineering degree or equivalent

Job description

Motive Workforce seeks a Technical Program Manager to lead electric marine, autonomy, and defense programs from concept through prototype, testing, and delivery. This is a hands-on, onsite role based in Southeast Michigan with up to 50% travel.

You will coordinate hardware and software development across propulsion, battery systems, controls, autonomy, and mission systems, while aligning engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, suppliers, customers, and government partners to maintain the