Senior Technical Program Manager – DoD/IC Programs

Kestrel Intelligence; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

Kestrel Intelligence seeks a Technical Program Manager to drive DoD/IC programs from kickoff to delivery, coordinating engineering, product, business development, and customer stakeholders to meet milestones and deliverables.

You will spot risks early, evaluate tradeoffs, and communicate progress with credibility while managing schedules, budgets, and compliance across data pipelines, APIs, and AI components. This role requires organization, strong communication, and a mission-driven mindset.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience managing technical programs or projects, with at least 3 years supporting DoD or IC customers.
• Direct experience executing government contracts, such as SBIRs, OTAs, or other federal R&D or prototype agreements.
• Enough technical background to engage credibly with software engineers on architecture, scope, and delivery tradeoffs.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to brief government stakeholders and company leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead the execution of DoD and IC programs, including SBIR, OTA, and pilot efforts, from contract award through final delivery.
• Build and maintain integrated master schedules, work breakdown structures, and delivery plans that align engineering work with contract milestones.
• Serve as the primary day-to-day point of contact for government program managers, contracting officer representatives, and technical leads.
• Track contract deliverables, such as monthly status reports, technical reports, demos, and final reports, and ensure the team delivers them on time and at high quality.
• Partner with engineering managers and technical leads to scope work, estimate effort, and sequence development across data pipelines, APIs, agentic AI components, and user interfaces.
• Identify, track, and mitigate technical, schedule, cost, and compliance risks, and escalante issues to leadership with clear options.
• Coordinate customer engagements, including kickoff meetings, technical interchange meetings, demos, and site visits.
• Manage program budgets and burn rates in coordination with finance, and support invoicing against contract milestones.
• Support security and compliance activities, such as ATO preparation, RMF documentation, and facility or personnel security coordination.
• Help business development and proposal teams build realistic technical approaches, schedules, and cost estimates for new pursuits.
• Capture lessons learned and continuously improve Kestrel’s program delivery processes, including the Pilot Playbook.

Skills

Program management

DoD/IC experience

Technical background

Communication skills

PM tools

Tools

Jira

Confluence

MS Project

Job description

Kestrel Intelligence seeks a Technical Program Manager to drive DoD/IC programs from kickoff to delivery, coordinating engineering, product, business development, and customer stakeholders to meet milestones and deliverables.

You will spot risks early, evaluate tradeoffs, and communicate progress with credibility while managing schedules, budgets, and compliance across data pipelines, APIs, and AI components. This role requires organization, strong communication, and a mission-driven mindset.