Staff Project Manager

Think Consulting; Chandler (AZ); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Think Consulting in the Greater Phoenix area is seeking a planning-focused program manager to turn complex, ambiguous engineering efforts into executable schedules across software, FPGA, hardware, and production.

You’ll lead master schedules, manage dependencies, mitigate risks, and align software, hardware, and manufacturing leaders while maintaining schedule commitments and driving continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• A record of delivering complex, multi-discipline engineering programs on schedule amid significant uncertainty.
• Ability to influence senior and staff-level engineers without direct authority.
• Experience holding subcontractors or vendors to schedule and quality commitments.
• Background combining software, FPGA, hardware planning and production handoff.
• Strong planning, organization, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain the master schedule covering software, FPGA, hardware, and production workstreams.
• Map and manage cross-team dependencies to avoid unnecessary waits.
• Maintain risk and issue logs, surface threats early, drive mitigations.
• Lead design decisions into estimated, sequenced tasks and milestones.
• Oversee subcontractors and third-party suppliers with delivery criteria.
• Run milestone and schedule-health reviews with cross-team stakeholders.

Education

Bachelor's degree in software engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, systems engineering, or related field

Master's degree or PMP/equivalent certification

Job description

Greater Phoenix, AZ area | On-site | Full-time, exempt

About the Company
Our client is an established global technology provider serving commercial and government customers with satellite and space communications, terrestrial and wireless networks, and public-safety communications systems. The organization is in a growth phase and wants people who like building structure where little exists.

The Opportunity
You will be the person who turns complex, ambiguous engineering efforts into executable plans. These programs span software, FPGA, hardware, and the handoff to production, and many have no template to borrow from. You'll create the planning approach, run it, and raise the bar for how engineering teams commit to and deliver on dates.

You’ll report to the VP of Software Engineering, who grants this role the authority to set and hold schedule commitments across Software, FPGA, and Hardware. Leaders of the FPGA and Hardware groups co-sponsor that authority. On your programs, you own the engineering delivery schedule while Program Management owns the customer-facing contract schedule. You will reconcile the two together and bring only unresolved conflicts to the VP. You’ll work alongside the technical leads who own design and quality, closing the gap between a finished architecture and on‑time delivery. This is a planning and execution role, not a coding role, though you’ll need the technical depth to challenge estimates and spot integration risk.

What You’ll Do

• Develop and maintain the master schedule for your programs, converting requirements and architecture into a dependency-driven plan covering software, FPGA, hardware, and production workstreams, including efforts with no planning precedent
• Map and manage dependencies between teams and disciplines so that no group is waiting on another unnecessarily
• Maintain the risk and issue log for engineering delivery, surfacing schedule threats early, driving mitigations, and escalating before they become surprises
• Work with Software, FPGA, and Hardware leads (including senior and staff-level engineers) to break design decisions into estimated, sequenced tasks and milestones, and to challenge planning practices that aren't working
• Monitor progress at team and task level, catch slippage early, and lead re-planning or resource shifts with the responsible leads
• Oversee subcontractors and third-party suppliers by setting delivery and acceptance criteria, tracking commitments, and enforcing dates and quality
• Act as the main engineering point of contact among software, FPGA/hardware, manufacturing and test, and program management
• Run milestone and schedule-health reviews focused on blockers and cross-team dependencies
• Ensure documentation, test results, and build artifacts meet production-entry criteria on time as programs move from development into manufacturing
• Report status, schedule health, risks, and forecasts to engineering leadership and Program Management on a set cadence
• Establish and refine planning standards (estimation, dependency capture, definition of done, escalation thresholds) and coach Project Engineers on individual programs
• Use modern planning platforms and AI/agent-assisted tools to build simple automations and dashboards for tracking, dependency views, and reporting

What You Bring

• A record of delivering complex, multi-discipline engineering programs on schedule amid significant uncertainty, with no established playbook
• A software or systems engineering foundation strong enough to assess estimates, architecture trade-offs, and integration risk
• Proven ability to influence senior and staff-level engineers and shift how a team or organization plans, without direct authority over them
• Experience holding subcontractors or vendors to schedule and quality commitments
• Excellent planning, organization, and communication skills, and comfort aligning engineers, technical leads, and business or program stakeholders
• Background running contract-driven programs using waterfall or stage-gate methods (critical path, earned value, gate reviews), plus the judgment to apply Agile/Scrum where it suits
• Hands‑on experience with schedule and tracking tools such as MS Project or Smartsheet, and the ability to build lightweight automation or dashboards, including with AI tools

Nice to Have

• Exposure to satellite communications, RF/modem systems, embedded or FPGA development, or hardware-software integration
• Experience in regulated defense or aerospace manufacturing (ITAR, DFARS, AS9100) and hardware-to-production release processes
• A past career as a software engineer or technical lead before moving into program execution
• Experience using AI coding or agent tools to build internal trackers, dependency visualizers, or report generators

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in software engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, systems engineering, or a related field; a master's degree or PMP/equivalent certification is a plus
• 10+ years in complex, multi-disciplinary system development, including at least 4 years leading technical execution or schedules for hardware-software programs, with a history of working without a defined playbook and influencing senior technical leaders

Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status