Program Manager

Position Summary

The Program Manager is responsible for the successful execution of aerospace manufacturing programs from contract award and product introduction through production, delivery, and program closeout. This position serves as the primary cross-functional leader and customer interface, ensuring programs meet requirements for quality, cost, schedule, delivery, and profitability.

The Program Manager coordinates Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, and Customer Service activities while proactively managing program risks, customer requirements, production constraints, and contractual commitments.

Key ResponsibilitiesProgram Management

• Lead aerospace manufacturing programs from contract award through production and delivery.
• Develop and maintain program schedules, milestones, budgets, deliverables, and action plans.
• Monitor program performance against contractual requirements, customer commitments, and internal objectives.
• Coordinate Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, and other functional teams.
• Conduct regular program reviews and communicate status, risks, recovery plans, and priorities to management.
• Manage multiple programs and customer priorities simultaneously.

Customer Management

• Serve as the primary point of contact for assigned aerospace customers.
• Maintain strong customer relationships and ensure timely communication regarding schedule, delivery, quality, and technical issues.
• Conduct customer program reviews and provide schedule, production, and delivery updates.
• Coordinate responses to customer requests, changes, corrective actions, and escalations.
• Manage customer expectations while protecting company contractual and commercial interests.

Production & Operations

• Work closely with Production Planning and Manufacturing to ensure customer demand is aligned with available capacity.
• Monitor production schedules, work-in-process (WIP), material availability, machine capacity, and labor requirements.
• Identify production bottlenecks and coordinate recovery plans to maintain delivery commitments.
• Support Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning (SIOP/S&OP) and capacity-planning activities.
• Track and improve On-Time Delivery (OTD) performance.
• Coordinate priorities for critical and past-due orders.

Supply Chain

• Coordinate with Supply Chain and Purchasing to ensure materials, outside processing, tooling, and components are available to support production schedules.
• Identify long-lead and critical materials that could affect program schedules.
• Support supplier recovery efforts when supplier performance impacts customer commitments.
• Participate in make-versus-buy and sourcing decisions when required.

Financial & Commercial Management

• Monitor program revenue, costs, margins, forecasts, and profitability.
• Review actual program performance against budgets and forecasts.
• Identify cost overruns and coordinate corrective actions.
• Support quotation, pricing, proposal, and contract-review activities.
• Evaluate the financial and operational impact of customer changes.
• Support Engineering Change Orders (ECOs), Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE), tooling, and other program-related commercial activities.

Quality & Compliance

• Ensure program execution complies with customer, regulatory, contractual, and internal quality requirements.
• Work closely with Quality to address nonconformances, customer complaints, corrective actions, and escapes.
• Support First Article Inspection (FAI) requirements in accordance with AS9102, when applicable.
• Support compliance with AS9100, FAA, ITAR, EAR, and customer-specific requirements as applicable.
• Participate in customer and regulatory audits when required.

New Product Introduction (NPI)

• Lead or coordinate new program launches from contract award through production readiness.
• Coordinate drawings, specifications, BOMs, routings, tooling, CNC programming, inspection requirements, and manufacturing plans.
• Track tooling, fixtures, raw materials, outside processing, and qualification requirements.
• Coordinate First Article Inspection and customer approval activities.
• Ensure a controlled transition from prototype or development builds into recurring production.

Risk Management

• Identify program risks involving schedule, cost, quality, capacity, supply chain, and technical requirements.
• Maintain program risk registers and mitigation plans.
• Escalate critical risks to senior management with recommended corrective actions.
• Lead cross-functional recovery efforts for programs that are behind schedule or experiencing performance issues.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Performance may be measured using:
• On-Time Delivery (OTD)
• Revenue versus forecast
• Gross margin / program profitability
• Customer satisfaction
• Past-due backlog
• Schedule adherence
• Program milestone achievement
• First pass yield and quality performance
• Customer returns and corrective actions
• Inventory and WIP performance
• NPI / First Article completion
• Program risk reduction

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Manufacturing, Business, Operations Management, Supply Chain, or a related field required.
• MBA or advanced technical/business degree preferred.
• PMP certification is preferred but not required.
• 5–10+ years of experience in aerospace manufacturing,

Pay: $115,000.00 - $135,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Application Question(s):

• Do you have experience within the Aerospace industry? If yes, how many years?

Education:

• Bachelor's (Preferred)

Experience:

• Manufacturing: 5 years (Preferred)
• AS9100: 5 years (Preferred)

License/Certification:

• PMP (Preferred)

Work Location: In person