Program Manager

About the role

You will oversee end-to-end program execution for sonobuoy and SONAR data initiatives that directly affect warfighter outcomes. You will serve as the primary interface between the U.S. Navy leadership and multi-vendor development teams, ensuring alignment on mission-critical objectives. This role requires you to operate within a flat organizational structure where your decisions can immediately influence project direction and national security impact. You will manage the full lifecycle of Agile delivery, from backlog refinement through sprint execution, while maintaining strict compliance in classified environments. You will coordinate personnel, vendors, and stakeholders so that every team member understands their responsibilities and deadlines. You will safeguard schedule integrity by tracking dependencies and removing blockers before they affect delivery dates. Ultimately, your work will ensure that cutting-edge sensor systems and data processing capabilities are delivered on time and meet the highest standards of reliability.

Key facts

What you'll do

Coordinate and facilitate Agile/Scrum ceremonies, including sprint planning, daily standups, reviews, and retrospectives, for a multi-vendor development team working on sonobuoy and SONAR data initiatives.

Own end-to-end backlog management by decomposing requirements, prioritizing capability increments, and synchronizing priorities with the government lead to maintain clarity across teams.

Proactively manage contractor and vendor onboarding, covering security processing, account requests, facility access, CAC coordination, and IT/environment access tracking to keep operations running smoothly.

Organize and supervise travel logistics, including VAR preparation, detailed agendas, on-site coordination, and engagement synchronization with external partners and government stakeholders.

Maintain and distribute program management artifacts such as Jira boards, MS Teams channels, schedules, action trackers, risk and issue logs, and status reporting packages for government oversight.

Track submission deadlines, task status, dependencies, and cross-team coordination actions to ensure no critical item is overlooked in a fast-paced, multi-vendor environment.

Facilitate recurring team synchronization events, manage action tracking, and ensure that meeting outputs are captured and followed up on to completion.

Liaise with government stakeholders, external organizations, and supporting offices to anticipate emerging priorities, requirements, and suspense actions that could affect delivery timelines.

Support budget tracking, acquisition coordination, contract deliverable tracking, and reporting to ensure financial and schedule adherence on defense contracts.

Assist the government lead with vendor coordination, meeting preparation, and operational engagement planning to sustain productive relationships and mission-focused execution.

Requirements

Active TS/SCI clearance is required, and you must be capable of obtaining and maintaining a Counterintelligence (CI) Polygraph as part of ongoing eligibility.

You must be a U.S. Citizen, as this role requires access to classified national security information and trust eligibility.

You must demonstrate experience managing software, AI/ML, or operational capability development teams using Scrum or other Agile frameworks.

You must prove you can track a hundred moving parts simultaneously without dropping any across multiple teams and vendors.

You must have strong backlog management, requirements decomposition, and prioritization skills to ensure the most critical capabilities are delivered first.

You must have experience maintaining program management artifacts and status reporting for government stakeholders to ensure transparency and compliance.

You must be comfortable operating in a classified environment where priorities evolve frequently and you must remain focused under pressure.

U.S. Citizenship is a mandatory requirement for this position due to the sensitive nature of the work and security obligations.

You must be able to support periodic travel approximately every 30 days to CCMDs, service components, operational units, and industry or vendor locations.

You must be able to operate effectively in fast-paced, multi-vendor, government-led development environments with evolving priorities and shifting requirements.

You must possess strong written and verbal communication skills to interact with technical developers, operational users, senior leaders, and external vendors.

Nice to have

Familiarity with Joint Staff, CCMD, SOCOM, CDAO, or Intelligence Community coordination environments and their specific workflows.

Experience supporting classified development environments and managing the associated compliance and documentation requirements.

Experience with rapid capability delivery and iterative user-feedback cycles to ensure solutions meet user needs quickly.

PMP, CSM, or SAFe certification to demonstrate structured program and agile management expertise.

Experience in classified operational environments and working within cross-domain data constraints that affect system design and data flow.

Familiarity with Agile development practices, rapid capability delivery, and iterative user-feedback cycles to continuously improve solution quality.

Military Intelligence or Intelligence Community experience to better align with the mission set and operational terminology.

Practical notes

This role requires periodic travel approximately every 30 days to locations such as CCMDs, service components, operational units, and vendor sites.

U.S. Citizenship and the ability to obtain a TS/SCI with a Counterintelligence Polygraph are non-negotiable requirements.

Candidates must be able to operate within a classified environment and adhere to strict government and security protocols at all times.