Position Overview
The Customer Programs Manager is responsible for building trusted customer relationships and driving successful execution of complex manufacturing programs from order intake through delivery, customer acceptance, and closeout. This role serves as a key liaison between customers and internal teams, ensuring clear communication, proactive issue resolution, realistic commitments, and accountability for results.
The ideal candidate combines strong customer credibility and executive-level communication skills with a practical understanding of manufacturing execution. They can navigate competing priorities, influence across organizational boundaries, recognize risks before they become problems, and make sound decisions under pressure.
This is a hands-on, customer-facing leadership role for someone who takes ownership, builds confidence through follow-through, and balances customer expectations with operational realities, quality requirements, delivery commitments, and business performance.
Key Responsibilities
Customer Relationship Management & Communication
• Establish and maintain trusted relationships with strategic customers through consistent communication, credibility, responsiveness, and follow-through.
• Serve as the primary point of coordination between customers and internal teams, ensuring customer priorities, expectations, and commitments are clearly understood.
• Communicate confidently and professionally with customer executives, technical teams, project stakeholders, and internal leadership.
• Lead difficult conversations involving schedule changes, delivery risks, quality concerns, scope changes, and other challenges while maintaining customer confidence.
• Manage escalations, resolve conflicts, anticipate customer concerns, and develop practical solutions before issues affect the relationship or program performance.
• Set realistic expectations and communicate what customers need to know, even when the message is difficult.
• Build customer confidence through clear presentations, accurate information, sound judgment, and consistent execution.
Program Execution & Manufacturing Coordination
• Own assigned customer programs from order intake through manufacturing execution, inspection, shipment, delivery, customer acceptance, and closeout, coordinating activities across engineering, manufacturing, quality, procurement, and other supporting functions while partnering with Sales and Business Development on follow-on opportunities.
• Develop and maintain program schedules, milestones, action plans, and status reporting to provide visibility into progress, risks, and commitments.
• Understand manufacturing constraints, engineering requirements, supply-chain challenges, and production priorities that may affect customer delivery.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams to resolve issues, manage competing priorities, and maintain alignment on program objectives.
• Identify potential schedule delays, resource constraints, quality issues, and other execution risks early; establish mitigation plans and drive actions through closure.
• Evaluate the impact of scope changes, schedule adjustments, quality concerns, and execution decisions on customer relationships and business performance.
• Ensure customer commitments are supported by achievable execution plans and realistic schedules.
• Maintain accurate program documentation, meeting records, action items, decisions, and customer communications.
• Coordinate with Quality on customer inspections, witness and hold points, nonconformances, and required documentation packages.
Business Performance & Accountability
• Demonstrate proactive ownership of program commitments, customer concerns, and internal action items through resolution.
• Support contract execution, change orders, billing milestones, margin management, and cash collection.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to address commercial issues, clarify scope, document changes, and ensure appropriate follow-through on customer commitments.
• Help protect program margins and business performance while maintaining strong customer relationships.
• Escalate risks appropriately, communicate facts clearly, and recommend solutions rather than simply reporting problems.
• Strengthen program visibility, improve handoffs, and support continuous improvement in customer program management processes.
Cross-Functional Leadership
• Influence and align teams across organizational boundaries without relying on direct reporting authority.
• Build accountability among engineering, manufacturing, quality, procurement, and other stakeholders to ensure commitments are met.
• Facilitate productive discussions when priorities conflict, helping teams reach practical decisions that support customer and business objectives.
• Exercise sound judgment under pressure, balancing customer expectations with manufacturing capabilities, contractual obligations, quality standards, and operational realities.
• Contribute to the development of effective tools, processes, reporting, and operating practices as the Customer Programs function grows.
Required Qualifications
• Five or more years of experience in customer program management, program management, project management, account management, operations, engineering, manufacturing, or a related customer-facing execution role.
• Demonstrated success managing customer relationships and complex programs in a manufacturing, industrial, technical, or similarly demanding business environment.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to communicate confidently with senior customer executives and technical teams.
• Proven ability to establish customer credibility, manage difficult conversations, resolve conflicts, and maintain trust when commitments or circumstances change.
• Practical understanding of manufacturing execution, schedules, milestones, production constraints, and the coordination required to deliver complex products.
• Strong working knowledge of project controls, schedules, milestone management, risk management, action tracking, and status reporting.
• Strong ownership, accountability, organization, follow-through, and attention to detail.
• Ability to identify risks, anticipate problems, exercise sound judgment, and drive issues to resolution under pressure.
• Demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional teams and achieve results without direct reporting authority.
• Strong business acumen, including an understanding of how execution decisions affect customer relationships, delivery performance, costs, and profitability.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook.
Preferred Experience
Experience in one or more of the following areas is valuable:
• Customer-facing leadership in complex manufacturing industries, such as aerospace, defense, industrial equipment, precision machining, fabrication, or other engineered-product environments.
• Managing complex manufacturing programs involving engineering requirements, production schedules, supply-chain coordination, and demanding customer-delivery expectations.
• Build-to-print, engineered-to-order, machining, fabrication, pressure-boundary, packaging, or other complex manufacturing environments.
• Familiarity with ERP, MRP, project management, scheduling, CRM, or manufacturing planning systems.
• Experience with contract execution, change orders, billing milestones, margin management, or cash collection.
• Exposure to quality and compliance requirements in regulated manufacturing environments.
Nuclear industry experience is preferred, but not required. Experience with NQA-1, ASME Section III, commercial-grade dedication, 10 CFR 50 Appendix B, or similar quality and compliance frameworks is beneficial but not a prerequisite.
A PMP or other program/project management certification is not required.
What Success Looks Like
Successful Customer Programs Managers build customer confidence through credible communication, proactive ownership, and dependable execution. They understand both what the customer expects and what the organization can realistically deliver.
In this role, success means:
• Customer credibility: Customers trust the information, recommendations, and commitments provided by the program manager.
• Proactive ownership: Risks and concerns are identified early, with clear plans and accountability for resolution.
• Manufacturing understanding: Program decisions reflect an understanding of production requirements, schedules, constraints, and supply-chain dependencies.
• Cross-functional influence: Internal teams remain aligned and accountable, even when priorities conflict or direct authority is limited.
• Sound judgment under pressure: Difficult situations are handled honestly and professionally, with solutions that balance customer needs and business realities.
• Reliable execution: Programs have clear milestones, fewer surprises, stronger handoffs, and improved delivery and quality performance.
• Business results: Customer relationships, commercial commitments, cash collection, and margin protection are supported through disciplined program management.
