The RoleThis role leads a fast-moving team of Technical Program Managers and Manufacturing Engineers responsible for capturing and scaling high-upside customer programs at pace. You operate at the intersection of commercial momentum and technical execution; managing people, programs, and ambiguity simultaneously, while partnering closely with product and engineering to turn early customer relationships into durable, profitable programs. Success in this role is measured by revenue growth, delivery performance, customer-facing quality, and the cleanliness and speed of what enters production across a dynamic, fast-changing account base.
What You'll Do- Lead and grow a team of Technical Program Managers and Manufacturing Engineers by setting clear priorities, developing individuals, and maintaining high performance across an expanding portfolio.
- Serve as an escalation point and decision-maker for your customers; operating with urgency and flexibility across varying levels of customer maturity and engagement.
- Drive tight alignment between manufacturing, operations, engineering, and commercial teams to convert new customer commitments into successful, scalable execution.
- Own program status visibility end-to-end. Run open order reviews, maintain accurate delivery data, and issue clear, proactive status communications to customers. Be transparent on what customers need to know while exercising judgment on issues that can be resolved without escalation.
- Own commercial hygiene across your customer base. Drive customers to update purchase orders, confirm need dates, and release engineering changes in real time. When customers are unresponsive, escalate through the right channels early. A clean system is a forcing function on the customer relationship, not a cleanup task for the internal team.
- Own the accuracy of order entry, WO configuration, and revision processing. Zero-defect inputs to the factory are a baseline expectation. Every PO, revision, and engineering change must be processed completely and correctly before it touches the floor. Errors should be treated as defects: tracked, root-caused, and eliminated.
- Own core quality and delivery workflows for your accounts: PPAP compliance, corrective action management, customer return processes, and work order configuration standards.
- Partner with peer TPM leadership to define and maintain factory-facing process standards across the org to ensure consistent production inputs regardless of customer type.
- Build and iterate on lightweight, high-velocity processes and tooling that enable your team to manage fast-moving programs without sacrificing quality or customer trust.
- Identify capability gaps and partner with product and engineering teams to prioritize investments that unlock new customer segments or deal types.
- Lead high-touch operational and business reviews with customers; communicating with the clarity and pace appropriate to fast-moving commercial relationships.
Measures Of Success- Delivery: on-time delivery performance against committed customer schedules.
- Quality: customer-facing quality metrics including return rates, yield, PPAP compliance, and customer scorecards.
- Customer health: account satisfaction and relationship strength.
- Operational cleanliness: escape rate into production (order entry, WO configuration, or customer data gaps), and speed and accuracy of PO and revision processing from customer signal to clean system input.
- Revenue: partner with sales and production teams to drive growth across customer base.
What We're Looking For- 3+ years of direct leadership experience in technical program management, operations, manufacturing, engineering, or related technical industry.
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations, Manufacturing, or a related technical discipline (or equivalent practical experience).
- Proven ability to build structure, develop people, and maintain output quality across a cross-functional group.
- Detail-oriented with high standards for data accuracy and system cleanliness.
- Excellent communication skills with a natural inclination toward high-touch, high-frequency engagement. Demonstrated evidence of influencing without authority.
- Comfortable operating with higher risk tolerance. Demonstrated evidence making technical and operational decisions with incomplete information.
What Will Set You Apart- 5+ years of direct leadership experience in technical program management, operations, manufacturing, engineering, or related technical industry.
- Demonstrated success landing and scaling new customer programs with measurable growth outcomes (ideally in a fast-paced or expansion-oriented environment).
- Strong people management and coaching skills. Comfortable setting direction for a diverse team operating across multiple high-stakes programs/projects simultaneously.
- Experience building and scaling teams in high-growth manufacturing, industrial technology, or advanced manufacturing environments. Ability to develop early-career team members.
- Demonstrated ability to maintain commercial discipline with fast-moving customers whose operational pace frequently outruns their system signals.
- Experience owning or standing up factory-facing delivery processes in fast-moving environments. Ability to translate complex, rapidly evolving customer requirements into consistent internal workflows.
- Experience implementing digital manufacturing workflows, automation initiatives, or scalable onboarding processes.
Benefits for Full-time Employees- Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans for employees
- 401k
- Relocation support may be provided for certain situations, based on business need.
- Flexible vacation policy
ITAR RequirementsTo conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
