Position Title: Program Manager, Federal IT Operations and Software Engineering Services

Location: Silver Spring, MD - On-Site at the customer facility

Clearance: Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust

Travel: Occasional travel to field sites, vessels, and aircraft facilities; estimated 10% -15%

Direct Scope: Approximately 20-25 technical staff across 7 geographically distributed sites

Position Overview
IBSS is seeking an experienced Technical Program Manager to lead a multi-site information technology services program for a federal customer whose operations span ocean-going research vessels, crewed aircraft, and uncrewed marine and airborne systems.

This is the senior on-site leadership role for the program: you own contract performance, customer relationship, service delivery across the full IT portfolio, and the technical workforce that delivers it.

The program is broad. It spans program and project management, cybersecurity and system authorization, multi-tier service desk operations, network provisioning and administration, systems engineering and cloud infrastructure, custom software development, and federal IT acquisition support.

This role suits an individual who has run a federal IT services program end-to-end and wants a program with real technical substance rather than a purely administrative portfolio.

Half of the staff are software engineers and infrastructure specialists. The customer measures performance against published, quantitative service standards every month. The successful individual will be accountable for those numbers.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the single point of accountability for all contract performance, deliverables, and outcomes, and as the primary interface to the Contracting Officers Representative and the government Task Manager.
• Develop, maintain, and execute the Program Management Plan governing how requirements and deliverables are managed, how performance is tracked, how staffing is managed, and how costs are projected and controlled.
• Own the deliverable calendar end to end, including a recurring monthly status report, monthly leadership status meetings, and a series of operational reports on service desk performance, IT asset inventory, network performance, and system performance.
• Maintain the program risk register, identify emerging risks before they become issues, and escalate to the customer with a recommended course of action rather than an open question.
• Build and sustain a working relationship with government leadership grounded in transparency about performance, including performance that falls short.
• Hold delivery accountability across every functional area of the program: program and project management, cybersecurity, service desk, network services, systems engineering and administration, software development, and acquisition support.
• Manage to published, quantitative service standards. Representative examples include first-response times measured in minutes for high-severity incidents and executive users, first-contact resolution rates, network and system availability targets at three-nines, defined vulnerability remediation windows by severity, and defect-free release criteria for software delivery.
• Develop and enforce the Quality Control Plan, including quality assurance procedures, defect prevention, corrective action, performance monitoring, internal auditing, and training.
• Lead a structured transition covering knowledge transfer, transfer of documentation, tools, licenses, configuration records, active projects, and open service desk tickets.
• Stand up the program governance, reporting, and metrics infrastructure within the first weeks of performance, including a kickoff meeting, the program management plan, the staffing plan, and the quality control plan on an aggressive delivery schedule.

Required Qualifications

• Active PMP certification.
• Eight (8+) years of progressive experience managing federal information technology services programs, including at least 5 years as Program Manager or Deputy Program Manager on a prime contract or a major subcontract.
• Experience leading a blended technical workforce that includes software developers, infrastructure or network engineers, cybersecurity personnel, and service desk staff. This role requires enough technical fluency to evaluate the work, not merely to schedule it.
• Experience authoring and executing core program artifacts: program management plans, staffing plans, quality control plans, communication plans, and transition plans.
• Working knowledge of federal information security requirements, including FISMA, the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF), authorization to operate (ATO) maintenance, and plan of action and milestones management.
  
  • You do not need to be a security engineer, but you must be able to hold a security program accountable.
• Experience leading a contract transition or program phase-in, including incumbent staff capture and onboarding under schedule pressure.
• Exceptional written communication. This program produces monthly reporting and analytical products that go to senior government readers, and writing quality is a visible part of the customer's perception of the program.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust / High Risk suitability determination.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certified ScrumMaster or Professional Scrum Master I.
• SAFe certification such as SAFe Agilist, Release Train Engineer, or Program Consultant.
• Prior program experience with the Department of Commerce, NOAA, or another federal agency with maritime, aviation, or field-station operations.
• Experience supporting distributed or edge computing environments where connectivity is constrained - vessels, aircraft, remote field sites, or deployed operations.
• Experience overseeing a custom software development portfolio, including Agile delivery at CMMI Maturity
• Level 3 and management of multiple concurrent development teams.

IBSS offers a competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage with a company-paid deductible, paid time off, federal holidays, a matching 401K plan, tuition/professional development reimbursement, and Flex-Spending (FSA)/Dependent Care Account (DCA) options.