Hadrian

Program Manager

Hadrian$110K — $130K *
Aerospace & Defense
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 6+ years in management consulting, federal programs, manufacturing, or operations/strategy roles, preferably in aerospace or defense
  • Bachelor's in Business, Economics, Operations, Engineering, or related field; Master’s degree is a plus
  • Willingness to travel 20-40% to customer and manufacturing sites
  • Experience with aerospace and defense manufacturing and large industrial programs
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including executive presentation development
  • Proactive problem-solver thriving in fast-paced, ambiguous environments
  • U.S. person status required; eligibility for security clearance is a plus

Responsibilities

  • Define and execute new programs alongside executive leadership
  • Conduct customer discovery and shape programs from unstructured data
  • Identify and mitigate program risks early in execution phases
  • Oversee factory and production-line setups from capital planning to operational readiness
  • Drive initiatives that enhance Hadrian's growth in defense and aerospace sectors
  • Create quantitative models for operational challenges and investment frameworks
  • Lead execution across cross-functional teams and establish PMO systems

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans for employees
  • 401k plan
  • Possible relocation support based on business needs
  • Flexible vacation policy
  • Equity options
Full Job Description
The Role:

Hadrian builds autonomous, scalable manufacturing to strengthen the national security supply chain. As Program Manager, customer deployments, you9ll scope, execute, and ultimately own the high-impact customer programs and factory stand-ups necessary to enable Hadrian9s mission to reindustrialize defense and aerospace.

You9ll turn ambiguous customer problem sets into structured analyses, program strategies, and business cases that drive go/no-go decisions and execution. Applying first-principles thinking, you9ll produce the executive-ready deliverables that move programs forward: customer proposals, pricing analyses, execution plans, and schedules. You9ll also run and execute these programs with direct P&L responsibility.

You9ll work directly with the CEO and senior leaders, connecting shop-floor reality, executive priorities, and government opportunities to define and launch new programs across the U.S. defense industrial base. We9re looking for someone who can own outcomes and can seamlessly move from a conversation with a C-suite customer to making sure your colleagues complete their badge paperwork.

What You9ll Do

Program Development & Scoping
  • Define new programs and their early execution phases alongside the CEO and senior leaders
  • Run customer discovery, working meetings, and site visits to gather unstructured data and shape programs
  • Surface cost, schedule, and delivery risks early, and drive the mitigation and execution plans
  • Own factory and production-line stand-ups end to end - capital plan, long-lead equipment, site readiness, workforce ramp, and the reviews that clear a line to start producing

Strategic Problem Solving & Business Analysis
  • Drive high-impact initiatives that accelerate Hadrian9s growth across aerospace and defense
  • Build quantitative models that turn operational and customer problems into roadmaps, investment cases, and ROI frameworks
  • Connect manufacturing performance data to business priorities and government program needs
  • Bring structure and decisions to ambiguous, high-stakes manufacturing and execution challenges
  • Support proposal development and capture management, including for follow-on business (e.g., RFP submissions, Statement of Work development)
  • Own program financials: budget, cost-to-complete, and margin, with a clear forecast of where each program lands
  • Work with contracts, quality, and legal to keep programs inside their contractual and regulatory obligations, and flag early where contract terms, export rules, or security requirements drive cost and schedule

Cross-Functional Execution & Delivery
  • Drive execution across engineering, operations, supply chain, and software
  • Own cross-functional workstreams end to end - scope, schedule, risk, and stakeholder alignment
  • Stand up and scale PMO systems (e.g., Work Breakdown Structures, Integrated Master Schedules, Earned Value Management)
  • Run the operating rhythm: recurring reviews, milestone and dependency tracking, and program dashboards
  • Carry programs from qualification and first-article approval through full rate production and handoff to steady-state operations

Executive Communication & Stakeholder Leadership
  • Build and deliver executive presentations, business cases, customer proposals, and internal program materials
  • Synthesize technical, operational, and strategic inputs into clear narratives
  • Lead program reviews, status updates, and risk reporting
  • Act as the primary point of contact for customer program offices, including on site at customer facilities, and position Hadrian for follow-on work

What We9re Looking For
  • Experience: 6+ years in management consulting, federal programs, manufacturing, or operations/strategy roles, ideally within aerospace, defense, or industrial environments. You9ve owned programs or workstreams, not just supported them.
  • Education: Bachelor9s in Business, Economics, Operations, Engineering, or a related field. Master9s degree is a plus.
  • Travel: Willingness to travel 20-40% domestically to customer and manufacturing sites.
  • A&D Familiarity: Direct work in aerospace and defense manufacturing - with Primes, OEMs, Tier 1/2 suppliers, or large industrial programs. Cross-functional experience across Operations, Finance, Engineering, Program Management, or Business teams is a plus.
  • Communication: Strong written and verbal skills. You build executive-grade PowerPoint independently and present to senior internal and external stakeholders on your own.
  • Ownership & Ambiguity: You thrive in fast-paced, evolving environments - proactive, organized, and able to bring structure to complex problems without being told how.
  • Eligibility: U.S. person status required. Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance is a plus.


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
  • Equity

About Hadrian

Hadrianadri?ja?n?s]; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica, a Roman municipium founded by Italic settlers in Hispania Baetica and he came from a branch of the gens Aelia that originated in the Picenean town of Hadria, the Aeli Hadriani. His father was of senatorial rank and was a first cousin of Emperor Trajan. Hadrian married Trajan's grand-niece Vibia Sabina early in his career before Trajan became emperor and possibly at the behest of Trajan's wife Pompeia Plotina. Plotina and Trajan's close friend and adviser Lucius Licinius Sura were well disposed towards Hadrian. When Trajan died, his widow claimed that he had nominated Hadrian as emperor immediately before his death. Rome's military and Senate approved Hadrian's succession, but four leading senators were unlawfully put to death soon after. They had opposed Hadrian or seemed to threaten his succession, and the Senate held him responsible for their deaths and never forgave him. He earned further disapproval among the elite by abandoning Trajan's expansionist policies and territorial gains in Mesopotamia, Assyria, Armenia, and parts of Dacia. Hadrian preferred to invest in the development of stable, defensible borders and the unification of the empire's disparate peoples. He is known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia.
Learn more about Hadrian

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