Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

Program Operations Specialist

Aerospace & Defense
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in a business, technical, or other relevant field
  • 3+ years of relevant experience coordinating project operations
  • Ability to critically review and organize technical documents
  • Strong communication skills for all management levels
  • Self-starter with excellent prioritization skills
  • Willingness to travel occasionally and work in a secured area
  • Active Secret security clearance with potential for Top Secret clearance

Responsibilities

  • Partner with Program Managers and Project Managers for seamless operations
  • Develop and maintain standard operating procedures for efficiency
  • Monitor operational compliance efforts
  • Prepare information for program reviews and sponsor engagements
  • Serve as liaison among program leadership, technical staff, and stakeholders
  • Collaborate with support organizations to resolve operational issues
  • Manage contractual deliverables and track schedules

Benefits

  • Support for professional development and growth
  • Collaborative and supportive team environment
  • Opportunity to work on innovative projects
  • Participation in high-level program engagement
  • Potential for a security clearance advancement opportunity
Full Job Description
Description

Do you enjoy working on challenging projects?

Are you skilled in customer service, problem solving and have a high attention to detail?

Do you desire participating on groundbreaking projects?

We are seeking a Program Operations Specialist to support the Force Projection Sector's (FPS) varied portfolio of projects. You will join a dedicated team of business professionals that provides operational leadership and project coordination across all phases of the project lifecycle. In this role, you will partner closely with program leadership, technical staff, and support organizations to ensure projects are executed efficiently, sponsor requirements are met, and operational activities remain aligned with program objectives.

As a Program Operations Specialist, you will:

Program and Project Operations -
  • Partner with Program Managers (PMs) and Project Managers (PjMs) to ensure seamless program operations, establish priorities, mitigate operational risks, drive timely delivery of contractual obligations, and oversee day-to-day project execution from initiation through closeout.
  • Develop and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) that promote consistency, efficiency, and successful project delivery.
  • Monitor and provide oversight and coordination of operational compliance efforts.

Program and Project Administration -
  • Develop a thorough understanding of program objectives, technical efforts, and sponsor priorities to effectively support program execution and communicate program activities to internal and external stakeholders.
  • Prepare and organize information for internal and external program reviews, technical exchanges, and sponsor engagements, including content review of technical materials prepared by technical staff.
  • Serve as a key liaison among program leadership, technical staff, sponsors, and stakeholders to facilitate communication, track actions, and drive successful outcomes.

Logistics, Collaboration, and Operational Leadership -
  • Collaborate with APL support organizations, including security, IT, quality, communications, procurement, property, and administrative services, to secure resources, coordinate logistics, and resolve operational issues that impact project execution.
  • Lead coordination of meetings, reviews, facilities, security, schedules, and other program activities to ensure milestones and commitments are achieved.

Contractual Deliverables and Performance Management -
  • Manage contractual and programmatic deliverables by tracking schedules, milestones, and stakeholder inputs to ensure commitments are met.
  • Help identify potential execution risks and recommend corrective actions to maintain schedule, quality, and sponsor satisfaction.

Technical Support and Reporting -
  • Develop sufficient understanding of program technical efforts to effectively communicate objectives, impacts, and accomplishments to multiple audiences.
  • Support project kickoff activities, task planning, Statements of Work (SOWs), execution reviews, and operational reporting to ensure alignment with sponsor requirements and project objectives.

Proposal Development
  • Collaborate with PMs and FMs to support proposal development activities, facilitate technical information flow, assist with review processes, and help ensure proposal quality and compliance with customer requirements.

Additional Responsibilities - perform other duties as assigned in support of program, sector, and organizational objectives.

Qualifications

You meet our minimum qualifications if you...
  • Have a Bachelor 's Degree in a business, technical, or other relevant field.
  • Have 3+ years of relevant experience coordinating project operations.
  • Proven ability to review and organize technical information and provide a critical review of documents for technical content and style while also being able to create presentations from existing material for high-level briefings.
  • Possess strong communication skills with demonstrated experience in effectively communicating with all levels of management, military and government officials.
  • Proven ability to be a self-starter with a high level of initiative and can effectively prioritize competing efforts and independently solve moderately complex problems.
  • Are willing to travel occasionally and work in a closed area as needed.
  • Hold an active Secret security clearance and can ultimately obtain a Top Secret level clearance. If selected, you will be subject to a government security clearance investigation and must meet the requirements for access to classified information. Eligibility requirements include U.S. citizenship.

You 'll go above and beyond our minimum requirements if you have...
  • An Active TS/SCI security clearance.
  • A demonstrated proficiency in tracking, monitoring and updating program schedules, milestones and/or contract deliverables.

Minimum Rate

$62,900 Annually

Maximum Rate

$180,300 Annually

About Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is a research and development organization that provides solutions to national security and scientific challenges. The laboratory was founded in 1942 and is located in Laurel, Maryland. APL is a division of the Johns Hopkins University and is a not-for-profit organization. The laboratory has expertise in a variety of areas, including space exploration, national security, and healthcare.
Learn more about Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
Size
7,000 employees
Industry
Founded
1942

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