Senior Program Manager / Account Leader

MicroSystems Automation Group

• $120K — $145K *
Aerospace & Defense
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years in technical program management
  • Active PMP, PfMP, or PgMP certification required
  • Bachelor's degree in engineering, math, or science
  • 15+ years of federal program management experience
  • U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain Federal Public Trust clearance

Responsibilities

  • Serve as primary interface with customer leadership to ensure transparency
  • Clarify and align contract scope with customer needs
  • Identify and resolve operational and relational risks proactively
  • Lead and mentor an engineering team to align activities with contract deliverables
  • Ensure compliance with federal standards in daily execution
  • Oversee financial management and ensure invoicing accuracy
  • Maintain strong service delivery for contract growth and stability

Benefits

  • Paid company benefits
  • Paid time off
  • Sick leave
  • Federal/national holiday pay
Full Job Description
MSAG is seeking a resilient, high-EQ Program Manager to lead and rebuild a key technical contract by establishing critical customer trust and guiding a specialized engineering team. This role requires an experienced technical leader with an engineering or scientific background who excels in relationship building, clear boundary-setting, operational discipline, and team/task realignment. The ideal candidate is a proactive communicator and change management leader who can step into a complex environment, establish radical transparency with customer stakeholders, realign team workflows to corporate and contract deliverables, and re-establish execution excellence. If you thrive on taking ambiguous and intricate delivery environments and turning them into showcase high-performing accounts, this role is for you. Duties/Responsibilities: Program Leadership, Operations & Risk Management • Stakeholder Alignment & Transparency: Serve as the primary, visible interface to customer leadership. Address challenges directly by implementing clear, transparent operational reporting and high-accountability delivery cadences. • Scope Management: Work closely with customer stakeholders to clarify, align, and manage scope expectations, ensuring contract deliverables directly resolve core customer pain points. • Proactive Risk & Issue Resolution: Identify operational, technical, or relational risks early. Drive root-cause problem solving and deliver swift, communicative resolution to ensure customer confidence. • Team Governance & Alignment: Lead, mentor, and realign a dedicated engineering team. Establish clear operational parameters between customer directives and contractual scope to ensure team activities are aligned with MSAG standards. • Performance Culture & Accountabilities: Balance strong employee advocacy with high performance standards. Establish transparent metrics, individual performance goals, and a collaborative team environment that respects customer needs while maintaining contractor identity. • Talent Development & Mentorship: Conduct regular one-on-ones, provide clear career paths, and build team morale around achievable, celebrated operational milestones. Program Operations, Financials & Compliance • Execution & Quality Assurance: Oversee daily technical execution, ensuring processes are streamlined, workflows are documentable, and contract outputs satisfy federal compliance standards. • Financial Oversight and Management: Oversee monthly invoicing accuracy, manage labor hour ceilings, track PTO/travel requests, and maintain semi-monthly timecard compliance across the team, while managing profitability targets. • Management Reporting: Develop and present concise, impactful Monthly Program Management Reviews (PMRs) for both MSAG executive leadership and customer representatives. Account Strategy and Growth • Delivery Excellence & Growth: Maintain a relentless focus on high-quality service delivery, leveraging strong customer trust as the foundation for long-term contract stability, recompete preparation, and organic expansion. • Recompete & Capture Readiness: Maintain detailed knowledge of contract scope and performance data to lead future recompete and capture efforts seamlessly. • Executive Presence: Navigate complex customer relationships, align priorities, and foster collaborative environments across multi-stakeholder groups. • Scope Discipline: Maintain contractual scope boundaries professionally while identifying future opportunities to add value. Required Education, Certifications & Experience • Residency & Clearance: U.S. Citizenship is required. Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a Federal Public Trust clearance (Active security clearance preferred). • Education: Bachelor's degree in engineering, math, or science. • Certifications: Active Project Management Professional (PMP), Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP), Program Management Professional (PgMP), or equivalent formal program management certification is required. Exceptions may be made based on skills and experience. • Experience: 15+ years of progressive federal technical program management experience, with proven experience in account turnaround, stakeholder relationship repair, or crisis/change management. Preferred Skills, Competencies & Qualifications • Relationship Recovery & Negotiation: Demonstrated capability to navigate sensitive customer relationships, de-escalate friction, and turn around underperforming or low-trust projects, if needed. • Boundary-Setting & Scope Discipline: Ability to politely, firmly, and professionally enforce contractual scope boundaries with both internal staff and customer stakeholders, as appropriate. • Emotional Intelligence & Change Management: Exceptional interpersonal skills needed to motivate an entrenched team and foster corporate alignment without damaging team morale. • Technical Communication: Excellent executive-level written and verbal briefing skills, capable of translating complex engineering details into clear management metrics. Full-time employees are eligible for paid company benefits, paid time off, sick leave and federal /national holiday pay.

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