Skyborne Technologies USA, LLC Technical Program Manager McLean, VA · Full time Company website

Apply for Technical Program Manager

Skyborne Technologies USA develops AI-enabled unmanned and robotic systems for defense and national security customers. With over a decade of R&D, Skyborne combines advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, and operational expertise to deliver mission-ready solutions across air and ground platforms. As a growing U.S. defense technology company, you'll work with cutting-edge systems, collaborate directly with experienced engineers and operators, and help deploy innovative capabilities that make a real impact in the field.

The Technical Program Manager (TPM) leads complex, multi-disciplinary programs across Skyborne’s product lines and R&D initiatives. The role has primary responsibility for execution of key U.S. technical programs while also providing global technical/program coordination for CODiAQ. This role bridges engineering, operations, and customer engagement to ensure the successful delivery of technical solutions on time, within budget, and in full compliance with contractual and regulatory requirements. The TPM serves as the single accountable owner for program execution, from concept development through production, deployment, and sustainment and acts as the primary technical interface to U.S. defense customers and internal executive leadership. For CODiAQ, the TPM will provide global technical/program oversight of product priorities, engineering changes, configuration and capability development across customer programs. This does not require the TPM to personally manage the day-to-day execution of every regional CODiAQ customer program. Regional execution may be supported by local resources as customer demand and workload require.

                                                                                                                                                             

Essential Job Functions

 

Program Leadership

• Own end-to-end program execution for Skyborne’s systems, from concept and design through qualification, production, deployment, and sustainment.
• Lead technical program execution for key U.S. CODiAQ programs and other strategic U.S. customer activities.
• Provide global technical/program coordination for CODiAQ, ensuring product priorities, engineering changes, configuration decisions and capability developments remain aligned across customer programs.
• Support international CODiAQ programs where technical/program knowledge is required without becoming the routine day-to-day customer program manager for every regional customer.
• Work with regional teams and, where justified by customer demand or workload, regional program-management resources to support local execution.
• Develop, baseline, and maintain Integrated Master Schedules (IMS), budgets, and risk registers.
• Build and manage program budgets, including cost baselines, estimates, and variance analysis against approved spend plans.
• Lead cross-functional program teams through matrixed authority, driving accountability for milestone commitments without direct reporting relationships.
• Ensure developments arising from major U.S. programs, customer requirements and reasonable IRAD activities are coordinated within the broader product roadmap and, where appropriate, leveraged across other CODiAQ customers and markets.

 

Technical Coordination

• Collaborate with engineering disciplines, software, avionics, guidance/navigation/control (GNC), payload integration, structures, propulsion, and test to align and sequence technical milestones across the program baseline.
• Translate customer requirements and operational needs into decomposed, traceable technical requirements in partnership with Systems Engineering.
• Coordinate resolution of cross-discipline technical trades, interface conflicts and integration issues in partnership with the responsible engineering leads.
• Drive resolution of cross-discipline technical trades, interface conflicts, and integration issues.
• Ensure compliance with applicable military and interoperability standards, including MIL-STD, STANAG, and customer-specific system performance specifications.
• Support verification and validation planning, test readiness, flight test campaigns, and qualification evidence packages.
• Act as a technical bridge between Skyborne Technologies USA and the Australian Engineering team, ensuring field experience, customer requirements and engineering changes are communicated effectively across the Group.
• Support the U.S. Field Service Representative and broader field-support function with product knowledge, technical escalation, fault-resolution coordination and access to the appropriate Engineering resources.

 

Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary day-to-day interface for U.S. defense customers, prime contractors, subcontractors, and government program offices.
• Prepare and deliver program status reports, technical briefs, milestone review packages, and risk assessments to customer and internal executive audiences.
• Manage customer expectations regarding scope, schedule, and technical performance; identify and support the disposition of change requests, ECPs, and contract modifications.
• Communicate program health transparently and proactively, surfacing issues early with recommended courses of action rather than status-only reporting.
• Represent the program at customer site visits, design reviews, test events, demonstrations, and industry engagements.
• Capture customer-driven capability requirements and coordinate their assessment through Engineering, Product and leadership rather than making unsupported commitments to customers.

 

Manufacturing Oversight

• Support U.S. manufacturing readiness for Skyborne platforms and subsystems, including production planning, rate readiness, build schedules and first-article activities. Coordinate with contract manufacturers, internal production teams, and quality organizations to ensure conformance to drawing, schedule adherence, and cost control. Implement lean manufacturing principles and continuous improvement initiatives to improve throughput, yield, and unit cost.
• Monitor supply chain performance and anticipate and resolve component shortages, long-lead item risks.
• Support make/buy decisions, transition-to-production planning, and manufacturing readiness level (MRL) assessments.
• Provide technical program coordination between U.S. manufacturing partners and the Australian engineering/manufacturing teams as U.S. production capability develops.

 

Process & Documentation

• Oversee configuration management across hardware and software baselines.
• Own the generation, review, and on-time delivery of Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) items.
• Maintain acquisition and program documentation.
• Implement and tailor Agile and milestone-based delivery frameworks appropriate to hybrid hardware/software integration efforts.
• Ensure documentation practices satisfy applicable quality system requirements and customer audit readiness.

 

Risk & Quality

• Proactively identify technical, schedule, cost, and supply chain risks; develop, resource, and execute mitigation and contingency strategies.
• Partner with Quality Assurance to ensure adherence to safety-critical requirements, airworthiness considerations, and nonconformance/corrective action processes.
• Support system safety analysis and hazard tracking activities in coordination with engineering and safety leads.
• Conduct and document lessons-learned reviews at major milestones and program close-out, feeding improvements back into organizational process assets.

 

Additional Responsibilities and Requirements

·       Support business development activities including proposal development, technical volume input, basis-of-estimate (BOE) generation, and cost/schedule realism reviews.

·       Maintain compliance with U.S. export control regulations (ITAR/EAR) in all technical exchanges, data handling, and foreign national interactions.

·       Handle Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and classified material in accordance with company security policy and applicable government requirements.

·       Travel to customer sites, test ranges, supplier facilities, and manufacturing partners as required (up to 25%, occasionally on short notice).

·       International travel may be required to support strategic programs, engineering coordination, training or other business requirements; however, the role is not intended to require routine travel to personally manage every regional CODiAQ customer program.

·       Support after-hours or weekend activity during critical test campaigns, integration events, delivery pushes, or customer-driven schedule demands.

·       Complete required annual training including security, export control, ethics, and safety.

·       Perform other duties as assigned in support of program and organizational objectives.

                                                                                                                                                                     

Qualifications, Education, and Experience

·       Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline from an accredited institution.

·       Minimum of 5–8 years of progressive experience in technical program management, systems engineering, or engineering leadership, including at least 3 years with direct program ownership (cost, schedule, and technical accountability).

·       Demonstrated experience delivering complex hardware/software integrated systems in an aerospace, defense, robotics, or comparable regulated environment.

·       Working knowledge of U.S. defense acquisition processes, contract types, and CDRL/DID deliverable management.

·       Proven experience building and managing Integrated Master Schedules, budgets, and risk registers on programs of meaningful scale and complexity.

·       Experience interfacing directly with government or prime contractor customers in a technical representative capacity.

·       Ability to access and handle technical data required for the position in accordance with applicable U.S. export-control authorizations and Company procedures.

 

Desired Skills

• Earned Value Management (EVM) principles and reporting
• Critical path and schedule risk analysis
• Requirements decomposition, traceability, and verification planning
• UAV/UAS platforms, subsystems, and mission systems
• Avionics, GNC, autonomy, and flight software integration
• Manufacturing processes - composites, machining, electronics assembly, harnessing
• Airworthiness, system safety, and qualification/environmental testing

 

Cognitive and Physical Demands

·       Sustained concentration and analytical reasoning to evaluate complex technical, schedule, and cost interdependencies across multiple concurrent workstreams.

·       Ability to rapidly assimilate and synthesize large volumes of technical information from diverse engineering disciplines.

·       Sound judgment and decision-making under time pressure, ambiguity, and incomplete or conflicting data.

·       Capacity to manage frequent context switching among programs, stakeholders, and priorities without loss of accuracy.

·       Attention to detail sufficient to detect errors, inconsistencies, and risk indicators in schedules, budgets, technical documentation, and contract deliverables.

·       Emotional regulation and professional composure during high-stakes customer engagements, program escalations, and schedule crises.

·       Effective communication — reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension of complex technical English.

·       Primarily sedentary work; frequent sitting at a workstation for extended periods (4–8 hours per day).

·       Constant use of a computer, keyboard, and mouse; repetitive hand and wrist motion.

·       Frequent close visual acuity for reading engineering drawings, schedules, code, technical documents, and computer displays.

·       Regular verbal communication in person, by telephone, and via video conference; must be able to exchange detailed information accurately.

·       Occasional standing, walking, bending, stooping, kneeling, and reaching while conducting production floor walks, laboratory visits, or flight line/test range activity.

·       Occasional lifting, carrying, pushing, or pulling of up to 25 pounds (e.g., equipment cases, test articles, documentation).

·       Ability to ascend/descend stairs and navigate manufacturing, hangar, and field environments.

·       Ability to travel by air and ground, including transporting personal luggage and program materials.

Working Conditions

·       Professional office setting with standard climate control, lighting, and moderate noise levels typical of a collaborative engineering workplace.

·       Regular presence in manufacturing floors, integration labs, cleanrooms, hangars, and test facilities where exposure to moderate-to-loud noise, machinery, fumes, dust, and adhesives or composite materials may occur. Personal protective equipment (safety glasses, hearing protection, ESD garments, steel-toe footwear) is required in designated areas.

·       Occasional work at outdoor flight test ranges and customer field sites, with exposure to variable weather conditions, temperature extremes, uneven terrain, and extended-duration test events.

·       Standard business hours with flexibility required. Extended hours, weekend work, and off-shift support are periodically necessary to meet program milestones, test windows, and customer commitments.

·       Up to 25% domestic travel to customer sites, supplier facilities, test ranges, and industry events; occasional international travel may be required.

·       Work may be performed in access-controlled facilities, or closed areas. Compliance with facility security protocols, badge/escort procedures, and restrictions on personal electronic devices is mandatory.

·       Position is subject to U.S. export control laws.