Lead and direct cross-functional engineering and business teams during proposal, design, manufacturing, and delivery phases of products in development and production phases Lead program risk and opportunity management across all program functions through identification, mitigation planning and execution. Transition innovative optical product designs to manufacturing, working with the technical team to identify ways to streamline manufacturing and assembly processes, achieving required delivery rates and reduced cost targets Develop and execute to project budgets and schedules, including Earned Value Management System (EVMS), critical path management, Estimates-at-Completion (EACs), and workload forecasts Work with supply chain and suppliers and be able to articulate project requirements and ensure compliance Brief internal and customer leadership on progress of work assigned Lead failure root cause analysis and corrective action teams using the 8D methodology Track and report on manufacturing metrics vs. plan including yield, COPQ and throughput Establish milestones and monitors adherence to master plans and schedules Identify program problems and generation and execution of recovery plans Work closely with leadership to ensure full compliance with Division, Corporate, and Government policies Accountable for aspects of program execution and success Bachelor's degree in engineering or technical discipline and 8 years of relevant experience, OR 5 years of experience with a Master's degree 5+ years of Program or Project Management experience or similar (e.g. Lead IPT (Integrated Product Team), Control Account Manager (CAM), or Lead NPT (New Product Team)). Experience in the Aerospace/Defense Industry and design for manufacturing and transition to production programs Gated design development experience (PDR, CDR) Strong interpersonal, communication and presentation skills Proven analytical, technical, strategic and problem-solving skills Proficient in MS Office Suite and MS Project US Citizenship is a requirement for employment Familiarity with optics (e.g. adaptive optics, deformable mirrors, complex optical structures, etc) Experience in manufacturing and/or production program execution with optimization and/or continuous improvement production line execution