Impress employers and recruiters.
Choose from hundreds of resume examples.

Target Resume Now

About the Role

We are seeking a disciplined and technically fluent Engineering Technical Project Manager (TPM) to serve as the operational backbone of the engineering organization. This role owns the day-to-day mechanics of spaceflight hardware development, tracking deliverables and CDRLs, maintaining schedules, managing the risk register, adjudicating discrepancy reports, and driving tasking across subsystem teams and suppliers. The TPM works in direct support of Cognizant Engineers and Designated Responsible Individuals (DRIs), translating their engineering intent into tracked tasks, enforced schedules, and closed action items. This role carries substantial supplier interaction, including extended on-site presence at facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and continental Europe.

Responsibilities

Work in direct partnership with Cognizant Engineers and DRIs to ensure their technical decisions are accurately reflected in schedules, task assignments, CDRLs, and action-item trackers.
Facilitate technical working sessions and TIMs between DRIs and supplier counterparts; capture and distribute minutes, technical direction items, and action lists with assigned owners and due dates.
Serve as primary on-site presence at supplier facilities in the U.S., U.K., and continental Europe during key program phases; monitor supplier progress against DRI-approved plans and escalate deviations.
Own and maintain the program’s master deliverable register across all suppliers and internal teams; track all CDRL items from obligation through final acceptance and flag at-risk items.
Coordinate with engineering leads and supplier program managers to confirm due dates, clarify content requirements, and maintain traceability to contractual milestones and review gates.
Develop and maintain engineering-level schedules capturing subsystem milestones, supplier deliveries, and AI&T entry criteria; identify dependencies, float, and critical path.
Facilitate weekly schedule status reviews; maintain 2-week, 6-week, and quarterly look-ahead windows.
Own the engineering risk register: facilitate identification sessions, maintain likelihood/consequence assessments, track mitigation owners and due dates, and report status.
Monitor watch items from TIMs, weekly leads meetings, and working groups; support escalation to program-level risk boards and prepare risk burn-down reporting.
Administer the program’s PFR and discrepancy reporting system; coordinate root cause analysis validation and corrective action verification; support the PRACA process.
Coordinate with Mission Assurance to manage supplier risks and problems; ensure supplier non-conformances, corrective action requests, and failure investigations are properly dispositioned, tracked, and reported.
Produce periodic summaries of open discrepancies, aging items, and trends.
Administer the engineering Jira instance: configure boards, maintain workflows, translate action items and review findings into well-scoped tasks.
Conduct weekly hygiene reviews; escalate stalled tasks; generate sprint and backlog health reports.
Coordinate engineering inputs to all program reviews (PDR, CDR, TRR, ORR, MAR, QPR); track post-review action items to closure; support CCB by logging RFDs/ECPs and ensuring approved changes propagate.
Prepare and maintain the weekly engineering status report aggregating schedule health, open risks, open discrepancies, and CDRL status.

Requirements

B.S. in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, or Systems Engineering or a closely related technical field.
4+ years of technical project or program management in a spacecraft, defense, or complex hardware development environment.
Demonstrated experience managing CDRLs, deliverable registers, and contract milestone tracking across multiple vendors.
Proficiency with Jira or equivalent issue-tracking tools; experience with MS Project, Smartsheet, or equivalent scheduling tools.
Hands-on experience with risk register development, mitigation tracking, PRACA processes, and discrepancy report workflows.
Familiarity with spacecraft program review structures (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, ORR) and supporting documentation.
Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to produce concise, accurate status summaries for senior leadership.
Willingness to travel internationally; extended on-site periods at supplier facilities in the U.S., U.K., and Europe are an expected and substantive part of this role.
Experience working with international suppliers under ITAR/EAR frameworks.
Prior fast-moving commercial space program experience.
Familiarity with astrophysics missions, space observatories, or science instrument programs.
This role requires access to U.S. export controlled information. Candidates must be a U.S. person (i.e. a citizen of the United States, a permanent resident, or a legal asylee or refugee) OR receive approval from the U.S. Government to work with U.S. export controlled information.

Skills

Technical Project Management
Spaceflight Hardware Development
Deliverable Tracking
CDRL Management
Schedule Maintenance
Risk Register Management
Discrepancy Report Adjudication
Supplier Interaction
Jira
MS Project
Smartsheet
Risk Register Development
Mitigation Tracking
PRACA Processes
Discrepancy Report Workflows
Spacecraft Program Reviews
Written Communication
Verbal Communication
ITAR/EAR Frameworks
Commercial Space Program Experience
Astrophysics Missions
Space Observatories
Science Instrument Programs

Location

United States
United Kingdom
Continental Europe

Work Type

On-site
Exempt

Experience Level

4+ years

Education Level

B.S. in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, or Systems Engineering or a closely related technical field.

Salary/Compensations

$200,000 - $270,000