Technical Program Manager

Technical Program Manager (TPM) — Aerospace & Precision Strike Technical Execution | Hardware Development | Integrated Program Delivery Location Orange County, California Employment Type Full-time Department Engineering / Program Management Reports To CEO Compensation Salary target 150K to 190K, commensurate with experience, plus equity Eligibility U.S. citizenship required; must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance About Tiberius Aerospace Tiberius Aerospace is a cutting-edge aerospace and defense company delivering advanced, mission-critical technologies for government and private-sector customers. We develop high-performance aerospace systems, secure engineering solutions, and complex hardware built for demanding operational environments. We are scaling quickly and seek people who operate with ownership, urgency, technical discipline, and sound judgment. Our teams work on real systems with real operational consequences—moving from concept to hardware, test, and deployment with speed and rigor. The Role Tiberius Aerospace is seeking a Technical Program Manager (TPM) to lead the execution of complex aerospace and precision-strike hardware programs. The TPM operates at the intersection of engineering, test, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and program leadership. You will bring structure to complex technical work: defining execution plans, maintaining integrated schedules, managing risks and dependencies, driving accountability, and ensuring the team has the information and decisions needed to deliver. This is not a status-tracking role. You will be embedded with technical teams, understand the product and its mission, anticipate issues before they become blockers, and help turn ambitious engineering objectives into flight-ready hardware. What You’ll Do Program Execution & Technical Leadership Lead the end-to-end planning, execution, and delivery of aerospace and defense hardware programs from concept through development, qualification, production, and field deployment. Build and maintain integrated program plans that connect technical scope, milestones, schedules, resources, risks, test activity, production readiness, and customer commitments. Partner closely with engineering leaders to define technical execution paths, clarify requirements, identify critical dependencies, and drive decisions. Manage the program’s cost, schedule, and technical-performance baseline, ensuring priorities remain aligned with mission needs and company objectives. Lead integrated program team meetings and establish clear ownership, action tracking, escalation paths, and decision cadence. Translate high-level product and mission requirements into actionable engineering workstreams and measurable deliverables. Drive execution across mechanical, structures, propulsion, aerodynamics, electrical, embedded software, flight controls, test, manufacturing, quality, and supply chain functions. Coordinate technical development activities from early design trades through prototype builds, qualification, flight test, and production transition. Schedule, Risk & Dependency Management Develop and maintain detailed schedules, critical paths, milestone plans, and execution dashboards. Identify program risks, technical risks, resource constraints, and cross-functional dependencies early; establish mitigation plans and drive closure. Ensure configuration changes, design decisions, test results, supplier issues, and manufacturing constraints are reflected in program plans. Monitor program health using meaningful execution metrics, including milestone performance, test readiness, delivery predictability, issue aging, and risk exposure. Escalate issues with clear context, recommended decisions, and an understanding of the cost, schedule, and technical tradeoffs involved. Establish lightweight but rigorous processes that increase execution speed and accountability without creating unnecessary bureaucracy. Hardware Development, Test & Production Integration Work directly with engineering and test teams to plan prototype builds, integration activities, ground-test campaigns, environmental qualification, and flight-test events. Coordinate test readiness reviews, hardware availability, test instrumentation, data-review timelines, and follow-on corrective actions. Partner with manufacturing and supply chain teams to assess production readiness, supplier status, long-lead items, nonconformances, and delivery risk. Support engineering change, configuration-control, and design-review processes throughout development and production. Ensure lessons from test, field activity, and manufacturing are captured and incorporated into future builds and program plans. Communication & Stakeholder Management Serve as a central execution interface between technical teams, executive leadership, external customers, suppliers, and program stakeholders. Deliver concise, accurate program updates that communicate progress, risks, decisions needed, and recovery plans. Prepare and maintain program artifacts including execution plans, schedules, risk registers, milestone reviews, technical status reports, and customer-facing materials. Support customer engagements by communicating progress, understanding mission needs, and ensuring commitments are incorporated into execution plans. Help create a culture of transparency, urgency, ownership, and disciplined technical delivery. What You’ll Bring B.S. or higher in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Science, or another relevant technical discipline. 5+ years of experience in technical program management, project engineering, systems integration, product development, or a related technical role. Experience supporting complex hardware programs in aerospace, defense, robotics, automotive, advanced manufacturing, or another high-consequence engineering environment. Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams through development, integration, test, qualification, and delivery. Strong understanding of the engineering product-development lifecycle, including requirements, design, integration, verification, test, manufacturing, and configuration control. Experience managing program cost, schedule, risk, dependencies, and technical deliverables. Strong judgment and the ability to understand technical tradeoffs well enough to drive decisions and unblock teams. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical information for executive, customer, and non-technical stakeholders. Proficiency with program-management tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Jira, Confluence, or equivalent. U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance. Preferred Qualifications Experience with air vehicles, missiles, munitions, propulsion, flight hardware, aerospace structures, avionics, sensors, or other complex defense systems. Experience supporting DoD, national-security, or export-controlled programs. Experience planning and executing prototype, qualification, environmental, ground-test, or flight-test campaigns. Experience managing hardware production programs, supplier delivery, manufacturing readiness, and configuration-controlled releases. Experience with Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid engineering execution models. PMP, CAPM, Agile, Scrum, or comparable program-management certification. Experience with technical requirements verification and validation. Active U.S. government security clearance. What Success Looks Like You create clarity where there is ambiguity and momentum where there are blockers. You know how to ask enough technical questions to understand what is at risk, what decision is required, and what needs to happen next. You are equally comfortable in a design review, at a build station, reviewing test readine