Program Manager

Job Purpose

To lead and manage end-to-end aerospace and defence programs from project award through development, qualification, production and delivery. The role will be responsible for ensuring on-time delivery, cost, quality, customer satisfaction and program profitability, while coordinating with Engineering, NPD, Manufacturing, Quality, SCM, Procurement and other functions.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and manage end-to-end aerospace and defence programs including NPI/NPD, development, qualification, industrialization and production ramp-up.
• Develop and maintain program plans, schedules, milestones, budgets and resource plans.
• Act as the primary program interface with customers, OEMs, defence organizations and internal leadership.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams across Engineering, Design, NPD, Manufacturing, Quality, SCM, Procurement, Finance and Operations.
• Monitor program performance against Time, Cost, Quality and Delivery (TCQD) objectives.
• Drive NPI/NPD and industrialization activities from customer requirements/design release through first article and production.
• Track engineering deliverables, tooling, prototypes, qualification requirements, FAI/FAI documentation, production readiness and customer approvals.
• Identify program risks, dependencies and bottlenecks and implement appropriate mitigation and recovery plans.
• Lead regular program reviews, customer reviews, management reviews and milestone reviews.
• Manage changes related to scope, engineering changes, customer requirements, schedule and cost.
• Coordinate with SCM and Procurement to ensure timely availability of critical materials, components, tooling and outsourced processes.
• Work closely with Quality to ensure compliance with aerospace/defence quality requirements, customer specifications and applicable standards.
• Support preparation and monitoring of program budgets, cost estimates, profitability and variance analysis.
• Ensure proper program documentation, reporting, dashboards and MIS are maintained.
• Support customer audits, qualification activities, source inspections and other program-related customer requirements.
• Drive continuous improvement, cost reduction and productivity initiatives across programs.
• Ensure compliance with applicable export-control, defence, security and regulatory requirements.

Key Deliverables / KPIs

• On-time program milestones and customer deliveries
• Program adherence to approved budget and cost targets
• NPI/NPD milestone achievement
• First Article / qualification completion
• Customer satisfaction and closure of customer actions
• Program risk and issue closure
• Production ramp-up and capacity readiness
• Program profitability / cost performance
• Engineering and change-management closure
• Quality performance and rejection reduction

Required Industry Experience

Candidates should preferably have experience in one or more of the following:

• Aerospace & Defence manufacturing
• Aerospace structures / assemblies
• Precision engineering / machined components
• Composite components / assemblies
• Defence systems or sub-assemblies
• Aircraft / aerospace component manufacturing
• NPI / NPD / industrialization programs
• OEM / Tier-1 aerospace supplier environment

Technical / Functional Skills

• Program / Project Management
• Aerospace NPI / NPD
• Program Planning & Scheduling
• Cross-functional Team Management
• Customer & OEM Management
• Risk & Issue Management
• Cost & Budget Management
• Engineering Change Management
• Production Planning & Industrialization
• FAI / Qualification / Validation
• Aerospace Quality Systems
• ERP / SAP / MS Project / Excel / PowerPoint
• Program dashboards and MIS reporting