Hiring: Principal Program Manager (Strategic Integration) Company: Karman Space & Defense Location: Mukilteo, WA Job Posted Time: 2026-09-12 14:57:18 Employment Type: Contract Target Skills & Keywords : Program Management, Project Management, Risk Management About the job Experience: •50 years of success, we deliver Payload & Protection Systems, Aero/Hydrodynamic Interstage Systems, and Propulsion & Launch Systems to more than 80 prime contractors supporting over 130 space and defense programs. Required Skills: •Leads enterprise-scale aerospace and defense programs from planning through qualification, industrialization, production ramp, and delivery. •Owns integrated performance across cost, schedule, technical, quality, customer, and contractual commitments; drives corrective actions when needed. •Develops and maintains integrated master plans and schedules connecting engineering, qualification, manufacturing readiness, staffing, capital, supply chain, and site dependencies. •Leads cross-site work transfers, ensuring strategy, readiness, configuration control, tooling, supplier transition, validation, and customer approvals. •Drives new product introduction and development-to-production transitions, ensuring design maturity, producibility, test readiness, configuration discipline, and production readiness. •Partners with engineering, manufacturing, and site leadership to establish executable manufacturing plans, rate ramps, constraint mitigation, capital needs, and recovery actions. •Identifies and manages technical, manufacturing, supply-chain, cost, schedule, quality, and customer risks; establishes mitigation plans and escalates only when required. •Leads high-consequence recovery efforts involving late hardware, quality escapes, supplier disruption, qualification challenges, or schedule compression. Qualifications: •Bachelor of Science in Engineering, a technical discipline, Business or Program Management, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and directly relevant aerospace or defense leadership experience. •12 or more years of progressive experience in aerospace, defense, space, advanced manufacturing, or similarly complex technical environments, including responsibility for program execution, manufacturing integration, and cross-functional leadership. •Demonstrated success leading complex, multi-site or multi-business integration efforts with senior-executive visibility and accountability for cost, schedule, technical, manufacturing, customer, and growth outcomes. •Extensive experience managing complex aerospace and defense programs involving mission-critical flight hardware. •Hands-on leadership experience with manufacturing, new product introduction, industrialization, production-rate growth, work transfer, and cross-site execution. •Strong technical acumen with the ability to integrate engineering, manufacturing, qualification, quality, configuration, and supply-chain considerations. •Proven ability to operate independently in high-ambiguity environments while maintaining disciplined execution and strong executive communication. •Strong financial and business acumen, including budgeting, forecasting, cost/schedule tradeoffs, risk management, and contract performance. •Solid functional working knowledge of U.S. Government and prime-contractor program environments, formal deliverables, change control, and compliance expectations. •Ability and willingness to travel regularly among company sites, customers, suppliers, and partner locations. Compensation: •$170,000 - $220,000 / year •Medical, dental, and vision insurance Interested candidates, please apply directly through the job posting on company's career page or try via AI auto apply on this platform. Don't miss this opportunity to join a forward-thinking team!