Sr. Program Manager (UAE)

About the Role
The company is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. The company is committed to bringing cutting-edge autonomy, AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, and networking technology to the military in months, not years. As the UAE Sr. Program Manager, you will play a critical role in balancing innovation and practical execution across the Omen program, the company’s hover-to-cruise autonomous air vehicle (AAV). You will be intricately involved in a highly complex global program, driving strategic decision-making, evaluating program milestones, and managing appropriate resources in country. Your expertise will enable cross-functional efforts and major program impact, ensuring mission success in various environments.

About The Team
You will be part of the Maneuver Dominance team, supporting the development and deployment of Omen, which operates independently from traditional runways, providing endurance, payload, and mission flexibility. Your role involves supporting and collaborating with the Omen lead Program Manager based in Costa Mesa, HQ, across Air Vehicle, Mission Systems, Support Systems, and Production Systems.

What You'll Do

• Stakeholder Engagement: Build and maintain relationships with internal stakeholders, external clients, and industry partners to gather insights, align objectives, and secure buy-in for strategic initiatives. Act as the local liaison for UAE relationships, including subsystem suppliers and coordination of customer engagements. Communicate the outputs of these efforts internally, including cost forecasts, schedule, resource requirements, risks, and opportunities.
• Enable Cross Team Collaboration: Manage and accelerate cross-team projects spanning multiple initiatives. Collaborate closely with leads to ensure vision alignment and execution through development into production, including test operations.
• Technical Ownership: Drive technical outcomes by managing risks with Engineering leads, using metrics for improvement insights, and maintaining a clear understanding of system performance that is communicated to customers.
• Execute Autonomously: Address broad and ambiguous requirements from external clients, demonstrating high ownership on all pieces of work. Become a trusted partner to the company’s engineers.
• Shape Growth Opportunities: Support drafting of technical proposals, ensuring that potential projects are accurately scoped, estimated, and aligned with organizational capabilities and goals.
• Strategic Planning & Execution: Translate strategic business goals into actionable project plans and drive initiatives from conception through successful completion, ensuring they deliver intended outcomes and add value. Oversee the UAE allocation of personnel, budget, and other resources for successful initiative execution.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in a customer-facing program management role and/or systems engineering, ideally in defense, national security, or aerospace.
• Proven experience in leading technical teams to deploy hardware or software products in real operating environments.
• Experience leading product and manufacturing teams through low-rate production.
• Solid technical aptitude with demonstrated contributions to technical designs and software development challenges.
• Ability to work effectively with stakeholders across technical comfort levels.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong technical, analytical, and quantitative skills; ability to use data to inform decisions.
• Capacity to work through ambiguity with a proactive attitude.
• Experience with international suppliers and customers.
• Must be eligible for a Secret Clearance.
• Must be willing to travel up to 50% of the time.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• Experience in defining new facilities or manufacturing spaces.
• Familiarity with tools like JIRA and Confluence.

Benefits
The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors. Actual salary offers may vary based on experience, education, critical skills, and business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in most full-time offers, as part of the total compensation package. The company offers comprehensive benefits for full-time employees, including health support and additional resources to ensure employee well-being.

Protecting Yourself from Recruitment Scams
The company is vigilant about maintaining the integrity of its Talent acquisition process. Be cautious of phishing schemes and fraudulent communications impersonating company representatives. To ensure your safety:

• No Financial Requests: The company will never solicit payment or demand personal financial details at any stage of the hiring process.
• Verify Communications: Emails from company recruiters will only come from an @company.com address.
• Exercise Caution: Avoid unsolicited outreach that appears suspicious or makes unusual requests.

Data Privacy
By submitting your application, you consent to the company using a third-party service provider for pre-employment screening. This process ensures compliance with laws and protects organizational security.