Program Manager

About the Role:

Hadrian builds autonomous, scalable manufacturing to strengthen the national security supply chain. As Program Manager, customer deployments, you’ll scope, execute, and ultimately own the high-impact customer programs and factory stand-ups necessary to enable Hadrian’s mission to reindustrialize defense and aerospace.

You’ll turn ambiguous customer problem sets into structured analyses, program strategies, and business cases that drive go/no-go decisions and execution. Applying first-principles thinking, you’ll produce the executive-ready deliverables that move programs forward: customer proposals, pricing analyses, execution plans, and schedules. You’ll also run and execute these programs with direct P&L responsibility.

You’ll work directly with the CEO and senior leaders, connecting shop-floor reality, executive priorities, and government opportunities to define and launch new programs across the U.S. defense industrial base. We’re looking for someone who can own outcomes and can seamlessly move from a conversation with a C—suite customer to making sure your colleagues complete their badge paperwork.

What You’ll Do

Program Development & Scoping

• Define new programs and their early execution phases alongside the CEO and senior leaders

• Run customer discovery, working meetings, and site visits to gather unstructured data and shape programs

• Surface cost, schedule, and delivery risks early, and drive the mitigation and execution plans

• Own factory and production-line stand-ups end to end — capital plan, long-lead equipment, site readiness, workforce ramp, and the reviews that clear a line to start producing

Strategic Problem Solving & Business Analysis

• Drive high-impact initiatives that accelerate Hadrian’s growth across aerospace and defense

• Build quantitative models that turn operational and customer problems into roadmaps, investment cases, and ROI frameworks

• Connect manufacturing performance data to business priorities and government program needs

• Bring structure and decisions to ambiguous, high-stakes manufacturing and execution challenges

• Support proposal development and capture management, including for follow-on business (e.g., RFP submissions, Statement of Work development)

• Own program financials: budget, cost-to-complete, and margin, with a clear forecast of where each program lands

• Work with contracts, quality, and legal to keep programs inside their contractual and regulatory obligations, and flag early where contract terms, export rules, or security requirements drive cost and schedule

Cross-Functional Execution & Delivery

• Drive execution across engineering, operations, supply chain, and software

• Own cross-functional workstreams end to end — scope, schedule, risk, and stakeholder alignment

• Stand up and scale PMO systems (e.g., Work Breakdown Structures, Integrated Master Schedules, Earned Value Management)

• Run the operating rhythm: recurring reviews, milestone and dependency tracking, and program dashboards

• Carry programs from qualification and first-article approval through full rate production and handoff to steady-state operations

Executive Communication & Stakeholder Leadership

• Build and deliver executive presentations, business cases, customer proposals, and internal program materials

• Synthesize technical, operational, and strategic inputs into clear narratives

• Lead program reviews, status updates, and risk reporting

• Act as the primary point of contact for customer program offices, including on site at customer facilities, and position Hadrian for follow-on work

What We’re Looking For

• Experience: 6+ years in management consulting, federal programs, manufacturing, or operations/strategy roles, ideally within aerospace, defense, or industrial environments. You’ve owned programs or workstreams, not just supported them.

• Education: Bachelor’s in Business, Economics, Operations, Engineering, or a related field. Master’s degree is a plus.

• Travel: Willingness to travel 20–40% domestically to customer and manufacturing sites.

• A&D Familiarity: Direct work in aerospace and defense manufacturing — with Primes, OEMs, Tier 1/2 suppliers, or large industrial programs. Cross-functional experience across Operations, Finance, Engineering, Program Management, or Business teams is a plus.

• Communication: Strong written and verbal skills. You build executive-grade PowerPoint independently and present to senior internal and external stakeholders on your own.

• Ownership & Ambiguity: You thrive in fast-paced, evolving environments — proactive, organized, and able to bring structure to complex problems without being told how.

• Eligibility: U.S. person status required. Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance is a plus.

Compensation

For this role, the target salary range is $151,000 - 220,000 (actual range may vary based on experience).

This is the lowest to highest salary we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the range may be modified in the future. An employee's pay position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.

Benefits for Full-time Employees

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans for employees
  401k

• Relocation support may be provided for certain situations, based on business need.

• Flexible vacation policy

• Equity