Head of Program Management - Los Angeles - Auriga Space

Description

About Us

This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Auriga Space is revolutionizing propulsion by developing electromagnetic launch systems that offer dramatic advantages in cost, reliability, launch frequency, and responsiveness compared to traditional chemical rockets. Join us as we transform the future of propulsion for space and defense.

Role Overview

You will be the single owner of "getting things done" across our programs: building and maintaining schedules, coordinating day-to-day work between mechanical, electrical, manufacturing, and test teams, and keeping execution aligned with customer commitments and internal goals. You operate efficiently and effectively, and you know when to move fast and accept risk versus when to drive for operational excellence. You know how to motivate people and align the organization around clear priorities, and you are disciplined and pragmatic in how you plan and allocate resources. This is a highly cross-functional, execution-focused role with direct impact on our credibility with government and commercial partners.

Key Responsibilities

Program ownership and planning

• Own the integrated schedules for multiple programs, from early concept through delivery and post-delivery support.
• Define program milestones, deliverables, and success criteria in alignment with contracts, customer expectations, and internal goals.
• Work with leadership to balance scope, schedule, and resources; make and communicate clear tradeoffs when constraints collide.

Day-to-day coordination and execution

• Coordinate day-to-day tasks across mechanical, electrical, manufacturing, and operations teams.
• Run regular planning and tracking meetings, including sprint planning, standups, and retrospectives.
• Ensure tasks are clearly defined, prioritized, and owned, and that blockers are rapidly surfaced and removed.
• Keep the entire organization aligned on "who is doing what, by when, and why it matters."

Requirements and scope management

• Lead requirements definition and decomposition in collaboration with engineering and business: capture customer needs and translate them into clear, testable requirements.
• Prioritize features and capabilities within each program to ensure we deliver the highest-impact work within constraints.

Cross-team integration (engineering and manufacturing)

• Ensure design, manufacturing, and test plans stay in sync, with configuration and build statuses clearly understood by all stakeholders.
• Coordinate readiness for builds, integration events, and test campaigns (people, hardware, facilities, and documentation).
• Drive issue resolution across disciplines when integration or test issues arise, tracking to closure.

Customer and stakeholder communication

• Serve as the primary owner for program-level status to internal leadership and key external stakeholders.
• Prepare and lead internal and customer-facing reviews (e.g., design reviews, status reviews, readiness reviews).
• Communicate risk, issues, and mitigation plans clearly and proactively—no surprises.

Process and discipline building

• Understand when "good enough" is sufficient.
• Introduce just enough structure to improve predictability and repeatability, without slowing innovation.

Must-Have Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in program, product, or technical program management for complex engineering systems (hardware software); defense, aerospace, or space experience strongly preferred.
• Prior experience in startups or small, fast-moving teams.
• Comfortable working directly with mechanical and electrical engineers, and manufacturing teams; able to understand technical discussions and convert them into plans and risks.
• Excellent communication skills: concise written status, crisp meeting facilitation, and ability to push for clarity and decisions.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity, with limited process and rapidly evolving priorities; able to create structure where none exists.
• Technical degree in engineering, physics, or related field.

Nice-to-Have

• Background in systems engineering or exposure to systems-level architecture work.
• Direct experience with defense / NASA / prime contractor programs, including familiarity with reviews and contractual milestones.
• Experience coordinating with external manufacturing or supply chain partners.

ITAR Requirements:

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. More details on ITAR are available on the U.S. Department of State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls website.

Auriga provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment at Auriga, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.