Senior Program Manager

Senior Program Manager

Job Locations

US-VA-Reston | US-VA-McLean

Job ID

2025-4633

Category

Other

Worker Category

Regular Full-Time[F]

Company Overview

Iridium is an award-winning and innovative satellite communications company with bragging rights to the only network that offers voice and data connectivity anywhere in the world. For over 20 years, Iridium's unique network and services have supported critical communications needs for individuals, businesses, and the evolving Internet of Things.

At Iridium, we understand the importance of staying connected and the limitations of traditional communications networks. People across the globe, including first responders, humanitarians, global militaries, scientific researchers, and lone workers, as well as ships, aircraft and remote operations all rely on Iridium to stay connected. We take our responsibility for providing these essential communications very seriously and pride ourselves on offering a reliable lifeline when needed. Likewise, Iridium is committed to providing an exciting and innovative workplace, where employees are challenged to think outside the box and collaborate on new, bold ideas and solutions. Our talented teams are passionate about their work and the impact our company makes around the world. Iridium fosters an empowering and inclusive culture that allows employees to genuinely be their best selves. We are looking for others who want to join this truly unique company that celebrates our employees and provides the opportunity to truly make a difference in the world.

What We're Looking For :

If you have a strong background in program management and experience overseeing complex government contracts, then you will be excited about the Senior Program Manager opening with Iridium on our Technology, Development, & Operations Team supporting Government Programs! As a Senior Program Manager, you will manage projects by working with internal and external customers and stakeholders, and will lead multi-discipline engineering project team(s) to identify, gain approval for, and implement engineering solutions for new and ongoing services and products. You'll collaborate with senior leadership to help implement strategic objectives and oversee programs with significant multi-million dollar impact. To succeed in this position, you'll need exceptional communication and relationship-building skills to engage with government customers and technical teams in delivering solutions that meet contract requirements and mission needs.

This position requires an active / current Top Secret / SCI U.S. Security Clearance (A U.S. Security Clearance that has been active in the past 24 months is considered active.)

What You'll Do :

Independently manage the full program lifecycle (concept, proposal, contract award, execution, acceptance) for complex government satellite or ground system development programs

• Maintain rigorous control over schedule, budget, quality, and contractual compliance
• Lead cross-functional planning to ensure resource alignment and maximizing mutual benefit from shared core technology or infrastructure
• Collaborate with Chief Engineers and Technical Leads to implement process improvements and identify cost reduction opportunities
• Synthesize feedback and critical mission requirements from stakeholders to guide and prioritize development sprints and program execution milestones
• Provide clear and timely communication of program performance and resource capacity, proactively managing internal and external stakeholder expectations regarding schedule and scope adjustments within constrained engineering and budget environments
• Facilitate communication by proactively closing critical information flow gaps between the customer, subcontractors, technical teams (Space / Ground Segment), and executive leadership
• Lead and motivate cross-functional, geographically dispersed internal and external teams to perform end-to-end development and deployment of complex satellite or ground systems
• Create and maintain a robust program risk, issue, and opportunity (RIO) management process, developing and executing risk mitigation strategies to minimize schedule and budget impacts
• Support and coordinate major program reviews (e.g., SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FAT) by preparing materials, facilitating discussions, and documenting actions and decisions
• Apply and promote the adoption and tailoring of Agile, Scrum, or SAFe methodologies
• Deliver concise, high-confidence program status briefings to Executive Leadership and Government Customer Officials, clearly articulating technical progress, financial forecast (EAC / ETC), contractual risks, and critical path resolution plans

What You'll Need to Succeed :

Things That Would be Great if You Brought to the Table :

We'll also need you to :

Work Environment :

This position primarily works in an office setting and is largely sedentary with the majority of the position working with a computer. The role typically requires the use of basic office equipment such as a phone, video, computer, keyboard, mouse, and printer.

Iridium is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.