Program Manager – ASTRA Risk Manager

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent is required plus a minimum of 8 years relevant experience; or Master's degree plus a minimum of 6 years relevant experience to meet managerial expectations.
CLEARANCE REQUIREMENTS:

Department of Defense TS security clearance is required at time of hire. Candidates must be able to obtain a TS/SCI clearance within a reasonable amount of time from date of hire. Applicants selected will be subject to a U.S. Government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information. Due to the nature of work performed within our facilities, U.S. citizenship is required.

Responsibilities for this Position

Job Description:

Responsibilities for this Position

The Portfolio Risk Program Manager reports to the Segment Director and provides portfolio-level leadership for risk and opportunity management while directly managing assigned small, discrete programs. The role strengthens execution rigor across the portfolio by identifying emerging risks early, driving mitigations to closure, and providing leadership with a clear view of cross-program threats, dependencies, and decisions.

The Portfolio Risk Program Manager owns the portfolio risk-management operating rhythm. They establish and maintain consistent processes for risk identification, assessment, scoring, ownership, mitigation planning, tracking, and closure across assigned programs. They assess technical maturity, schedule performance, resource constraints, material availability, supplier performance, cost exposure, customer dependencies, security requirements, and contractual considerations to identify risks and opportunities requiring management attention.

The role coordinates routine risk reviews with program managers and functional organizations, including engineering, operations, supply chain, quality, finance, contracts, security, and subcontractors. The Portfolio Risk Program Manager will maintain the integrated portfolio risk and opportunity register; analyze cross-program trends and shared dependencies; assess mitigation effectiveness; and elevate risks requiring Program Manager, customer, or executive intervention. They will ensure risk posture is accurately reflected in program plans, integrated schedules, forecasts, estimate-at-complete updates, proposal assumptions, and management reviews.

In addition to portfolio risk responsibilities, the Portfolio Risk Program Manager will directly manage smaller, discrete programs and special projects. They will maintain execution plans and integrated schedules; track milestones, dependencies, staffing, material status, technical readiness, cost, and deliverables; and lead cross-functional working sessions to drive actions to closure. They will monitor cost and schedule performance, support earned-value inputs and variance explanations as applicable, and develop recovery actions before impacts become critical.

For internal and customer-facing reviews, the Portfolio Risk Program Manager will prepare and coordinate portfolio risk summaries, program status materials, mitigation plans, action logs, decision records, milestone-readiness packages, and follow-up communications. They will support design reviews, program reviews, customer meetings, contract deliverables, production-readiness events, and deliveries by ensuring clear ownership, risk-informed decisions, and closure criteria.

The role will also support proposal activity, follow-on efforts, and contract changes by incorporating current program performance, risk posture, technical maturity, material lead times, staffing needs, and execution lessons learned into proposal schedules, basis-of-estimate inputs, risk registers, and management plans.

The Portfolio Risk Program Manager will have authority to lead risk and execution working sessions, assign and track routine actions, request status from functional organizations, recommend mitigation and recovery actions, and elevate unresolved cross-program risks. The Program Manager retains responsibility for overall portfolio accountability, contractual and baseline decisions, major customer commitments, significant resource conflicts, and executive escalation.

We encourage you to apply if you have any of these preferred skills or experiences:

Proven program management experience with high-reliability spaceflight hardware for National Security Space, strong foundation in Earned Value Management and structured risk management, or leadership in RF payload development and production.

What you’ll experience:

• Technologies that aren’t just top-notch, they’re often top-secret
• A team of bold thinkers committed to exploring what’s next
• Opportunities to gain new knowledge - as it’s discovered

What you bring to the table:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent is required plus a minimum of 8 years relevant experience; or Master's degree plus a minimum of 6 years relevant experience to meet managerial expectations.
• Active Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance.
• Demonstrated experience managing program risks, schedules, dependencies, and cross-functional execution.
• Experience developing and maintaining risk and opportunity registers, mitigation plans, and executive risk reporting.
• Working knowledge of program controls, earned value management, cost and schedule performance, and integrated master schedules.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present concise risk and decision information to customers and senior leadership.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities across a portfolio while directly leading assigned programs or special projects.

What sets you apart:

• Mission focus, with willingness to learn our customer’s mission and advocate for our solutions in mission terms using the customer’s vocabulary
• Experience in resolving schedule challenges and implementing contingency plans, as well as overseeing recovery from build/test issues
• Experience managing scope control on complex development/production contracts, including fixed-price contracts
• Interest in overseeing programs with a strong component of technology maturation and technology risk management, and willingness to learn the related RF technology fundamentals
• Comfortable managing a portfolio that evolves over time; at times, you may be responsible for one large program or multiple smaller technology development programs
• Ability to work collaboratively with highly experienced engineers and architects to solve technical and programmatic challenges, including design-to-cost and design-to-schedule
• Identifies opportunities to apply AI for continuous improvement and innovation

#CJ1

Salary Note

Combined Salary Range

Company Overview

General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) engineers a diverse portfolio of high technology solutions, products and services that enable customers to successfully execute missions across all domains of operation. With a global team of 12,000+ top professionals, we partner with the best in industry to expand the bounds of innovation in the defense and scientific arenas. Given the nature of our work and who we are, we value trust, honesty, alignment and transparency. We offer highly competitive benefits and pride ourselves in being a great place to work with a shared sense of purpose. You will also enjoy a flexible work environment where contributions are recognized and rewarded. If who we are and what we do resonates with you, we invite you to join our high-performance team!

Equal Opportunity Employer / Individuals with Disabilities / Protected Veterans