Technical Project Manager

You will be our first dedicated project manager, and your job is to fix that. You own the work breakdown structure and the integrated schedule. You run the weekly coordination rhythm, record every task and decision so nothing is dropped, and stay ahead of the risks that quietly kill hardware schedules: long-lead parts, manpower shortages and skill gaps, missing equipment and infrastructure. Leadership will continue to set priorities, assign responsibility, and hold people accountable; your job is to make the plan legible and current so those decisions are made with real information, and so every person on the team knows what they need to be doing and when.

This is a role for someone who treats a well-built Gantt chart as a love language. Your best days end with the ambiguity banished from the plan and a name and a date on everything that matters. We are a startup: the process you bring must be the lightweight 20% that delivers 80% of the value, not a bureaucracy the team routes around.

Maintain a living risk register for the things that actually derail hardware programs: long-lead and allocated parts, manpower shortages and skill gaps, missing equipment, tooling, and facility/infrastructure needs

Chase dependencies across engineering, purchasing, and the shop: surface the part that isn’t ordered, the fixture that isn’t built, and the test range that isn’t booked while there is still time to fix it

Work with the buyer on long-lead procurement timing so build schedules are planned around real lead times, and with leadership on staffing gaps before they become schedule slips

Run the weekly coordination meeting: set the agenda, drive it to decisions, and finish with every action item recorded with an owner and a due date

Be the recorder of tasking for the company: capture tasks and decisions from meetings, hallway conversations, and test events into one tracked system so nothing is missed or forgotten

Follow up on open actions between meetings; keep status honest without becoming the person the team hides from

Give leadership a clear, current picture of status, risks, and upcoming decisions that is short, factual, and free of surprises

Stand up the company’s project management practices from scratch: task tracking, schedule reviews, action-item discipline, and deliverable definitions where none formally exist today

Select and administer the scheduling and task-tracking tools the company will run on, sized for a lean team: powerful enough to be trusted, light enough to be used

Establish just enough process to bring order to tasking and project planning without slowing a fast-iterating R&D team

PMP, PMI-SP, or similar project management certification

Experience in a defense, ITAR-regulated, or government-customer environment, including milestone reviews, test events, and customer-driven schedules

Experience taking a hardware product from prototype through production transfer

Experience standing up project management practices at a startup or small company, rather than operating inside an established PMO

Working familiarity with manufacturing and machine-shop workflows, enough to plan realistically around fabrication, assembly, and test

In the first 90 days, a real WBS and integrated schedule exist and the team trusts them. The weekly coordination meeting runs on rails, every task has an owner and a date in one tracked system, and the first schedule-threatening risks (a long-lead part, a skills gap, a missing piece of equipment) have been caught and raised while they were still cheap to fix.

On an ongoing basis, nothing falls through the cracks. Everyone on the team can tell you what they need to be doing and when it is due. Leadership sets priorities against a schedule that reflects reality, slips are seen weeks out instead of discovered at the deadline, and the company hits its demo and delivery commitments because the plan was honest all along.

This role is based on-site in Austin, TX at our shop, working directly alongside the engineering and manufacturing team; the plan gets built by walking the floor, not from a remote dashboard. The environment is a working R&D and manufacturing facility for weapons systems: expect an active shop floor and proximity to live-fire test activity, with strict adherence to safety protocols. Occasional travel to test ranges and demonstration events to keep the schedule connected to what actually happens in the field.

Initial screen with recruiter (30 min phone call)

Virtual interview with Director of HW Ops (45 min via MS Teams)

In-person interview (1 hour in Austin, TX) *9 Mothers will fly out candidates that are not local to the Austin area

Reference checks & offer