Vice President, Program Management at DroneUp – Washington, District of Columbia

DroneUp, LLC is a technology company built on years of complex airspace management and UAS operations experience with a foundation that uniquely positions us to deliver autonomous airspace management solutions that serve both regulators and operators.

Role Overview

The Vice President of Program Management is an executive leadership role responsible for ensuring the company delivers on its internal and external commitments across all programs, working directly with customers, partners, subcontractors, as well as internal teams. This role owns delivery outcomes, execution credibility, and confidence in commitments, operating across mission-critical, safety-adjacent, and regulatory-sensitive systems.

Reporting to the Executive Committee, the VP of Program Management serves as the senior authority for enterprise delivery assurance: ensuring that strategy, product, engineering, operations, and business commitments are translated into executable programs that perform reliably in real-world environments.

Success in this role means being the 'constructive irritant' to the organization as a whole, forcing the difficult conversations about feasibility and risk before a commitment is made, rather than after a deadline is missed.

This role partners closely with product, engineering, and operations leadership, focusing on delivery expectations, outcome accountability, and execution confidence rather than owning execution methods. The role is empowered to escalate, arbitrate tradeoffs, and protect delivery credibility as the company scales.

Leadership Profile

The ideal candidate:

Owns outcomes, not just activity.Exercises sound judgment under pressure and in ambiguity.Respects functional expertise while holding the enterprise accountable.Knows when to intervene and when not to.Builds trust through clarity, discipline, and execution credibility.Why This Role Matters

As ATOMx and Uncrew scale, the company’s ability to execute predictably becomes as critical as its ability to innovate, with execution failures impacting not only internal plans but also customer trust, partner relationships, and contractual credibility in the market. The complexity, visibility, and consequence of the company’s programs mean that missed commitments, unmanaged dependencies, or misaligned expectations can have material impacts on customers, regulators, and long-term strategy.

The Vice President of Program Management exists to ensure that growth does not outpace execution reality. This role provides the executive discipline required to align ambition with deliverability, surface risk early, and protect the credibility of the company’s commitments as programs scale in parallel.

By owning delivery outcomes and execution confidence, this role enables the company to move fast and stand behind what it delivers.

Core Accountability

The company commits only to what it can deliver and delivers what it commits to.

Key ResponsibilitiesEnterprise Commitment OwnershipOwn enterprise-level delivery commitments made to customers, partners, subcontractors, regulators, and internal stakeholders, including contractual delivery commitments, integration milestones, and partner dependencies.Ensure commitments are realistic, executable, and supported by appropriate readiness, resourcing, and risk posture.Maintain confidence that delivery plans align with operational reality across internal teams and external delivery partners.Has authority to challenge, defer, or recommend against commitments that are not supported by delivery readiness or acceptable risk.Outcome AssuranceDefine delivery expectations, success criteria, and outcome measures across all programs.Monitor execution against commitments using existing product development and delivery processes.Focus on outcome assurance across all programs.Executive Judgment & Trade-Space ArbitrationExercise executive judgment over trade-space decisions involving scope, schedule, cost, risk, and operational impact.Serve as the escalation point when delivery confidence degrades or commitments are at risk.Partner with executive leadership to resolve conflicts between speed, capability, compliance, and operational readiness.Execution IntegrationAct as the executive integrator aligning product, engineering, operations, regulatory engagement, security, and customer delivery.Coordinate execution across internal teams, subcontractors, integrators, and external partners to ensure aligned delivery outcomes.Own cross-program dependency mapping and proactive removal of delivery blockers, including those involving external partners.Ensure cross-functional and cross-organizational dependencies are visible, understood, and actively managed.Ensure delivery plans account for regulatory, compliance, approval, and partner integration dependencies where applicable.Drive coordination across internal teams and external partners to preserve delivery credibility.Governance, Readiness & RiskEstablish scalable governance mechanisms that support predictability, auditability, and executive visibility without unnecessary bureaucracy.Own enterprise delivery health, readiness assessments, and risk posture reporting.Establish and operate an executive program operating cadence with clear KPIs, delivery forecasts, and risk posture.Risk Reviews: Owns the Enterprise Risk Register, requiring Engineering leadership to demonstrate mitigation plans for technical risks that threaten delivery dates.Ensure delivery risks, degradations, and tradeoffs are surfaced early and transparently, even when uncomfortable.Anticipate failure modes and lead proactive mitigation and response.Program Organization LeadershipBuild and lead the company’s Program and Project Management organization.Define roles, accountability models, and performance expectations for program leadership.Build a high-caliber program leadership bench through hiring, mentoring, and performance accountability.Scale the organization as programs, customers, and operating environments expand.Customer & Stakeholder ConfidenceServe as a senior execution counterpart to customers, partners, subcontractors, and strategic stakeholders.Lead high-visibility reviews, executive briefings, and issue resolution across customer and partner delivery relationships where execution confidence is critical.Represent the company as a trusted, accountable delivery organization across its customer and partner ecosystem.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.Accredited Certification Program consisting of:Project Management Professional (PMP)Program Management Professional (PgMP)Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)COBITOr equivalent Active Secret clearance or higherSignificant experience architecting from the ground up and leading complex, high-accountability programs in aerospace, defense, autonomy, or adjacent domains.Demonstrated success delivering programs where failure materially impacts customers, regulators, or public trust.Experience operating effectively with senior executives, customers, and external stakeholders.Proven ability to build and lead program management organizations in growing environments.Comfortable operating in technically complex environments and translating technical constraints into executable plans and commitments.Additional Information

How we work: We operate as a data-first, digitally native organization where work is created, reviewed, and maintained in shared systems. Decisions are grounded in shared operational data and insight rather than static or document-centric workflows, enabling transparency, versioning, and collective ownership of work. These operating norms apply across the organization. Core work products are expected to live in shared systems as the system of record, enabling visibility, collaboration, and continuity across teams. Leaders are expected to seek leverage through automation, analysis, and system-level thinking: simplifying workflows, reducing manual effort, eliminating friction, and increasing organizational effectiveness by improving execution quality rather than increasing individual workload. Continuous improvement in efficiency is viewed as a measure of organizational maturity and execution discipline. The focus is on reducing friction and improving how work flows across teams, not on measuring personal output or time spent.

Employment Status: Employment with the Company is at-will and may be terminated by either the employee or the Company at any time, with or without cause or notice, in accordance with applicable law.

Background Checks and Clearance: Employment may be contingent upon the successful completion of background checks and the ability to obtain and maintain required security clearances, as applicable.

Work Environment and Travel: This role requires the ability to work in a professional office environment and to travel up to 10–25% as required.

Export Control Notice: This role involves access to export-controlled information and will require eligibility under applicable U.S. export control laws.

Disclaimer: This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and responsibilities may evolve as the company grows.

Equal Employment Opportunity Policy

DroneUp is committed to hiring and developing the most qualified individuals, regardless of sex, age, race, national origin, disability or other protected characteristics. DroneUp subscribes to the equal employment opportunity requirements of applicable law. It is the policy of DroneUp to ensure equal opportunity to all employees and applicants in all employment matters, including, but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, placement, compensation, training, promotion, and separation. In these and all activities, DroneUp does not discriminate against any qualified individual because of sex, age, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, familial status, marital status, sexual orientation, sexual preference, gender identity disability, handicap, liability for service in the United States Armed Forces, veteran status, and/or any other legally protected characteristic.

Any individual who feels that he or she may have been discriminated against in violation of this policy is strongly encouraged to immediately contact his or her supervisor or any member of DroneUp management. Any member of DroneUp management who is notified of alleged discrimination is required to immediately report the incident to the HR Department.

DroneUp will thoroughly investigate all such claims with due regard for the privacy of the individuals involved. Any employee who knowingly retaliates against an employee who has reported workplace discrimination will be subject to immediate corrective action, up to and potentially including termination of employment.

Security Responsibility Statement: Employees are expected to provide a high level of security to any personal or private information accessed as part of their work, whether at a DroneUp facility or remotely. This includes participating in security training, remaining sensitive to individual rights to personal privacy, and complying with company policies. Employees who have access to sensitive data that is protected by regulation, such as HIPAA, or by contract, such as credit card data, must comply with any additional requirements dictated by the governing regulations or associated contracts.

The pay range for this role is:190,000 - 250,000 USD per year(National Capital Region)