Program Director in Scottsdale, Arizona at Mission Systems

Program Director

ID: 2026-74901
US-AZ-Scottsdale
Required Clearance: Top Secret
Posted Date: 9/10/2026
Category: Program/Project Management
Employment Type: Full Time
Hiring Company: General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc.
Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree or equivalent is required plus a minimum of 15 years of demonstrated leadership; or Master's degree plus a minimum of 13 years of demonstrated leadership.

Department of Defense Top Secret security clearance is required at time of hire; the ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance is preferred. Applicants selected for duties requiring classified access 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

General Dynamics Mission Systems has an immediate opening for a Program Director, within the Space Systems Business Area and Assured PNT & Communications business segment. The Program Director has end-to-end responsibility for program strategy, customer commitments, contract execution, financial performance, and delivery of communications payload solutions. The role leads a large matrixed team through development, qualification, production, payload integration, delivery, and mission-support preparation for schedule-critical space telecommunications missions. The successful candidate will combine disciplined aerospace program management with the speed, transparency, and practical decision-making required to execute in a commercial space environment.

REPRESENTATIVE DUTIES AND TASKS:

• Develops and executes program strategy, product roadmap, integrated program plan, and business objectives for revenue, margin, cash, quality, customer satisfaction, and on-time delivery.
• Owns execution of the contract and associated options, including scope, requirements, schedule, budget, staffing, technical performance, contractual deliverables, and financial results.
• Serves as the principal GDMS program interface to customers and coordinates support to government sponsor of program and technical stakeholders through the prime contractor.
• Builds and leads the integrated program team across program management, systems and specialty engineering, hardware and software development, operations, manufacturing, test, mission assurance, supply chain, subcontracts, finance, contracts, and business development.
• Develops, baselines, and controls the product-oriented work breakdown structure, integrated master schedule, resource-loaded execution plan, budgets, and measurable exit criteria for major reviews and deliveries.
• Maintains rigorous focus on the mission launch window and payload-delivery commitments by managing the critical path, schedule margin, long-lead material, staffing ramp, design maturity, manufacturing readiness, and test capacity.
• Directs development and delivery of communications payload offerings
• Maximizes responsible reuse of proven space communications designs, flight heritage, engineering knowledge, and production assets while ensuring all program requirements, interfaces, reliability objectives, and mission-assurance expectations are met.
• Leads program financial management, including orders, sales, earnings, cash, working capital, estimate at completion, management reserve, earned value or equivalent performance measurement, and corrective action for unfavorable trends.
• Conducts recurring program, technical, schedule, financial, risk, supplier, manufacturing, and readiness reviews; drills into issues; assigns accountable owners; and verifies timely closure of corrective actions.
• Owns program risk and opportunity management, with particular emphasis on schedule compression, technical maturity, parts availability, supplier performance, payload integration, test readiness, and fixed-price exposure.
• Directs major subcontract and supplier execution for critical hardware, including negotiation strategy, technical and schedule integration, performance reviews, and recovery actions.
• Establishes and executes a staffing plan that secures critical heritage talent, develops program leadership depth, supports the required engineering and manufacturing ramp, and resolves resource conflicts through Space Systems governance.
• Prepares and presents clear, fact-based program status, forecasts, decisions, risks, and recovery plans to business-segment, business-area, executive, customer, and partner leadership.
• Identifies contract, requirement, interface, and market changes and develops program positions for equitable cost, schedule, technical, and contractual adjustments.
• Leads complex customer and supplier negotiations and ensures commitments are aligned with approved scope, executable plans, delegation of authority, and company objectives.
• Ensures compliance with company policy, contract requirements, export controls, supply-chain requirements, configuration management, quality, mission assurance, data rights, and applicable government contracting regulations.
• Develops and executes capture, proposal, and growth strategies for program options, follow-on production, mission support, and adjacent deep-space communications opportunities.
• Develops program managers and functional leaders; delegates clear authority and accountability; provides performance feedback; and may be responsible for hiring, performance evaluations, compensation recommendations, and other people-management decisions.
• Transitions programs from development through production, delivery, spacecraft integration support, launch and early operations support, and longer-term mission or sustainment activities as required.

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Extensive knowledge of program management for complex space hardware development, qualification, production, integration, and test.
• Demonstrated leadership of a large program with significant fixed-price, delivery, technical, supplier, or schedule risk.
• Extensive knowledge of satellite communications payloads, RF and microwave electronics, digital processing, flight software, antennas, amplifiers, and space-qualified hardware development.
• Ability to generate and maintain a cohesive, resource-loaded program plan aligned to an externally constrained launch and delivery schedule.
• Expert ability to manage program financial performance, including estimates at completion, margin, cash, working capital, reserves, baseline control, and variance analysis.
• Ability to apply earned value management or equivalent objective performance measures to identify trends and drive timely corrective action.
• Extensive understanding of business, operations, manufacturing, test, supply-chain, and major-subcontract strategy for high-reliability space products.
• Expert risk and opportunity management skills, including quantitative assessment, mitigation planning, decision analysis, and executive communication.
• Ability to lead a large matrix organization, establish accountability, resolve conflict, motivate teams, and achieve cost, schedule, technical, quality, and customer objectives.
• Advanced customer relationship, negotiation, and communication skills with the ability to maintain confidence during high-pressure execution and difficult business discussions.
• Ability to balance disciplined mission assurance with tailored, efficient processes appropriate for a commercial or New Space execution environment.
• Ability to evaluate technical and program work products to ensure compliance with customer requirements, interface commitments, and readiness criteria.
• Extensive knowledge of government and commercial contracting practices, change management, proposal development, data rights, export controls, and applicable acquisition regulations.
• Ability to identify and secure critical skills, heritage knowledge, facilities, test assets, and production capacity across organizational boundaries.
• Skilled in communicating issues, impacts, alternatives, recommendations, and corrective actions to internal and external representatives at all levels.
• Strong command of integrated master scheduling, product-oriented WBS development, risk registers, action tracking, executive reviews, and program-management information systems.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Project, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint; experience with enterprise scheduling, financial, earned-value, requirements, and configuration-management tools is preferred.
• May be required to travel to customer, supplier, integration, and review locations.
• May be responsible for hire and termination decisions.

PREFERRED DEGREE TYPES AND EXPERIENCE:

• Master's degree in engineering, business administration, program management, or a related field.
• Program Management Professional certification or equivalent formal program-management training.
• Prior Program Director or Senior Program Manager responsibility for a major satellite, payload, communications, avionics, or national-security space program.
• Direct experience with deep-space communications, positioning, navigation and timing, or high-reliability RF payloads.
• Experience leading a commercial prime-contractor relationship and supporting USG government program sponsors
• Experience executing an aggressive fixed-price development and production program with a non-movable launch or mission window.
• Experience adapting heritage designs for new frequency plans, interfaces, payload configurations, or mission-assurance classifications.
• Experience managing high-value subcontracts, long-lead space hardware, supplier recovery, and concurrent engineering and manufacturing execution.
• Experience leading programs from capture and proposal through design reviews, qualification, production, delivery, spacecraft integration, and mission operations support.
  
  

Salary Note

This estimate represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors (geographic location, etc.). Actual pay may vary. This job posting will remain open until the position is filled.

Combined Salary Range

USD $228,408.00 - USD $247,145.00 /Yr.

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

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