Customer Program Manager
St. Louis, MO — On-site
About the role
The Customer Program Manager is the single accountable owner of a Customer Project Team's book of work — the economics, the design quality, the delivery, and the people. This role folds full project management authority directly into team leadership: the person accountable for the schedule is also the person with authority over the team executing it.
Responsibilities
- Project Economics — Accept or reject each project against as-sold scope and margin, then own total job cost and margin at completion.
- The Customer Relationship — Run every customer meeting, own status reporting, and lead post-mortems that feed the next quote and design.
- Design & Release Quality — Own the release process end to end and ensure Align's engineering standards are met on every project.
- Delivery & FATs — Own project schedules and factory acceptance tests, start to finish (the on-site crew runs separately).
- Your People — Full-authority manager of your team's engineers and designers — hiring input, coaching, reviews, and development.
Authority
Within the approved project budget, you commit spend, select components, release designs for build, and set schedules — without needing prior sign-off. Spend outside budget, delivery-date commitments, and staffing decisions are made jointly with the COO.
Requirements
- Project management experience — highly preferred
- Exposure to mechanical engineering design or processes — a plus, especially in custom/engineer-to-order manufacturing
- Comfort owning budget, margin, and schedule performance like a P&L owner
- Experience managing or mentoring engineering/design staff, or readiness to grow into it
- Strong customer-facing communication skills
- Ability to work on-site in St. Louis, MO (not remote-eligible)
It is required to complete the Predictive Index Assessment to be considered for this position: Predictive Index Assessment