Program Manager

Location: Nashville, TN • Full-time, on-site

About the role

The Program Manager 1 is the primary point of contact for external customers and is responsible for the execution of small, less complex programs or an assigned subset of a larger and/or more complex program, during the production phase of a project's lifecycle up to delivery of the final unit and closure of any open items.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for contribution margin and the management of risk of a product(s) during the production phase of a build plan.
• Tracks, manages and reports program-specific non-recurring expenses to operate within budget limits.
• Tracks and reports recurring costs are operating within the quotation parameters to achieve the bid contribution margins of the program(s).
• Participates with the integrated product team (IPT) in the daily execution of program activities.
• Manages the assigned programs to their quoted budget and initiates actions at the site or with the customers as appropriate to achieve the target performance.
• Leads program status meetings and coordinates internal groups to address bottlenecks.
• Sets expectations and facilitates clear and open lines of communication both internally and externally.
• Communicates program status to customers, sales team, and upper management.
• Monitors all field service issues, open action items and the submission of required data to the customer to ensure timely closure.
• Coordinates with customer and internal engineering for technical proposal support.
• Provides clarification to RFQ scopes of work during the proposal development process.
• Coordinates with estimating team on pricing package assumptions.
• Teams with estimating team and/or salesperson on developing and presenting proposals.
• Follows-up on proposal submissions with customer and/or sales team.
• Participates in contract negotiations as required.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Occasional travel is expected.

Requirements

Knowledge and Skills

• Demonstrated effective leadership and timely communication skills.
• Skills and experience to effectively interact with senior managers and external customers.
• In-depth knowledge of program management and relationships between line functions.
• Excellent negotiating skills and comfort in adversarial business environments.
• Ability to quickly comprehend technical customer and engineering topics preferred.
• Well organized with solid judgement; able to multi-task and adjust to changing priorities.
• Very good working knowledge of the standard suite of office software products (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, et al.).

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in a related business management or related engineering discipline OR
• 6 years related experience in lieu of Bachelor's level degree OR
• Associate's degree in a related business management or related engineering discipline and 3 years related experience in lieu of Bachelor's level degree.
• In addition to meeting the education requirement, 3 years' experience in a project or program team environment.
• PMP certification is preferred.

Competencies

• Acts in accordance with company values and related competencies.

Communication Skills

• Ability to generate written communication and to operate required office equipment.
• Ability to read and review written communication.
• Speech and hearing abilities that allow individual to communicate clearly and distinctly.

Reasoning Ability

• Ability to solve problems and think strategically.

Physical Demands

• Extended periods of sitting while working with computers and viewing computer monitors and other office equipment.
• Finger dexterity needed in using miscellaneous office equipment such as telephone, computer and copy machine, etc.
• Bending, stooping, reaching, and lifting up to approximately twenty pounds are required during tasks related to the job.