Program Operations Specialist

About the role

We are seeking a Program Operations Specialist to support the Force Projection Sector's (FPS) varied portfolio of projects. You will join a dedicated team of business professionals that provides operational leadership and project coordination across all phases of the project lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Program Managers (PMs) and Project Managers (PjMs) to ensure seamless program operations, establish priorities, mitigate operational risks, drive timely delivery of contractual obligations, and oversee day-to-day project execution from initiation through closeout.
• Develop and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) that promote consistency, efficiency, and successful project delivery.
• Monitor and provide oversight and coordination of operational compliance efforts.
• Develop a thorough understanding of program objectives, technical efforts, and sponsor priorities to effectively support program execution and communicate program activities to internal and external stakeholders.
• Prepare and organize information for internal and external program reviews, technical exchanges, and sponsor engagements, including content review of technical materials prepared by technical staff.
• Serve as a key liaison among program leadership, technical staff, sponsors, and stakeholders to facilitate communication, track actions, and drive successful outcomes.
• Collaborate with APL support organizations, including security, IT, quality, communications, procurement, property, and administrative services, to secure resources, coordinate logistics, and resolve operational issues that impact project execution.
• Lead coordination of meetings, reviews, facilities, security, schedules, and other program activities to ensure milestones and commitments are achieved.
• Manage contractual and programmatic deliverables by tracking schedules, milestones, and stakeholder inputs to ensure commitments are met.
• Help identify potential execution risks and recommend corrective actions to maintain schedule, quality, and sponsor satisfaction.
• Technical Support and Reporting – Develop sufficient understanding of program technical efforts to effectively communicate objectives, impacts, and accomplishments to multiple audiences.
• Support project kickoff activities, task planning, Statements of Work (SOWs), execution reviews, and operational reporting to ensure alignment with sponsor requirements and project objectives.
• Proposal Development – Collaborate with PMs and FMs to support proposal development activities, facilitate technical information flow, assist with review processes, and help ensure proposal quality and compliance with customer requirements.

Qualifications

• Have a Bachelor's Degree in a business, technical, or other relevant field.
• Have 3+ years of relevant experience coordinating project operations.
• Possess strong communication skills with demonstrated experience in effectively communicating with all levels of management, military and government officials.
• Proven ability to review and organize technical information and provide a critical review of documents for technical content and style while also being able to create presentations from existing material for high-level briefings.
• Proven ability to be a self-starter with a high level of initiative and can effectively prioritize competing efforts and independently solve moderately complex problems.
• Willingness to travel occasionally and work in a closed area as needed.
• Hold an active Secret security clearance and can ultimately obtain a Top Secret level clearance.