Senior Director, Radar Technical Program Management

Job description

Why LeoLabs? At LeoLabs, we’re building the living map of activity in space. Through our proprietary global radar network and AI-enabled analytics platform, we collect millions of measurements daily on more than 25,000 objects in low Earth orbit (LEO). Our radar-powered intelligence protects billions in assets, monitors adversarial behavior, and ensures safe operations for commercial and government missions. We’re not just building technology, we are redefining global security, safety, and transparency in space. As orbital activity accelerates and threats grow more complex, LeoLabs is a trusted partner for Space Domain Awareness, Space Traffic Management, and Satellite Operations for top-tier space operators and allied defense organizations. If you're looking to work on mission-critical challenges at the forefront of aerospace, national security, and AI, your impact starts here. LeoLabs is seeking a **Senior Director, Radar Technical Program Management** to lead the integrated technical execution of our most complex radar, hardware, production, and infrastructure programs. This role is a senior technical leadership role responsible for coalescing the entire Radar organization around a single, credible execution plan which will be visible across the enterprise. The role operates across the Radar organization, spanning radar systems engineering, RF and electromechanical engineering, software and embedded systems, supply chain, manufacturing, EHS, site development, integration, test, operations, and maintenance. You will also partner closely with Product, customer-facing Program Management, Finance, and other cross-functional teams. You will translate product objectives and customer commitments into credible engineering plans, identify system-level dependencies, resolve blockers, and own the integrated execution plan of record from development through operational deployment. You will initially lead several high-priority initiatives and, as the portfolio grows, build and lead a small team of technically credible program leaders. Success in this role requires technical depth, engineering judgment, systems thinking, practical hardware-development experience, and the ability to engage credibly with senior engineers while driving complex programs to measurable outcomes. **Key Responsibilities** **Lead Complex Technical Programs** - Lead multidisciplinary radar, hardware, manufacturing, deployment, and operational-readiness programs from definition through completion. - Translate product requirements, technical objectives, customer commitments, and operational needs into program definitions with clear scope, success criteria, major milestones, interfaces, dependencies, and decision points. - Drive execution through ambiguity, evolving requirements, incomplete information, and aggressive schedules while maintaining accountability for overall program outcomes. **Own the Radar Program Plan of Record** - Coordinate execution across Radar Systems, Hardware Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Global Infrastructure, Radar Operations, Product, and customer-facing Program Management. - Own the integrated technical program baseline and cross-functional commitments for scope, schedule, cost, readiness, and risk. Establish change control and drive escalation and recovery, and ensure decisions are made by appropriate functional authority. Product retains roadmap and prioritization authority while engineering leaders retain technical design authority. - Build schedules that reflect engineering maturity, critical paths, long-lead materials, supplier and site dependencies, resource contention, and schedule risk. - Assess the downstream schedule and resource effects of architecture changes, component substitutions, test failures, supplier delays, and scope changes, and update the plan of record accordingly. **Lead Technical Readiness, Risk, and Change Management** - Define and lead technical and deployment readiness reviews across the product lifecycle, from requirements and architecture through design release, prototype builds, verification and validation, product readiness, site integration, acceptance, and operational handoff. - Establish entry and exit criteria and ensure reviews evaluate technical and deployment maturity, test evidence, configuration status, documentation, and residual risk. - Partner with the responsible engineers and functional leaders to ensure technical decisions and changes are evidence-based and made by the appropriate authority. - Manage technical risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies, changes, and decisions; surface material problems early and drive root-cause analysis and recovery planning. - Partner with customer-facing Program Management to maintain traceability from contractual milestones and customer acceptance criteria to technical baselines, verification requirements and evidence, and executable delivery plans. **Support Prototype Development, Production, and Deployment** - Coordinate the transition of radar and hardware products from engineering development into repeatable production. - Integrate design release, materials, DfX, tooling, test equipment, calibration, quality, labor, capacity, yield, and cost targets into credible production plans. - Partner with Supply Chain to incorporate supplier capability, lead times, material availability, obsolescence, and alternate-source readiness into program schedules and risk assessments. - Coordinate technical resolution of issues discovered during prototype, pilot, and production builds, and incorporate lessons into subsequent design and program baselines. - Integrate site development, regulatory dependencies, logistics, installation, system integration, acceptance testing, and operational readiness into deployment schedules. - Define clear handoff criteria for Radar Operations and Maintenance teams and establish feedback loops that inform sustaining-engineering priorities. **Provide Technical Program Leadership** - Provide concise, forward-looking program reviews to the SVP and other members of LeoLabs’ extended leadership team, including milestone confidence, critical-path changes, key dependencies, resource conflicts, and recovery options. - Present the technical, schedule, cost, and operational consequences of major decisions and identify the decision or support required from leadership. - Maintain a portfolio-level view of major milestones, dependencies, risks, and capacity constraints. - Partner with Radar team business operations and FP&A to connect scope and schedule changes to budget, cost, and margin impacts. - Ensure external commitments are backed by credible technical execution plans. - Build and lead a scalable technical program management function that enables engineering and functional leaders to focus on technical quality, organization capacity, and functional execution. **Ideal Candidate** The ideal candidate is a technically credible, detail-oriented program leader who has operated at the intersection of engineering, hardware development, manufacturing, and deployment. You bring enough technical depth to challenge assumptions and understand system-level tradeoffs, combined with the organizational judgement to drive execution across teams without direct authority. You are comfortable operating at both the executive and engineering levels and know how to turn ambiguity into clear decisions, accountable plans, and measurable outcomes. **Required Qualifications** - Bachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, computer science, or another relevant technical discipline, or equivalent technical experience. - 12+ years of experience in engineering, systems engineering, technical program management, hardware program leadership, or a related field. - Demonstrated success leading multidisciplinary systems from concept through development, prototype builds, verification, production readiness, integration, deployment, and operational use. - Experience with complex electronic, RF, or electromechanical systems in aerospace, defense, space, telecommunications, or another hardware-intensive environment. - Strong understanding of requirements, interfaces, architecture, verification, validation, configuration, and technical risk. - Experience integrating hardware, software, manufacturing, supply chain, test, infrastructure, and operational workstreams. - Experience building integrated engineering plans and managing milestones, critical paths, assumptions, resource constraints, and recovery plans. - Ability to challenge technical assumptions and influence senior engineering leaders. - Exceptional written, verbal, and executive communication skills. - Eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. personnel security clearance and satisfy applicable U.S. export-control requirements. - Experience managing international infrastructure, permitting, spectrum, regulatory, or site-acceptance dependencies. - Familiarity with requirements-management, PLM, ERP, scheduling, and engineering-work-management systems. - Experience leading, mentoring, and developing technical program managers or other cross-functional program leaders, with the ability to build scalable program-management practices. **What Success Looks Like** - Within 30 days, you will develop a working understanding of LeoLabs’ radar systems, active programs, deployments, and operating models, and begin leading one or two priority programs. - Within 90 days, you will establish integrated plans for priority initiatives, create visibility into milestones and critical paths, implement a decision-oriented program review, and introduce practical readiness and risk-management practices. - Within six months, you will improve coordination across engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, infrastructure, deployment, and operations; establish credible baselines and forecasts; and build appropriate TPM coverage for priority programs. - Within twelve months, you will own and operate a trusted technical program-management capability supporting radar products, commercial hardware, research and development, production, deployment, and sustaining initiatives. Functional leaders will spend less time acting as de facto project managers. LeoLabs leadership will have a credible view of the Radar organization’s full technical execution schedule, risks, and resource constraints. The base salary range for this position is $$230,000-$250,000 + bonus + stock options + benefits  **Compensation Note**: The salary range for this position is benchmarked based on the designated primary work location for the role. Final compensation may vary depending on the selected candidate's work location, applicable market data, experience, qualifications, and other job-related factors. ITAR Requirements To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. More information regarding ITAR can be found at DDTC’s website All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identify, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.