About the Role
We are seeking a disciplined and technically fluent Engineering Technical Project Manager (TPM) to serve as the operational backbone of the engineering organization. Reporting to the Lazuli spacecraft Chief Engineer, this role owns the day-to-day mechanics of spaceflight hardware development: tracking deliverables and CDRLs, maintaining schedules, managing the risk register, adjudicating discrepancy reports, and driving tasking across subsystem teams and suppliers. A foundational principle of this role is that the systems and spacecraft engineers establish the design; the Engineering TPM sees that it comes into fruition. The TPM works in direct support of Cognizant Engineers and Designated Responsible Individuals (DRIs) - the technical authorities who hold ultimate design authority over their assigned subsystems - translating their engineering intent into tracked tasks, enforced schedules, and closed action items. This role carries substantial supplier interaction, including extended on-site presence at facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and continental Europe.
Key responsibilities for this role include the following:
Cognizant Engineer & DRI Support
Work in direct partnership with Cognizant Engineers and DRIs to ensure their technical decisions are accurately reflected in schedules, task assignments, CDRLs, and action-item trackers. The TPM holds no design authority; accountability is to execution.
Facilitate technical working sessions and TIMs between DRIs and supplier counterparts; capture and distribute minutes, technical direction items, and action lists with assigned owners and due dates.
Serve as primary on-site presence at supplier facilities in the U.S., U.K., and continental Europe during key program phases; monitor supplier progress against DRI-approved plans and escalate deviations before they become schedule or cost drivers.
Deliverable & CDRL Management
Own and maintain the program’s master deliverable register across all suppliers and internal teams; track all CDRL items from obligation through final acceptance and flag at-risk items to program leadership.
Coordinate with engineering leads and supplier program managers to confirm due dates, clarify content requirements, and maintain traceability to contractual milestones and review gates.
Schedule Development & Maintenance
Develop and maintain engineering-level schedules capturing subsystem milestones, supplier deliveries, and AI&T entry criteria; identify dependencies, float, and critical path across all work threads.
Facilitate weekly schedule status reviews; maintain 2-week, 6-week, and quarterly look-ahead windows to support proactive resource and risk management.
Risk Register Management
Own the engineering risk register: facilitate identification sessions, maintain likelihood/consequence assessments, track mitigation owners and due dates, and report status at all program reviews.
Monitor watch items from TIMs, weekly leads meetings, and working groups; support escalation to program-level risk boards and prepare risk burn-down reporting for the Chief Engineer.
Discrepancy & Corrective Action Tracking
Administer the program’s PFR and discrepancy reporting system; coordinate root cause analysis validation and corrective action verification; support the PRACA process with audit-ready records.
Coordinate with Mission Assurance to manage supplier risks and problems; ensure that supplier non-conformances, corrective action requests, and failure investigations are properly dispositioned, tracked, and reported to program leadership.
Produce periodic summaries of open discrepancies, aging items, and trends for the Chief Engineer and mission assurance team.
Jira Tasking & Action Item Management
Administer the engineering Jira instance: configure boards, maintain workflows, translate action items and review findings into well-scoped tasks with clear owners and due dates.
Conduct weekly hygiene reviews; escalate stalled tasks; generate sprint and backlog health reports for Chief Engineer situational awareness.
Program Review & Reporting Support
Coordinate engineering inputs to all program reviews (PDR, CDR, TRR, ORR, MAR, QPR); track postreview action items to closure; support CCB by logging RFDs/ECPs and ensuring approved changes propagate to schedules, CDRLs, and Jira.
Prepare and maintain the weekly engineering status report aggregating schedule health, open risks, open discrepancies, and CDRL status.
Required Qualifications
B.S. in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, or Systems Engineering or a closely related technical field.
4+ years of technical project or program management in a spacecraft, defense, or complex hardware development environment.
Demonstrated experience managing CDRLs, deliverable registers, and contract milestone tracking across multiple vendors.
Proficiency with Jira or equivalent issue-tracking tools; experience with MS Project, Smartsheet, or equivalent scheduling tools.
Hands-on experience with risk register development, mitigation tracking, PRACA processes, and discrepancy report workflows.
Familiarity with spacecraft program review structures (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, ORR) and supporting documentation.
Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to produce concise, accurate status summaries for senior leadership.
Willingness to travel internationally; extended on-site periods at supplier facilities in the U.S., U.K., and Europe are an expected and substantive part of this role.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience working with international suppliers under ITAR/EAR frameworks; prior fast-moving commercial space program experience.
Familiarity with astrophysics missions, space observatories, or science instrument programs.
This is an exempt position.
This role requires access to U.S. export controlled information. Candidates must be a U.S. person (i.e. a citizen of the United States, a permanent resident, or a legal asylee or refugee) OR receive approval from the U.S. Government to work with U.S. export controlled information.
