{"id":1753801,"url":"https://alion.io/job/shield-ai-principal-technical-program-manager-mma","title":"Principal Technical Program Manager, MMA","company":{"id":50,"name":"Shield AI","domain":"shield.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/shield-ai","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":54,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.796,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":84,"computed_at":"2026-10-10T05:45:15Z"}},"role":"Product","role_family":"Product","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Diego, United States","Dallas, United States","Seattle, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":220000,"max":350000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":350000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-02T18:45:29Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-02","last_verified_at":"2026-10-11T00:06:23Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":8,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":8},"description":"Principal Technical Program Manager - MMA\nShield AI’s mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. We develop autonomy software and advanced aircraft to help U.S. and allied forces accomplish their missions in challenging environments.\nAbout the Role\nShield AI is seeking a Principal Technical Program Manager to lead execution of our aircraft development efforts supporting the U.S. Air Force’s MMA program. This leader will translate customer objectives into an integrated execution plan spanning concept development, aircraft and mission systems integration, prototype demonstration, flight test, and production readiness.\nYou will partner closely with the program leader, Chief Engineer, engineering teams, manufacturing, supply chain, and government stakeholders to deliver against technical, schedule, and cost commitments. Success requires balancing mission capability with affordability, modularity, and speed-making disciplined decisions about what must be developed, what can be reused, and what is required to demonstrate readiness for the next phase.\nThe ideal candidate combines engineering depth with program leadership experience and a record of delivering complex aerospace systems under demanding timelines. You can challenge assumptions, resolve competing priorities, and build alignment across organizations while maintaining clear ownership of program outcomes.\nWhat You’ll Do\nOwn integrated program execution. Establish and maintain the program baseline, connecting engineering deliverables, hardware availability, supplier commitments, integration activities, test events, and customer milestones.\nTranslate customer needs into executable plans. Partner with systems engineering and technical leadership to define program scope, measurable success criteria, requirements priorities, and verification milestones as the program evolves.\nDrive multidisciplinary coordination. Align air vehicle, propulsion, avionics, flight controls, autonomy, mission systems, and ground systems teams around dependencies and interface commitments.\nKeep affordability and production at the center of execution. Incorporate unit-cost targets, component availability, manufacturing complexity, and sustainment considerations into program planning and decision-making.\nManage customer and partner commitments. Lead program reviews with government stakeholders and industry partners, communicate progress candidly, and coordinate contractual deliverables with contracts and program leadership.\nAnticipate and retire risk. Identify critical-path threats, immature technologies, supplier constraints, and resource gaps early; assign mitigation owners and drive timely resolution.\nBuild the path to production. Align development schedules with tooling, long-lead procurement, manufacturing readiness, configuration control, and quality requirements.\nProvide clear executive visibility. Present concise assessments of milestone confidence, financial performance, technical progress, and decisions requiring leadership action.\nRequired Qualifications\nBachelor’s degree in engineering or a related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.\n10+ years of progressive experience in aerospace engineering, technical program management, or complex hardware and software development.\nExperience leading a major aircraft, spacecraft, unmanned system, or similarly integrated aerospace program through significant development and test milestones.\nTechnical breadth sufficient to evaluate integration dependencies, understand engineering tradeoffs, and challenge execution assumptions across disciplines.\nDemonstrated ownership of integrated schedules, budgets, program risks, and cross-functional delivery.\nExperience working directly with government customers or major aerospace partners on requirements, reviews, and delivery commitments.\nAbility to lead through influence, establish accountability, and make sound decisions with incomplete information.\nClear written and verbal communication, including executive briefings and customer-facing technical discussions.\nHas lived and experienced a demo-build cycle\nPreferred Qualifications\nExperience with Group 5 unmanned aircraft, clean-sheet aircraft development, or rapid aerospace prototyping.\nFamiliarity with Air Force acquisition programs and competitive prototype-to-production efforts.\nExperience integrating autonomy, mission payloads, avionics, or ground control systems into aircraft.\nUnderstanding of modular open systems approaches and their implications for integration, supplier coordination, and future upgrades.\nExperience preparing for flight-test campaigns and coordinating airworthiness and safety-review activities.\nDemonstrated success applying design-to-cost principles and transitioning development hardware into repeatable production.\nActive U.S. security 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