Senior Program Manager - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Role Description

Program / Division Manager II provides senior-level leadership across complex programs, multi-project portfolios, and strategic customer relationships. This role is responsible for delivering mission-impactful outcomes, shaping organizational strategy, driving contract performance, and advancing Covan Group’s position within the defense sector. PM/DM II is the highest tier in the Program Management job family and represents Covan Group to senior government and industry leaders.

Key Outcomes (First 90–180 Days)

Learns and understands Group 1 UAS, autonomy, partner, and evaluation requirements across assigned DDP/Gauntlet efforts.

Establishes command of scope, schedule, staffing, risk, budget, and delivery expectations for assigned $5M–$20M efforts.

Demonstrates sound judgment integrating aircraft, autonomy, operators, safety, and collection requirements into controlled field evaluations.

Builds effective customer and partner relationships and communicates evidence-backed findings, limitations, and recommendations.

Identifies practical improvements to test repeatability, traceability, program controls, and future-event execution.

Core Responsibilities

Lead complex, multi-project portfolios with high visibility and mission-critical outcomes.

Manage financial performance including budgets, forecasts, staffing plans, and resource alignment.

Provide senior-level engagement with clients, partners, and external stakeholders.

Ensure all program activities meet Covan’s standards for quality, rigor, communication, and compliance.

Shape organizational strategy and contribute to corporate planning and decision-making.

Develop leaders across programs—mentoring PMs, deputies, and high-potential staff.

Directly support growth efforts including proposal development, pipeline shaping, and capture activities.

Oversee risk management across the program portfolio and implement long-term mitigation strategies.

Represent Covan Group in senior-level meetings, reviews, and industry engagements.

Project Responsibilities

The Group 1 UAS Senior Program Manager reports to the Experiment Division Manager and leads assigned Group 1 / Drone Dominance Program field-test activities.

Translate approved Group 1 needs into test plans, evaluation measures, collection requirements, and project baselines for scope, staffing, schedule, risks, and deliverables.

Integrate aircraft, payloads, controllers, communications, power, sustainment, operators, and partner support into repeatable field tests.

Evaluate autonomous navigation, perception-supported behavior, mission management, control transitions, and interventions within approved conditions.

Coordinate collaborative, hierarchical-control, and one-to-many collection methods with the Autonomy PM; distinguish manual, supervised, scripted, and autonomous results.

Verify range, airspace, qualified personnel, safety, launch/recovery, instrumentation, and end-to-end collection readiness before affected activity.

Integrate aircraft/controller logs, synchronized video, independent observations, operator feedback, and unique event/run identifiers.

Coordinate White Cell support and approved adjudication; record deviations, ambiguous outcomes, configuration changes, evidence gaps, and retest needs.

Supervise team and partner delivery; brief customers and deliver evidence-linked findings, authorized data handover, after-action review, and next-event improvements.

Lead cost proposals for assigned $5M–$20M efforts, integrating partner estimates, labor, travel, equipment, support costs, bases of estimate, and Finance/Contracts approval.

Manage approved budgets; reconcile actuals, accruals, commitments, and partner charges; forecast ETC/EAC and funding; report monthly variances and close out costs.

Qualifications

Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD security clearance.

Military experience at the senior officer (O5/O6) or senior SNCO level, OR equivalent senior-level program, organizational, operational, or technical leadership experience within a federal or state organization.

Demonstrated senior-level program or team-of-teams leadership covering partner delivery, schedules, budgets, risks, and customer outcomes.

Experience leading cost proposals and budget execution for efforts of comparable $5M–$20M scale, including partner costs, forecasting, variance analysis, and financial reporting.

Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, electrical, mechanical, computer, or systems engineering; computer science; robotics; or a related field, OR equivalent relevant technical experience.

Demonstrated Group 1 UAS subject matter expertise through operational employment, engineering, integration, experimentation, or test leadership.

Substantial hands-on small-UAS autonomy integration or evaluation experience; routine piloting or waypoint use alone is insufficient.

Ability to review autonomy architectures, software/controller logs, operator interventions, failure behavior, and safety evidence and convert objectives into collection/readiness requirements and traceable findings.

Working proficiency with architectures, interfaces, instrumentation, networks, telemetry, configuration control, and troubleshooting; ability to integrate engineers, operators, data/safety personnel, vendors, and partner leads.

Preferred Qualifications

Extensive experience leading major defense programs, multi-contract portfolios, or large technical teams.

Experience with DDP/Gauntlet-type evaluations, small-UAS fielding, rapid prototype iteration, and multi-vendor coordination.

Experience with collaborative aircraft behavior, human-machine teaming, simulation-to-field evaluation, or autonomy regression testing.

PMP or comparable training; experience with project controls, contract deliverables, and partner coordination.

Experience in business development, organizational strategy, or senior advisory roles.

Specialized Tools / Systems / Capabilities

Group 1 aircraft/controller interfaces and autonomy/configuration logs.

Synchronized video, independent references, DCAP, and traceability tools.

Project controls and Finance-approved cost tools.

Authorized collaboration, configuration-control, and technical reporting systems.

Clearance Requirements

Secret required; TS/SCI strongly preferred.

Must meet all security reporting, training, access-control, and handling requirements for proprietary, controlled, and classified information.

Work Environment & Travel

Remote-first between events with 50-80% annual travel to ranges, laboratories, operations centers, and field locations.

Outdoor conditions, extended days, shifts, and occasional evening/weekend work may be required during event execution.

Travel is governed by Covan Group's Travel Policy.

Compensation

2026 Pay Band: $129,000 – $184,000

EEOC & Accommodation Statement

Covan Group provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.