Technical Project Manager - Solid Rocket Motors

Estes Energetics, along with its subsidiary Goex Industries, is an American manufacturer of black powder, chemicals, and rocket motors. Our agile and experienced team is proud to make products that support the Department of Defense, strengthen domestic production, preserve history, serve hunting and shooting sports enthusiasts, and ignite a passion for rocketry in our youth. Whether we're performing research into energetic materials and products, or standing up American-made production, count on us to find a solution.

Summary

Estes Energetics is seeking an experienced Technical Project Manager to support our solid rocket motor (SRM) design and manufacturing operations in Penrose Colorado located approximately 35 minutes south of Colorado Springs. In this role, the Technical Project Manager will lead coordination efforts across a team of primarily design and manufacturing engineers to plan, execute, and track complex project activities. The successful candidate will ensure program milestones are met on time and within budget, while proactively identifying risks and driving solutions. This position reports to the Program Manager for Solid Rocket Motors and will work closely with other members of the Leadership Team to support the success of our development and production energetics facility in Colorado. The Technical Project Manager will be responsible for communicating plans, status, and progress to internal and external stakeholders, including government and commercial customers and the Estes Energetics Senior Leadership Team. We are seeking a candidate with a strong technical background, proven project leadership experience in an engineering or manufacturing environment, and the ability to operate in a fast-paced, mission-driven organization. This role is ideal for a seasoned Project Manager or Senior Project Engineer ready to lead high-visibility programs in the defense or aerospace sectors.

Essential Functions

• Develop plans, schedules, and tracking tools to ensure project is achieving milestones and goals.
• Responsible for reporting project status and updates to internal and external customers and stakeholders.
• Define milestones and objectives for project progress, while understanding dependencies between different tasks.
• Must be able to quickly determine impacts of any risk and issues to downstream plans and dependencies while backing them with technical rationale.
• Identify, manage, document, and communicate risk, issues, and opportunities that affect project schedule, cost, performance, quality and any other key performance metrics relevant to project and dependencies.
• Must be comfortable learning new things to the extent required to be able to speak the language with technical teams and understand enough to create accurate and representative work plans and develop timelines.
• Interested in having ownership over project success and failure, while being able to leverage interdisciplinary and creative solutions to solve complex problems.

Competencies, Experience, and Education

Required

• Strong engineering background across multiple different areas of engineering such as design, analysis, manufacturing, operations, and test.
• Experience with creating plans, schedules, and tracking tools for team projects.
• Strong communication and presentation skills experience presenting to small and large audiences and creating clean and effective presentation materials.
• Experience coordinating work across different teams, groups, or organizations.
• Excellent time management skills, with proven experience being able to complete tasks on time.
• Familiarity with industry standard methods of identifying and managing risks and opportunities.
• Experienced creating documentation, procedures, templates and tools for tracking progress on tasks or projects.
• Comfortable collaborating with and leading a team of 15+ people through complex design, development, and manufacturing problems.
• A minimum of 7 years of experience working in propulsion, energetics, explosives, chemicals, or Department of Defense (DoD) related projects in development, manufacturing, or testing.
• Experienced with mechanical or chemical manufacturing methods and processes, as well as inspection and quality testing.
• BS or MS in mechanical, aerospace, chemical, electrical, or other relevant engineering fields.
• Must be self-driven and able to work with little to no supervision or guidance.
• Comfortable working with and around explosives manufacturing and testing facilities.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain State and Federal explosives licenses including:
• Be 21 years of age or older.
• Pass pre-employment drug test.
• Pass State and Federal background checks.

Desired

• Experienced with Solid Rocket Motors, Solid Propulsion, propellants, energetic materials, aircraft, spacecraft, or other types of aerospace/defense systems.
• Experienced using MS Project, Smartsheet, or equivalent tools for creating schedules and dependencies.
• Familiarity with agile planning and management methods.
• Experienced in fabrication and manufacturing processes, industrial equipment, production plant layout, process improvement, lean manufacturing, or 6S.
• Experienced with formal DoD engineering reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, QRR, PRR, etc.)
• Project engineering or project/program management experience.
• Strong background in Risk, Issues, and Opportunities identification, documentation, management, and reporting.
• Experience with defense related contracts and projects.
• Experience with configuration management.

Work Environment

The work will primarily be in an office environment with some work in a manufacturing environment.

Physical Demands

• Ability to lift 50 pounds.
• Comfortable sitting, standing, climbing, balancing, stooping, kneeling, crouching, and crawling.
• Exposure to industrial machines, heat, cold, and explosives.
• Frequent movement through a manufacturing environment.
• Use of personal protective equipment appropriate to the work location.

Travel

5-10%

Position Type and Expected Hours of Work

This is a full-time position. Working a 9/80 schedule

Benefits

Estes Energetics maintains a comprehensive benefits package including:

• Health insurance plan with medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Life and disability insurance 100% paid by company
• 401(k) retirement plan 7% match with vesting after 30 days
• Single, comprehensive paid time off (PTO) policy
• 9 Paid Holidays

Work Authorization

Must be a US citizen or national, a lawful permanent resident, or a protected individual as defined in 8 USC 1324b.

Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Program

Estes Energetics provides equal employment opportunity to all individuals regardless of their race, color, creed, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by state, federal, or local law. Additional information is available at: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ofccp/posters

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

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