Program Manager

Job Title: New Product Development Manager

Job Description

The New Product Development Manager serves as an Integrated Product Team Leader and plays a hands-on leadership role in driving complex projects from concept through development and into production. This position coordinates engineering, operations, supply chain, quality, and finance teams to deliver highly engineered products that meet demanding technical, cost, and schedule requirements. The role requires a highly organized, results-driven professional who can influence outcomes across a matrixed organization, maintain strong alignment with customer and business objectives, and ensure smooth execution in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

Responsibilities

• Manage the full lifecycle execution of assigned projects, including defining and controlling scope, schedule, cost, quality, and risk.
• Lead cross-functional teams across engineering, operations, supply chain, quality, and finance to ensure alignment and effective execution of project objectives.
• Develop detailed project plans, schedules, and milestones that support customer requirements and business goals.
• Drive decision-making related to schedule, budget, and technical trade-offs to maintain project performance and meet delivery commitments.
• Partner closely with program management to align execution plans with customer expectations, statements of work, and contractual obligations.
• Establish and maintain effective operating rhythms, including project reviews, status meetings, and performance metrics, to ensure execution success.
• Hold team members accountable for commitments and drive timely completion of project deliverables.
• Identify project risks early, develop robust mitigation plans, and proactively address issues that could impact schedule, cost, or technical performance.
• Monitor project financial performance, including budgeting, forecasting, earned value and variance analysis, and corrective action planning.
• Provide regular, transparent status updates to leadership on project health, key risks, recovery plans, and financial performance.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives and structured problem-solving efforts to enhance efficiency, quality, and execution outcomes.
• Support proposal development activities by contributing execution plans, resource estimates, cost inputs, and schedule recommendations.
• Ensure a smooth and controlled transition of projects from development into production environments.
• Maintain compliance with customer requirements, statements of work, internal processes, and formal project execution or stage-gate management systems.
• Capture lessons learned and implement best practices to improve future project execution and organizational performance.

Essential Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Operations, or a related technical discipline is preferred.
• 3 to 10 years of experience in project management, engineering, operations, or program execution within a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated success managing project scope, schedule, budget, and deliverables for complex technical projects.
• Experience developing project cost estimates, budgets, and forecasting models to support program planning and execution.
• Proven ability to lead and influence cross-functional teams without direct reporting authority in a matrixed organization.
• Strong organizational and planning skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and projects simultaneously.
• Experience identifying project risks and implementing effective mitigation strategies to protect schedule, cost, and performance.
• Analytical mindset with the ability to interpret performance metrics, financial data, and operational indicators to drive corrective actions.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to present status, risks, and plans clearly to stakeholders and leadership.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to build alignment and drive decisions across diverse functional groups.
• Hands-on approach to project execution, comfortable working closely with engineering and manufacturing teams in a fast-paced environment.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• Experience supporting both new product development and production programs in a manufacturing or aerospace and defense environment.
• Familiarity with Lean Manufacturing principles, continuous improvement methodologies, and structured problem-solving techniques such as kaizen.
• Experience with aerospace, defense, or space-related products and technologies, including new product implementation.
• History in risk management and problem solving for complex technical and operational issues.
• Experience supporting proposal development, project costing, and schedule planning activities.
• Knowledge of financial management principles, including forecasting, earned value concepts, cost control, and variance analysis.
• Experience working within formal project execution frameworks or stage-gate management systems.
• Comfort working on highly engineered products and challenging development and production programs where quality, reliability, and performance are critical.
• Interest in continuous learning and professional growth, with the ambition to progress into advanced technical or leadership roles.

Work Environment

This role operates in a highly visible leadership position within a collaborative engineering and manufacturing environment focused on aerospace, defense, and space applications. You will work closely with engineering, operations, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and finance teams to drive complex projects from development through production. The environment is fast-paced, hands-on, and centered on highly engineered products where quality, reliability, and performance are paramount. Team members benefit from broad visibility and ownership across the product lifecycle, creating strong opportunities for advancement into level 3 technical or leadership roles. The organization offers a competitive compensation package and comprehensive benefits designed to support employees and their families, including healthcare coverage, retirement savings opportunities, paid time off, and other employee-focused programs. The role follows a 9/80 work schedule, where employees work 80 hours across nine days instead of ten, enjoy every other Friday off, and benefit from a three-day weekend every other week.

This is a Permanent position based out of Moorpark, CA.

The pay range for this position is $110000.00 - $170000.00/yr.

Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.

EBAD offers the opportunity to work on mission-critical aerospace and defense programs while enjoying strong benefits, performance-based incentives, excellent healthcare coverage, and a 9/80 schedule with every other Friday off. Employees gain exposure across multiple functions, have meaningful ownership of their work, and can build long-term careers in a growing organization supporting some of the largest aerospace and defense programs in the industry

This is a Permanent position based out of Moorpark, CA.

This position is anticipated to close on Nov 3, 2026.

This is a fully onsite position in Moorpark,CA.

About Actalent

Actalent is a global leader in engineering and sciences services and talent solutions. We help visionary companies advance their engineering and science initiatives through access to specialized experts who drive scale, innovation and speed to market. With a network of almost 20,000 consultants and 5,000 clients across the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe, Actalent serves many of the Fortune 500. We are proud to be an Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 500 Design Firm for our engineering design services and a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing® winner for both client and talent service.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications withoutregard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability,sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protectedby law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification oradjustment of the job application process or interviewing process due to a disability,please email for other accommodation options.

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance:Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, for all positions located in thecity and county of San Francisco, we will consider for employment qualified applicantswith arrest and conviction records.

Massachusetts Lie Detector:It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as acondition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this lawshall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI):We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our hiring process,including sourcing, screening, and evaluating candidates. AI helps assess applicationsand qualifications, but final decisions are made by our hiring team. By applying, youacknowledge and agree that your application may be reviewed using AI tools.