Associate Program Manager Jobs in Denver, CO (NOW HIRING)

Loft Federal is seeking a Program Manager to support customer-facing execution across federal space programs and customer contracts. 

This role will help manage day-to-day program execution for government and national security customers. The Program Manager will work closely with Federal leadership, senior program managers, engineering, mission teams, contracts, finance, security, subcontractors, and customers to keep programs organized, visible, and moving. 

This is a hands-on program execution role. The person in this seat will support customer meetings, track commitments, manage deliverables, coordinate internal actions, maintain program status, identify risks, and help ensure Loft Federal executes against cost, schedule, technical, contractual, and customer requirements. 

The ideal candidate is early to mid-career, highly organized, credible with customers, comfortable with technical programs, and ready to grow into larger program ownership over time. 

Final title and leveling will be determined based on the selected candidate's experience and demonstrated operating depth. Likely leveling ranges from Associate Program Manager to Program Manager, with potential Senior Program Manager consideration for a candidate with stronger independent customer-contract ownership. 

The Program Manager will partner directly with Federal leadership, Program Managers, Engineering, Mission teams, Growth, Contracts, Legal, Finance, Security, Quality, and external customers. 

Why This Role Matters 

Loft Federal is scaling its federal program portfolio across spacecraft, hosted payloads, mission software, mission operations, and national security space customers. 

As the business grows, program execution needs more structure, rhythm, and customer-facing discipline. Customer commitments need to be tracked. Deliverables need to be managed. Technical teams need clear priorities. Risks need to be surfaced early. Contracts, finance, engineering, and mission teams need a shared operating picture. 

This role will help Loft Federal execute customer contracts with more consistency and visibility. The person in this seat will help turn contract requirements, customer priorities, engineering work, subcontractor inputs, and internal decisions into organized program execution. 

What You Will Own 

• Support execution of customer contracts across cost, schedule, technical, contractual, and deliverable requirements. 

• Serve as a day-to-day customer-facing program interface for assigned programs, task orders, studies, demonstrations, or contract workstreams. 

• Prepare for and support customer meetings, program reviews, technical interchange meetings, status calls, and internal execution reviews. 

• Track customer commitments, meeting actions, deliverables, risks, issues, decisions, and follow-up items through closure. 

• Maintain program execution artifacts, including action trackers, deliverable trackers, risk registers, status reports, meeting notes, schedules, and program review materials. 

• Partner with senior program managers and Federal leadership to ensure customer priorities are clearly understood and translated into internal execution plans. 

• Coordinate with Engineering, Mission, Product, Security, Contracts, Finance, and subcontractors to keep program work aligned and moving. 

• Support development and maintenance of program schedules, milestones, dependencies, deliverables, and internal execution plans. 

• Monitor program execution against contract requirements, statements of work, data deliverables, funding limits, period of performance, and customer expectations. 

• Support financial discipline by helping track program budgets, burn rates, labor plans, material needs, subcontractor inputs, invoices, and forecast inputs. 

• Coordinate with Contracts and Legal on customer deliverables, contract modifications, customer correspondence, funding status, and compliance requirements. 

• Support Engineering and Mission teams by tracking technical dependencies, interface needs, verification activities, test readiness, delivery readiness, and customer review inputs. 

• Identify execution risks early and escalate issues before they become customer-facing problems. 

• Support proposal and follow-on growth activities by helping capture customer needs, execution assumptions, lessons learned, risks, deliverables, and program inputs. 

• Help improve Loft Federal's program management processes, templates, reporting cadence, and execution discipline as the business scales. 

Required Qualifications 

• U.S. citizenship required. 

• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance. 

• 3+ years of experience in program management, project management, engineering project coordination, technical operations, government contracting, aerospace, defense, space, national security technology, or a similar program-based environment. 

• Experience supporting customer-facing programs, technical projects, government contracts, or complex engineering efforts. 

• Ability to organize and track actions, deliverables, schedules, risks, dependencies, and decisions across multiple stakeholders. 

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare customer-facing materials, meeting notes, status updates, and program review inputs. 

• Ability to work directly with customers, technical teams, contracts, finance, security, and business leadership. 

• Working knowledge of program execution concepts, including scope, schedule, budget, risks, deliverables, customer commitments, and change control. 

• Familiarity with federal contracts, statements of work, contract deliverables, funding, period of performance, and customer reporting expectations. 

• Ability to understand technical content well enough to coordinate across engineering and mission teams, ask informed questions, and communicate status clearly. 

• Strong ownership, follow-through, attention to detail, and judgment. 

• Ability to operate in a scaling business where systems, processes, and data are still maturing. 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience supporting U.S. government, DoD, Intelligence Community, NASA, civil space, or national security customers. 

• Experience in spacecraft, hosted payloads, satellite systems, mission software, mission operations, ground systems, RF systems, autonomy, edge processing, or complex hardware/software integration. 

• Experience supporting customer program reviews, technical interchange meetings, contract deliverables, schedule reviews, or program status reporting. 

• Experience with FFP, T&M, cost-plus, OTA, IDIQ/task order, subcontract, or similar government contracting structures. 

• Familiarity with FAR/DFARS, CUI, export controls, classified program environments, security requirements, and government contract compliance. 

• Experience supporting proposals, ROMs, BOEs, customer white papers, RFI responses, or follow-on contract activities. 

• Experience with Jira, Confluence, Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Workspace, ERP, CRM, or program management tools. 

• Experience supporting program financial tracking, labor planning, burn rate reviews, invoices, accruals, or forecast inputs. 

• PMP, CAPM, Agile, systems engineering, project management, or related certification. 

• Active Secret or Top Secret clearance. 

• 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance option for employees and dependents
• Flexible Spending (FSA) and Health Savings (HSA) Accounts offered with an employer contribution to the HSA
• 100% employer paid Life, AD&D, Short-Term, and Long-Term Disability insurance
• Flexible Time Off policy for vacation and sick leave, and 12 paid holidays
• 401(k) plan and equity options
• Daily catered lunches and snacks in office
• Fully paid parental leave; 14 weeks for birthing parent and 10 weeks for non-birthing parent
• Carrot Fertility provides comprehensive, inclusive fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits with financial support
• Off-sites and many social events and celebrations
• Relocation assistance when applicable