Startup Program Manager Jobs in Dallas, TX (NOW HIRING)

Job Title: Sr. Program Manager

Job Description

This Sr. Program Manager role leads complex customer programs for a precision sheet metal fabrication manufacturing organization that serves a wide range of industries, from early-stage startups to large enterprises. You will own customer programs from initial award through steady-state production, acting as the primary point of contact for assigned accounts and as the internal advocate who keeps engineering, quality, and production aligned to schedule, cost, and scope commitments. This position is ideal for someone who takes pride in their craft, thrives in disciplined operations, and wants to help build a long-lasting, high-performing organization.

Responsibilities

• Own overall program outcomes against schedule, cost, and scope, ensuring on-time delivery, adherence to budget, and conformance to specifications while proactively minimizing future program risk.
• Serve as the primary point of contact and internal advocate for assigned customer accounts, building trusted relationships that support long-term account growth and repeat business.
• Lead customer-facing program reviews, providing clear and accurate status updates on deliverables, open issues, risks, and mitigation plans.
• Manage new program launches from quote through first article and into steady-state production, ensuring smooth transitions between each phase of the program lifecycle.
• Translate customer requirements into clear internal action plans that align engineering, quality, and production priorities with program objectives.
• Interface daily with engineering, quality, production planning, procurement, and shop floor leadership to keep assigned programs moving efficiently and on plan.
• Coordinate engineering changes, first article inspections, and corrective actions with the appropriate functional owners to maintain quality and schedule integrity.
• Partner with production planning and scheduling to align capacity, tooling, and material availability with program timelines and customer commitments.
• Support supplier and vendor coordination for outsourced processes, purchased components, and outside services to ensure they meet program requirements.
• Represent program needs and constraints in internal operations reviews and capacity planning discussions, advocating for resources and prioritization as needed.
• Maintain program schedules, action item logs, and open issue trackers, ensuring cross-functional teams and customers remain aligned on status and next steps.
• Monitor program cost performance against budget, identifying, escalating, and resolving variances before they impact delivery or profitability.
• Identify program risks early, develop mitigation plans, and drive execution of those plans in partnership with engineering and operations leadership.
• Track and report key program metrics, including on-time delivery, quality performance, and cost, to leadership to support data-driven decision-making.
• Maintain documentation discipline appropriate to regulated or compliance-driven customer requirements, ensuring records are complete, accurate, and audit-ready.
• Operate effectively across a matrixed organization without formal authority over every function, using influence, communication, and follow-through to drive results.
• Adapt communication style and program management approach to meet the needs of both startup and corporate customers, ensuring a high level of customer-facing professionalism.

Essential Skills

• Bachelor's degree.
• 5 or more years of demonstrable program or project management experience in a relevant field.
• Direct experience with physical product development, product testing, or manufacturing new product introduction.
• Proven ability to lead technical program execution from within a cross-functional team without formal authority over all involved functions.
• Experience managing programs that span engineering, quality, production, and supply chain activities.
• Strong program management skills, including schedule development, cost tracking, risk management, and status reporting.
• Customer-facing professionalism suitable for serving as the program-level point of contact for key accounts.
• Ability to operate effectively in both startup and corporate environments to support a diverse customer base.
• Comfort working in a fast-growing, fast-moving company with evolving tools, processes, and systems.
• High level of detail orientation with strong organizational skills and disciplined follow-through on schedules, action items, and deliverables.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills to collaborate across engineering, quality, production planning, procurement, and shop floor leadership.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• Working knowledge of ERP or MRP systems used for production scheduling and program tracking.
• PMP certification or equivalent formal program management training.
• Experience with regulated, compliance-driven, or documentation-heavy product environments, such as aerospace, defense, or medical device manufacturing.
• Experience coordinating supplier and vendor activities for outsourced processes, purchased components, and outside services.
• Familiarity with first article inspections, engineering change processes, and corrective action management.
• Comfort presenting program status, risks, and metrics to both internal leadership and external customers.
• Ability to travel regularly between facilities and to customer or vendor sites, including occasional international travel.

Job Type & Location

This is a Permanent position based out of Rowlett, TX.

The pay range for this position is $107500.00 - $146300.00/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.

MedcalDentalvision401Kbonus

This is a fully onsite position in Rowlett,TX.

This position is anticipated to close on Aug 31, 2026.

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 actalentaccommodation@actalentservices.com 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.