Senior Program Manager

Company Description

Dcode is a team of doers dedicated to bridging the gap between the speed of technology and the federal government. We align people, culture, policies, and processes to get tech in the hands of those who need it most. Operating at the nexus of government leaders, emerging tech companies, and venture capital, we turn roadblocks into results. 

Role Summary

We are seeking a mission-driven, results-oriented Senior Program Manager to lead the execution of high-priority initiatives for a defense sector client. In this role, you’ll help launch and operate a function that can rapidly identify needs, scout technologies, integrate solutions, and scale what works. This means building structure, workflows, and processes that overcome legacy constraints to ensure speed, precision, and measurable impact. You will be responsible for leading daily client engagements and navigating complex stakeholder relationships. Success in this role means navigating ambiguity, moving with urgency, and producing results that have a tangible mission impact.

This role requires exceptional program leadership skills, knowledge of DoW acquisition, POM budgeting, contracting pathways, and the ability to translate complex operational requirements into actionable strategies and repeatable processes to transition validated capabilities toward a program of record.

Duty Station: Fort Hood, TX

Salary range: $116,000- $152,000 plus bi-annual bonuses

Top Secret clearance or higher is strongly preferred.  Eligibility for clearance is required.

Key Responsibilities

Client & Mission Success

• Serve as a trusted partner to Army and DoW stakeholders operating within the corps and acquisition ecosystems.
• Support operational commands in identifying capability gaps and translating needs into actionable, rapid solutions.
• Help design and stand up agile operational structures that enable fast delivery and experimentation.
• Facilitate collaboration across multiple organizations.
• Lead workshops, write assessments, and convert complex operational and technical challenges into clear recommendations.
• Continuously collect feedback and refine delivery approaches to improve outcomes and user experience.
• Engage regularly with senior-level military clients in order to become a trusted partner becoming deeply familiar with the client’s mission objectives, organizational structure, policies, and challenges; build relationships with senior client leaders.
• Work closely with the Dcode Army Director to drive client retention, identify new and up-sell opportunities for account expansion, and help scope new client engagements.
• Proactively collect feedback from the client, review client concerns, and improve the client experience across the account.
• Collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data/metrics to help clients solve their toughest problems and identify outcomes and Return On Investment (ROI).

Program Leadership & Delivery

• Lead a portfolio of army ground system efforts from problem identification and experimentation through acquisition transition and fielding decisions.
• Build integrated execution plans that synchronize requirements, funding, contracting,
• platform integration, test, sustainment, and transition activities.
• Actively work the pathway from validated unit need through requirements and resourcing processes, POM alignment, and assignment to the appropriate PAE/PM.
• Manage day-to-day delivery for assigned workstream(s), producing high quality deliverables and measurable outcomes for your clients.
• Translate strategic objectives into actionable plans, workflows, and performance metrics to evaluate progress towards objectives, ensuring Dcode’s support drives outsized mission and organizational value.
• Apply agile and Scrum methodologies to plan, execute, and adapt projects based on real-time feedback to ensure progress is visible and measurable in weeks, not months.
• Provide creative, novel perspectives and approaches to how the government operates in the areas of policy, acquisitions, finance, culture, and processes, in order to drive innovation and agility inside their missions.

• Serve as a trusted partner to senior defense leaders, providing clear, and data-backed recommendations.
• Facilitate alignment across diverse stakeholder groups to ensure priorities, timelines, and objectives are synchronized.
• Work closely with technical contributors and Systems Developers to ensure requirements, timelines, and dependencies are aligned.
• Supervise, lead, advise, and mentor staff to bring in and integrate innovative, agile, and cutting-edge technologies into clients’ missions.
• Coordinate closely with Dcode leadership and Field Experts to bring the right expertise into projects at the right time.
• Support rapid prototyping and experimentation efforts tied to software-enabled capabilities.

Business Growth

• Leverage executive relationships to identify emerging mission needs and expand Dcode's portfolio within the Army.
• Shape opportunities within accounts based on mission needs.
• Work with the Director and capture leadership to advance opportunities.

Technical Performance & Continuous Improvement

• Establish mission relevant performance measures and transition criteria that show whether a capability is ready to scale, pivot, or stop.
• Capture lessons learned from experimentation and turn them into requirements, integration, acquisition, and force design inputs.
• Identify technical, programmatic, funding, schedule, and stakeholder risks early and drive mitigation to closure.
• Maintain working knowledge of ABCT platforms, ground modernization priorities, and the practical constraints of integrating new hardware into tactical vehicles and formations.
• Lead planning and oversight for integration and test considerations such as power, space/weight, data/network interfaces, safety, transportability, maintainability, and sustainment.
• Maintain awareness of Army ground acquisition organizations and modernization efforts so defense client experiments can connect to the right transition owner.
• Help ensure interoperability, security, safety, and compliance considerations are pulled forward before late-stage testing or fielding.
• Lead documentation of operational needs, requirements, test evidence, transition plans, decision points, and lessons learned.

Operational & Contract Management

• Understand and manage Dcode contract requirements while ensuring client delivery remains outcome-focused.
• Identify acquisition, requirements, funding, test, or policy blockers early and coordinate the right stakeholders to resolve them.
• Capture repeatable transition practices that can be reused across the defense client and other Army innovation efforts.
• Challenge legacy processes when they do not serve the mission, while working within legal, fiscal, safety, and acquisition authorities.
• Build scalable workflows that make prototype-to-program transition faster, more transparent, and easier for government stakeholders to execute.

Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience

• 7+ years of relevant work experience, including leadership of government facing programs in Army acquisition, ground systems, technology integration, or operational modernization.
• Proven experience managing government contracts (DoW preferred), with strong understanding of contracting mechanisms such as OTAs, CSOs, and IDIQs.
• Demonstrated background in ground system procurement or modernization with working knowledge of ABCT platform requirements, hardware integration, test, fielding, and sustainment considerations.
• Understanding how emerging capabilities move from experimentation to program of record. They need to know how requirements move from unit need through POM, PAE, and PM.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder engagement skills, including the ability to brief senior leaders and produce decision-ready materials.
• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to operate in a fast-paced, evolving environment and deliver results under pressure.
• Understanding and comfort with agile project management.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Army Ground Systems Acquisition Fluency - Background in ground system procurement with working knowledge of ABCT platform requirements, hardware integration, and the Army's ground modernization ecosystem. 
• Prior direct experience at the T2COM, G8, or ASA(ALT) level. 
• DAWIA PM Level 2 (Practitioner) certified

You’ll Excel in This Role If You:

• Thrive in high-tempo, mission-driven environments.
• Can distill complex needs into focused, actionable initiatives.
• Balance strategic thinking with tactical execution.
• Proactively remove barriers and enable others to succeed.

Additional Information

We look for resilient hustlers: 

Our CEO busted her face on the balance beam in college and got back up… our CRO has knocked on a thousand doors, was rejected 999 times, and kept on knocking... What is your story? 

Equal Opportunity Statement

We provide equal opportunity to all persons without regard to ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, family or parental status, national origin, veteran, or disability status. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

We believe diversity is a strength and aim to build an innovative and welcoming culture where people from all backgrounds feel respected and included. We believe that true innovation happens when everyone has the tools, resources, and opportunities to excel.