Mission Manager
Lead customer missions from onboarding through launch and ongoing support for Northwood’s ground station network. Manage complex cross-functional programs, coordinate with engineering and product teams, and serve as the primary point of contact for customers.
About the job
Responsibilities
- Lead customer missions from onboarding through integration, launch readiness, operational handoff, and ongoing support
- Build and manage program plans, including milestones, owners, risks, dependencies, schedules, readiness criteria, and communications
- Serve as the main programmatic point of contact for customers and internal teams
- Understand customer mission requirements, workflows, success criteria, operational needs, and constraints
- Coordinate across Engineering, Product, Business Development, and Operations to resolve issues and keep deployments on track
- Track technical integration progress, surface risks early, and drive decisions needed for mission readiness
- Help define and improve Northwood’s customer onboarding, deployment, escalation, and post-launch support processes
- Capture customer feedback and translate it into clear product, operational, and business priorities
- Partner with Business Development on customer expansion, renewals, and new mission opportunities
- Ensure Northwood delivers reliable, high-quality service for customer missions
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience in technical program management, mission management, customer operations, deployment management, customer success, product operations, or a related role
- Experience leading complex cross-functional programs from planning through execution
- Ability to work effectively with customers, technical teams, executives, and external partners
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to create structure, prioritize work, and drive progress in fast-moving environments
- Experience with hardware, software, networking, infrastructure, customer deployments, or mission-critical operations
- Ability to understand customer needs and translate them into clear technical, operational, and business priorities
- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
- Willingness to travel up to 30%
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace, Business, or a related field
- Experience in satellite communications, ground station operations, space systems, telecom, defense, or infrastructure deployments
- Experience managing technical customer programs, enterprise deployments, customer success programs, or mission operations
- Familiarity with systems engineering, solution architecture, operational readiness, SLA management, or mission assurance
- Experience working with Product and Engineering teams on customer-driven roadmaps or operational improvements
- Experience supporting government, defense, or regulated customers
- Ability to obtain or maintain a TS/SCI clearance
Skills
Technical Program Management, Cross-Functional Program Management, Customer Success, Deployment Management, Mission Operations, Systems Engineering, Solutions Architecture, Sla Management, Satellite Communications, Ground Station Operations
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