Sr. Program Manager - Acquisition Support - Environmental Monitoring

Stellar Solutions, a nationally recognized "Great Place To Work," delivers engineering solutions across commercial space and national security missions-from innovative new entrants to established space systems organizations.

We bring talented, energetic, and immediately productive professionals to meet critical customer needs in systems engineering and integration, mission operations, program management, and strategic planning-helping teams deliver resilient capability to the mission with speed, quality, and focus.

Stellar Solutions is seeking a Senior Program Manager & Acquisition Support professional to support a proposed Space-Based Sensing and Tracking (SBST) enterprise, with emphasis on Environmental Monitoring and related sensing capabilities. This role provides senior acquisition execution, program integration, systems engineering, and advisory support to government customers advancing future sensing capabilities across Environmental Monitoring, radar/RF sensing, SAR, AMTI, GMTI, mission-data transport, ground processing, and related space-based sensing efforts.

The position is designed for a hands-on senior advisor who helps the government keep development efforts, prime contractors, technical teams, schedules, risks, acquisition milestones, and decision packages on track. Rather than serving as the day-to-day program manager for a single operational program, this role supports future-development and pre-acquisition efforts by helping turn mission needs into executable acquisition and technical plans, preparing programs for key decisions, and driving disciplined follow-through across government and industry stakeholders.

This is a senior program-management and acquisition-support role focused on future-development execution for a mission-focused professional who can operate across program offices, systems engineering teams, acquisition organizations, contractors, mission users, and senior government leadership. The role will help shape, mature, and execute acquisition activities for emerging or evolving space-based sensing capabilities while maintaining focus on cost, schedule, performance, technical readiness, and national security mission outcomes.

Key responsibilities include:

Provide senior acquisition-support, program integration, and technical advisory assistance to government customers developing and maturing space-based sensing and tracking capabilities.
• Help government program offices plan, organize, and execute future-development and pre-acquisition activities, including acquisition strategy, requirements maturation, market research, RFP development, source-selection support, and transition to formal acquisition pathways.
• Coordinate across government leadership, program managers, systems engineers, acquisition personnel, prime contractors, subsystem teams, FFRDCs, advisory partners, and mission stakeholders to resolve programmatic issues consistent with cost, schedule, performance, and mission objectives.
• Assist with development, review, and integration of program plans, acquisition schedules, integrated master schedules, risk registers, technical-review packages, milestone decision materials, briefings, and executive decision products.
• Support preparation of Statements of Work, Performance Work Statements, CDRLs, evaluation criteria, technical specifications, requirements documents, acquisition strategies, and contractor-executable direction.
• Help assess contractor and developer progress, identify execution risks and dependencies, track action closure, and support recovery planning for schedule, technical, integration, or readiness challenges.
• Provide program-office support for requirements definition, system and ground-segment integration, interface coordination, verification planning, test readiness, and transition planning as needed to inform acquisition decisions.
• Assist government leadership in evaluating technical alternatives, contractor approaches, program maturity, affordability, schedule realism, and readiness to proceed through acquisition and development milestones.
• Coordinate acquisition and execution activities across space, ground, data processing, mission-data transport, exploitation, dissemination, and operational-user dependencies.
• Support program reviews, working groups, integrated product teams, requirements reviews, risk boards, source-selection activities, technical interchange meetings, and senior-leader engagements.
• Prepare clear, decision-quality reports, briefings, spreadsheets, issue papers, action trackers, and recommendations using Government-approved systems, software, and processes.
• Help maintain a collaborative, execution-focused environment that enables government customers to move emerging SBST capabilities from concept through acquisition, development, integration, and operational transition.

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of relevant experience in acquisition support, program management, systems engineering, mission integration, technical advisory, or government program-office support within national security space, defense, intelligence, or related federal environments.
• Experience supporting government acquisition and future-development efforts, including one or more of the following: acquisition strategy, requirements development, RFP support, source selection, SOW/PWS development, CDRLs, program baselines, risk management, milestone reviews, contractor oversight, or program execution planning.
• Experience working across government program offices, contractors, technical teams, and senior stakeholders to resolve issues affecting cost, schedule, performance, technical maturity, and mission delivery.
• Experience supporting space, satellite, remote sensing, radar/RF, SAR, ISR, GEOINT, ground systems, mission processing, mission-data, communications, or related national security capabilities.
• Ability to understand and translate technical, mission, and programmatic information into clear acquisition artifacts, execution plans, decision materials, and actionable recommendations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience preparing executive-level briefings, acquisition documentation, program reviews, decision memoranda, and stakeholder communications.
• Ability to work independently in a high-tempo, collaborative government/contractor environment and respond effectively to changing priorities and stringent deadlines.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience supporting SSC, USSF, SDA, NRO, NGA, MDA, AFRL, DoD, IC, NOAA, NASA, USGS, or related space, sensing, remote-sensing, or national security mission environments.
• Experience supporting pre-acquisition, major capability acquisition, rapid acquisition, technology maturation, architecture modernization, or advanced-development programs.
• Familiarity with PPBE, FAR/DFARS, DAU/Defense Acquisition Workforce credentials, program protection, technical baseline management, integrated master scheduling, risk management, and acquisition milestone governance.
• Experience supporting radar/RF sensing, SAR, AMTI, GMTI, Environmental Monitoring, ISR/GEOINT, mission processing, ground architecture, data transport, or multi-sensor integration is preferred.
• Experience with requirements traceability, interface management, technical reviews, test and evaluation planning, verification activities, CONOPS, ICDs, or operational transition planning.
• Professional certification such as PMP, DAU/Defense Acquisition Workforce certification, or equivalent acquisition/program-management credentials.
• Active or recent Top Secret/SCI clearance is strongly preferred.

Clearance & Additional Requirements

• U.S. citizenship is required.
• Active security clearance is required; Top Secret/SCI eligibility or access is strongly preferred.
• Ability to access U.S.-only data systems and support classified government mission environments is required.

Location

This position is located in Chantilly, VA - Ability to travel to temporary work locations up to 20%, as needed.

Deliverables will be in the format of reports, briefings, spreadsheets, or other documents as directed by the Government, using Government-approved and/or mandated systems/software and processes governed by guidance/instructions/policy or direction. The nature of this work will, at times, require quick responses to stringent deadlines and always in a high-quality, professional manner.