Senior Program Manager I (Laser Communications)

Location: Long Beach, California, United States; based at hirify.global’s global headquarters

Base salary: $116,800–$160,600 USD annually. Total compensation including equity: $137,075–$196,275 USD annually.

Company

hirify.global is an end-to-end space company developing rockets, spacecraft, optical communication terminals, and other critical space hardware for commercial, civil, and national security missions.

What you will do

• Lead optical communication terminal programs from award through qualification, rate production, customer delivery, and on-orbit checkout.
• Run multiple concurrent customer programs and coordinate engineering, production, product, operations, supply chain, business development, and strategy teams.
• Manage delivery commitments, schedules, milestones, acceptance reviews, program risks, costs, EAC, and customer contract changes.
• Drive resolution of yield, supplier, test-capacity, interoperability, link-performance, and environmental-qualification risks.
• Manage program startup, baselining, export and ITAR obligations, customer acceptance, and closeout across U.S. and European sites.
• Serve as the primary customer contact and mentor program leaders.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Physics, or Math.
• Working knowledge of free-space optical or RF communications, including link budgets, pointing, acquisition and tracking, modems, coding, and environmental qualification.
• At least five years of experience with space, aerospace, or photonics hardware programs and multiple full program cycles.
• Proven experience delivering complex hardware through qualification and rate production while managing customer commitments, schedule, risk, acceptance, and program financials.
• U.S. Person status or eligibility to obtain the required U.S. export authorizations is required for U.S. office work due to ITAR/EAR regulations.
• Ability to obtain a security clearance is preferred.

Nice to have

• Experience with optical inter-satellite links or optical ground and airborne terminals.
• Experience scaling low-volume optical or electro-optical hardware into high-rate production.
• Experience with commercial or defense constellation programs and primary customer leadership.
• Experience leading geographically distributed programs with export-control and dual-use compliance.
• Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Optics/Photonics, Physics, or a related field; familiarity with systems engineering, Jira, Confluence, ERP/MRP, and AI tools.

Culture & Benefits

• Employee stock purchase program with a 15% discount and equity as part of total compensation.
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage, including HMO, PPO, and a zero-cost HDHP option with an HSA contribution.
• Paid vacation, sick time, holidays, parental leave, disability and life insurance, and a 401(k) with company match.
• Additional benefits include subsidized EV charging, fitness facilities where available, gym membership discounts, snacks, beverages, and employee discounts.
• Work involves prolonged sitting, standing, walking, computer use, and occasional exposure to moderate noise, dust, and fumes in production areas.