Program Manager - Construction

Job description

ABOUT FIREFLY AEROSPACE Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company that enables our world to launch, land, and operate in space – anywhere, anytime. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the only commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the only company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Our launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide government and commercial customers with full mission services from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space. Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company on a mission to reliably and repeatedly launch, land, and operate space systems from Earth to the Moon and beyond. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the first commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the first company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Construction Program & Portfolio Execution • Own end-to-end execution of assigned construction and facilities project portfolios across Firefly campuses, from project approval and scope development through design, procurement, construction, commissioning, turnover, and closeout. • Establish and maintain a consistent construction project delivery methodology, including project phases, stage gates, required deliverables, documentation, and handoff criteria, appropriately scaled to project size and complexity. • Lead multiple concurrent construction projects, balancing resources, priorities, schedule, risk, funding, and operational requirements across campuses. • Develop and maintain integrated construction plans that sequence work around active manufacturing, production, testing, and engineering operations to minimize disruption to mission-critical activities. • Partner closely with Facilities, Production, Test, Engineering, EHS, Security, IT, Finance, and other internal stakeholders to define project requirements, manage operational impacts, and ensure organizational readiness. • Serve as the primary owner’s representative for major construction projects, ensuring projects are delivered safely, on schedule, within budget, and in accordance with approved scope and quality requirements. • Establish project execution strategies appropriate to delivery method, including design-bid-build, design-build, construction manager, general contractor, and specialty trade execution. Estimating, Scheduling & Cost Control • Develop and validate construction estimates from conceptual/ROM through definitive estimates, including quantity takeoffs, labor and material assumptions, contingency, escalation, and appropriate allowances. • Lead development of project budgets, schedules, cash flow forecasts, and execution plans in support of capital approval and annual planning processes. • Build, baseline, and maintain integrated project schedules using Microsoft Project or equivalent scheduling tools, including critical path analysis, resource loading, milestone tracking, and schedule recovery planning. • Develop and manage project spend plans and cash flow forecasts; track commitments, actual expenditures, forecast at completion, contingency, and variance to approved budget. • Provide estimating, schedule, risk, and constructability input for CapEx approval packages, governance reviews, and funding decisions. • Partner with Finance to appropriately classify project scope as capital or expense and ensure compliance with capitalization policies, thresholds, construction-in-progress accounting, and asset placed-in-service requirements. • Administer formal change management processes, including evaluation, pricing, documentation, negotiation, approval, and tracking of change orders and potential changes. • Identify cost and schedule trends early and develop corrective action plans to protect project commitments. Construction Risk, Safety & Governance • Establish and maintain project risk registers covering cost, schedule, safety, technical, operational, permitting, procurement, and construction risks. • Quantify risk exposure and develop mitigation and contingency strategies with clear ownership and trigger conditions. • Proactively escalate material risks, issues, and decisions with recommended courses of action and quantified cost, schedule, safety, and operational impacts. • Ensure projects comply with applicable building codes, permitting requirements, authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) approvals, life safety requirements, environmental requirements, and Firefly standards. • Partner with EHS to ensure contractors implement site-specific safety plans and comply with applicable requirements, including hot work, LOTO, confined space, excavation, and other high-risk construction activities. • Establish and enforce construction quality expectations, inspection requirements, punch-list management, commissioning readiness, and final turnover criteria. • Prepare and present project status, financial performance, schedule performance, risk, and decision requests to the Director of Facilities and executive leadership. Contractor, Vendor & Contract Management • Lead contractor and vendor selection activities, including development of scopes of work, RFPs, bid walks, bid leveling, technical evaluations, and recommendation of award. • Manage general contractors, construction managers, design-build partners, architects, engineers, and specialty trades to ensure compliance with contracted scope, schedule, cost, safety, and quality requirements. • Administer construction contracts and purchase orders within approved authority and in coordination with Supply Chain, Finance, and Legal as appropriate. • Review contractor pay applications, validate percent complete, confirm installed quantities, and manage retention, lien releases, and supporting documentation. • Negotiate and manage change orders, claims, schedule impacts, and contractor performance issues. • Develop and maintain a qualified contractor and specialty-trade network to support current and future construction requirements across Firefly campuses. Reporting & Performance Management • Provide recurring construction program reporting to the Director of Facilities and executive leadership covering project cost, schedule, risk, safety, quality, and operational readiness. • Maintain consistent project financial reporting, including approved budget, commitments, actuals, forecast at completion, variance to budget, and remaining contingency. • Track schedule performance against approved baseline schedules and clearly identify schedule variance and critical-path impacts. • Present exceptions, trends, and recommended actions rather than raw project status, clearly communicating what is off plan, why it is off plan, the business impact, and the corrective action required. • Maintain a centralized portfolio view of active construction projects, providing current visibility into scope, budget, schedule, risk, and project status. • Ensure project financial information reconciles with Finance’s system of record and resolve discrepancies prior to reporting. • Prepare executive-level and governance-level reporting packages supporting capital requests, funding decisions, project reviews, and portfolio prioritization. • Provide immediate notification of material cost, schedule, safety, quality, or operational impacts between formal reporting cycles. • Conduct project closeout reviews and capture lessons learned to continuously improve Firefly’s construction delivery processes. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS • Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Architecture, or a related technical discipline. Equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience will be considered. • 10+ years of progressive experience managing construction programs, capital projects, or major facilities projects, including demonstrated ownership of projects exceeding $5M. • Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent construction projects and/or a complex capital project portfolio. • Experience delivering projects within an active manufacturing, industrial, aerospace, semiconductor, or similarly complex operational environment — required. • Demonstrated experience serving as an owner’s representative and managing general contractors, construction managers, design professionals, and specialty contractors. • Proven expertise in construction estimating, including scope development, quantity takeoffs, bid leveling, contingency, escalation, and cost validation. • Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Project or equivalent scheduling software, including schedule baselining, critical path analysis, resource loading, and multi-project portfolio management. • Demonstrated experience managing project budgets, spend plans, cash flow forecasts, commitments, actuals, and cost-to-complete analysis. • Experience with formal construction risk management, including risk registers, probability/impact assessments, mitigation planning, and contingency management. • Demonstrated experience managing contracts, change orders, claims, contractor performance, and commercial issues. • Working knowledge of building codes, permitting, AHJ requirements, life safety systems, and construction regulatory requirements. • Experience coordinating MEP systems, commissioning, construction turnover, and operational readiness. • Demonstrated experience producing project and portfolio reporting for senior and executive leadership, including cost, schedule, risk, and variance analysis. • Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders, resolve complex project issues, and communicate effectively with executive leadership. PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS • Experience in the space, aerospace, defense, semiconductor, advanced manufacturing, or other highly regulated industrial environments. • PMP certification, PE license, CCM certification, or other relevant professional certification. • Experience delivering high-bay manufacturing facilities, cleanrooms, test facilities, test stands, hazardous systems, propellant facilities, or other technically complex infrastructure. • Experience with pre-engineered metal building (PEMB) delivery and greenfield site development. • Experience with complex mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP), controls, utilities, and industrial systems. • Experience leading commissioning, startup, turnover, and operational readiness activities. • Experience managing design-build and other alternative project delivery methods. • Experience managing construction projects across multiple geographic locations. • Familiarity with CMMS, CAFM, IWMS, project controls, or capital project management systems. • Working knowledge of capital accounting practices, including capitalization thresholds, construction-in-progress (CIP), and asset placed-in-service timing. • Experience establishing construction standards, processes, project controls, and governance frameworks within a rapidly scaling organization. Primary Level Salary Range: Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, relocation benefits, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options. To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.