Program Manager, Kill Chain Portfolio (Advanced Sensors & Quantum Systems)

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is a Department of War (DoW) organization focused on accelerating the Department’s adoption of commercial technology at speed and scale. As the Department's gateway to leading technology companies, DIU is focused on rapid prototyping, fielding, and scaling of solutions that can save lives, increase performance, lower costs, and deter future conflict. Driven by a sense of service and the desire to solve priority warfighter problems quickly, DIU Kill Chain PMs enjoy unparalleled freedom with performance expectations to match.

• Warfighter Advocacy: Champion the needs of the warfighter first and foremost throughout program development and execution.
• Large-Scale & Multi-Agency Program Execution: Drive program execution over the entire program lifecycle, managing complex, multi-phase, multi-agency initiatives from initial problem definition through iterative design spirals, component-level technology insertions, and full-scale operational testing.
• Programmatic Decision-Making: Empowered to make critical decisions to ensure the program stays on schedule and within budget while addressing the defined problem.
• Strategic Planning & National R&D Alignment: Responsible for the development of strategies, operating plans, and budgets. Align program goals with national R&D priorities to ensure American leadership in critical and emerging technologies.
• Program Curation & Technology Alignment: Curate new programs through proactive engagement with DoW customers, civil agencies, and commercial deep-tech companies to identify capability gaps —such as the sensitivity and Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) bottlenecks inherent in classical sensors—and align them with disruptive commercial solutions like quantum magnetometers, gravity gradiometers, portable clocks, and advanced metamaterials.
• Cross-Functional & Inter-Agency Leadership: Build and lead cross-functional integrated product teams composed of civilians, military personnel, and contractors from within DIU, across the Department, and partner federal agencies to include the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to enable program success.
• Stakeholder Management: Responsible for gathering key stakeholders, assigning tasks, setting priorities, and driving timely decisions across multiple parallel lines of effort.
• Advanced Subject Matter Expertise: Serve as a Portfolio Subject Matter Expert (SME), continually building and sharing technical expertise on quantum sensing, quantum algorithms, photonics, electromagnetic media, and precise timing infrastructure with team members and senior leadership.
• Advanced Acquisition Collaboration: Collaborate with Acquisition professionals and other Program Managers to navigate complex contract-related matters, utilizing the Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) process and Other Transaction (OT) Authority under 10 U.S.C. 4022 to seamlessly execute prototype agreements and transition them into follow-on production.
• Accountability & Data Rigor: Ensure accountability and rigor by establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), monitoring program health through rigorous data analysis, and reporting outcomes directly to senior leadership.
• Risk Mitigation: Authorized to re-baseline schedules, re-scope priorities, and take decisive corrective action to mitigate risks and resolve programmatic issues across diverse commercial technology pipelines.
• Team Mentorship: Act as a critical member of the Kill Chain team by leveraging expertise and resources across the team and by providing support and mentorship back to others working on other programs.
• Security & Classification Compliance: Maintain and leverage high-level security clearance eligibility (TS/SCI) to effectively interface with classified programs, sensitive dual-use technologies, and restricted operational mission sets.

• A minimum of 11 years of related experience with a Doctorate in a scientific or engineering discipline. Bachelor’s degree in a technical discipline with additional 4 years of appropriate specialized experience can be substituted on a case by case basis.
• There is no one specific profile for a successful DIU Kill Chain PM. Typically, our strongest PMs combine a strong background in two or more of the areas of advanced physics, quantum or electrical engineering, deep-tech research, and public sector innovation.
• Combined expertise and curiosity with an urgency to solve real problems for the warfighter and the humility to embrace any necessary task.