Senior Project Manager

Senior Technical Project Manager
Location: Arlington, VA
Pay Rate: Up to $79.00 per hour, depending on experience
Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Work Arrangement: Hybrid, with three days onsite per week
Hours: 40 hours per week
Assignment: Temporary opportunity with the potential for extension based on project needs and available funding
Position Summary
The Panther Group is seeking an experienced Senior Technical Project Manager to lead the execution of a high-priority additive manufacturing initiative supporting the U.S. Navy.

This is a hands-on project leadership opportunity for someone who excels at coordinating complex technical programs, managing competing priorities, and translating evolving objectives into clear, actionable execution plans.

The Senior Technical Project Manager will oversee daily project execution, coordinate technical teams and stakeholders, maintain detailed schedules, track milestones and dependencies, manage risks, and provide clear status reporting to program leadership.

Additive manufacturing experience is helpful but not required. We are particularly interested in accomplished project leaders with experience managing technically complex programs within defense, federal government, aerospace, engineering, advanced manufacturing, or similar environments.
Responsibilities

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  Lead the day-to-day execution of a complex, cross-functional technical initiative supporting the U.S. Navy.
  
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  Translate project objectives and technical requirements into structured execution plans with clearly defined milestones, owners, dependencies, and deliverables.
  
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  Develop, maintain, and communicate detailed project schedules.
  
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  Monitor deadlines, milestones, dependencies, and deliverables to keep work on schedule.
  
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  Coordinate technical specialists, cross-functional teams, government stakeholders, external partners, and senior leadership.
  
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  Track project scope, schedule, budget, resources, risks, issues, decisions, and deliverables.
  
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  Identify potential roadblocks and take proactive action to resolve issues.
  
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  Escalate significant risks, delays, or decisions to project leadership when appropriate.
  
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  Provide stakeholders with timely and accurate progress updates.
  
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  Facilitate project meetings and document decisions, action items, owners, and deadlines.
  
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  Follow up with project participants to promote accountability and ensure commitments are completed.
  
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  Manage changing priorities and evolving requirements while maintaining project momentum.
  
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  Prepare clear project status reports, recommendations, and leadership updates.
  
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  Take direction from the project lead while independently anticipating needs, identifying gaps, and driving next steps.
  
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  Support effective communication, coordination, and decision-making across all project participants.
  

Required Qualifications

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  At least five years of project or program management experience.
  
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  Demonstrated experience managing complex technical initiatives involving multiple stakeholders and interdependent deliverables.
  
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  Strong project scheduling and organizational skills.
  
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  Experience developing and maintaining detailed project plans, milestones, dependencies, and execution timelines.
  
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  Experience managing project controls, including scope, schedule, budget, resources, risks, issues, and deliverables.
  
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  Strong stakeholder-management skills with the ability to communicate effectively with senior leaders, technical professionals, external partners, and government representatives.
  
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  Ability to translate evolving or ambiguous objectives into organized and actionable project plans.
  
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  Demonstrated initiative, sound judgment, responsiveness to direction, and consistent follow-through.
  
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  Ability to anticipate needs, identify problems, facilitate decisions, and keep projects moving with limited supervision.
  
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  Strong written and verbal communication skills.
  
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  Experience using Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, Jira, Salesforce, Monday.com, or comparable project-management platforms.
  
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  Ability to work a schedule aligned with Eastern Time.
  
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  Ability to travel domestically as needed.
  
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  Due to the requirements of the work, U.S. citizenship is required.
  

Preferred Qualifications

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  Experience supporting federal government customers, particularly the Department of Defense or U.S. Navy.
  
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  Experience managing projects within defense, aerospace, engineering, advanced manufacturing, or another technically complex environment.
  
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  PMP certification is strongly preferred.
  
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  Agile or Scrum project-management experience.
  
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  Familiarity with additive manufacturing or advanced manufacturing technologies.
  
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  Experience coordinating technical specialists, government stakeholders, and external partners.
  
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  Experience presenting project status, risks, and recommendations to senior leadership.
  

Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate is a proactive and hands-on project leader who can bring structure to a fast-moving technical initiative, maintain visibility across multiple workstreams, and hold participants accountable for their commitments.

This individual should be comfortable balancing strategic oversight with detailed project coordination, communicating with diverse stakeholders, and taking decisive action when priorities shift or challenges arise.

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