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Senior Program/Product Manager, Space Force

McLean, VA ; Colorado Springs, CO

This is a U.S. based position. All of the programs we support require U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment. All work must be conducted within the continental U.S.

Who we are:

Raft (https://TeamRaft.com) is a customer-obsessed non-traditional defense tech company dedicated to empowering U.S. military and government agencies with cutting-edge AI/ML and data solutions. We are a leader in autonomous data fusion and Agentic AI, with a purposeful focus on Distributed Data Systems, Platforms at Scale, and Complex Application Development. With headquarters in McLean, VA, our range of clients includes innovative federal and public agencies leveraging design thinking, cutting-edge tech stack, and cloud-native ecosystem. We build digital solutions that impact the lives of millions of Americans.

About the role:

As Senior Program/Product Manager, Space Force, you will own the program completely: delivery health, customer relationships, contract performance, and growth. This is not a steady-state program management role. You are walking into an active program with significant growth potential and the expectation that you will drive it, expanding both the scope of work and the number of mission partners on the platform. Your ability to build trusted relationships within the Space Force community, understand the acquisition environment, and position Raft’s capabilities compellingly will be as important as your program execution skills.

This role carries meaningful portfolio-level responsibility. You will serve as a senior presence within Raft’s broader Space Force practice, contributing to opportunity identification, customer engagement, and strategic initiatives that span the portfolio. The right person will grow quickly into a central figure in how Raft shows up, competes, and wins in the Space Force market. If you have lived and breathed Space Force programs, know how DevOps delivery works inside DoW environments, and want to build something rather than just manage it, this role was designed for you.

What you'll do:

  • Own the full health of the program: delivery execution, customer satisfaction, risk management, contract performance, and milestone accountability from day one.
  • Serve as Raft’s primary relationship owner with program stakeholders, building the customer intimacy and trust that sustains the program and opens the door to expanded scope and follow-on work.
  • Drive program growth actively, identifying opportunities to expand the platform’s reach to additional mission partners and tenants, and working with Raft’s executive and leadership teams to shape and close that work.
  • Lead and coordinate a cross-functional delivery team operating in an Agile/DevOps model, ensuring the team is executing with quality and velocity against customer requirements and contractual commitments.
  • Translate mission requirements into actionable product and delivery direction for engineering teams, applying your understanding of the operational context to keep the team building the right things.
  • Navigate acquisition processes, contract modifications, and CDRL/deliverable requirements with confidence, including familiarity with OTA, GWAC, and other relevant procurement vehicles.
  • Contribute actively to Raft’s broader Space Force portfolio, supporting opportunity shaping, capability briefings, proposal contributions, and customer engagement activities across programs.
  • Develop and maintain program artifacts and executive communications for both internal Raft leadership and government customer audiences, including status reports, roadmaps, risk registers, and briefings.
  • Maintain an active understanding of the technology and acquisition landscape, including funding cycles, key program offices, and emerging mission requirements that create opportunity for Raft’s products.
  • Operate as a senior leader within Space Force, contributing to team culture, cross-program knowledge sharing, and the strategic positioning of the portfolio as a whole.

What we are looking for: 

  • 7+ years of experience in program, project, or product management with a demonstrated track record of delivering complex software programs in DoD or national security environments.
  • Direct Space Force or Space-adjacent background, whether as a former Guardian, Space-focused Air Force officer, civilian embedded in Space Force programs, or contractor with deep Space Force customer experience. You understand how Space Force is organized, how it buys, and how it operates.
  • Strong working knowledge of DevOps principles and practices in a DoD software delivery context. You do not need to be an engineer, but you need to understand the DevSecOps pipeline, CI/CD concepts, platform tenancy models, and what good software delivery looks like in a classified environment.
  • Proven ability to build and maintain customer relationships at the program office level, earning trust through credibility, follow-through, and genuine mission understanding rather than vendor-style relationship management.
  • A growth mindset toward the programs you own. You are not just managing what exists; you are actively identifying and pursuing expansion opportunities within and beyond the current contract.
  • Experience navigating Space Force or broader DoD acquisition pathways, including OTA, GWAC/IDIQ vehicles, and the transition from prototype to production. You know how customers find a path to award and how to help them get there.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills calibrated to multiple audiences, from engineers on the delivery team to senior Space Force program managers and Raft executive leadership.
  • STEM degree or equivalent technical acumen. You need to be able to hold substantive conversations with engineers, understand architectural tradeoffs, and represent the program’s technical posture accurately to customers.
  • Comfortable operating across multiple concurrent workstreams and adapting quickly when priorities shift. This role will require you to move fluidly between program delivery, customer engagement, and portfolio-level activity.

Highly preferred:

  • Prior service as a Space Force Guardian or in a Space-coded Air Force billet with direct exposure to Space Force acquisition programs and program offices.
  • Hands-on familiarity with Space Force program offices, SpaceWERX, Space Systems Command (SSC), or Space Operations Command (SpOC), and the credibility to walk into those environments and be taken seriously.
  • Experience with [R]AP or equivalent DoW application platform and DevSecOps environment, including Kubernetes-based infrastructure, container deployment, and platform-as-a-service delivery models.
  • Familiarity with ATO and RMF processes in a Space Force or Air Force context, and experience navigating security authorization as part of program delivery.
  • Track record of driving contract renewals, scope expansions, or follow-on awards through a combination of delivery excellence and proactive customer engagement.
  • Experience managing or growing a multi-tenant platform, with an understanding of how to onboard new mission partners, manage platform governance, and scale platform adoption within an enterprise customer.
  • Existing relationships within Space Force program offices, acquisition commands, or the broader Space Force technology community.
  • Background in competitive team environments, military service, or high-commitment leadership roles that demonstrate the ability to perform under pressure and push hard to win.

Clearance Requirements:

  • Active Secret security clearance required to start.
  • Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI security clearance.

Salary Range: $160,000.00 - $200,000.00

Work Type:

  • Hybrid, Northern Virginia preferred. Colorado Springs, CO considered for the right candidate.
  • May require up to 25% travel to customer sites, Raft offices, and partner locations.

What we will offer you: 

  • Highly competitive salary
  • Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
  • 401(k) and company match
  • Take as you need PTO + 11 paid holidays
  • Education & training benefits
  • Generous Referral Bonuses
  • And More!

Our Vision Statement: 

We bridge the gap between humans and data through radical transparency and our obsession with the mission. 

Our Customer Obsession: 

We will approach every deliverable like it's a product. We will adopt a customer-obsessed mentality. As we grow, and our footprint becomes larger, teams and employees will treat each other not only as teammates but customers. We must live the customer-obsessed mindset, always. This will help us scale and it will translate to the interactions that our Rafters have with their clients and other product teams that they integrate with. Our culture will enable our success and set us apart from other companies.

How do we get there? 

Public-sector modernization is critical for us to live in a better world. We, at Raft, want to innovate and solve complex problems. And, if we are successful, our generation and the ones that follow us will live in a delightful, efficient, and accessible world where out-of-box thinking, and collaboration is a norm. 

Raft’s core philosophy is Ubuntu: I Am, Because We are. We support our “nadi” by elevating the other Rafters. We work as a hyper collaborative team where each team member brings a unique perspective, adding value that did not exist before. People make Raft special. We celebrate each other and our cognitive and cultural diversity. We are devoted to our practice of innovation and collaboration. 

We’re an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

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