Program Manager
About the Role
Align Precision is looking for a relationship-driven Program Manager to serve as the primary day-to-day point of contact for our BAE account.
While the title is Program Manager, this role is fundamentally an account management and customer relationship role. We are looking for someone who excels at building trust, understanding the customer’s needs, coordinating internally to deliver against those needs, and steadily strengthening a long-term strategic relationship.
Success will come from being a thoughtful, highly responsive farmer—someone who enjoys developing an existing customer relationship, identifying opportunities to better serve the account, and becoming a trusted partner to the customer over time.
The ideal candidate is organized, commercially aware, technically curious, and comfortable operating at the intersection of customer relationships, operations, engineering, and program execution.
What You'll DoOwn the BAE Relationship
- Serve as the primary commercial and program point of contact for assigned BAE business.
- Build strong, credible relationships with customer stakeholders at multiple levels.
- Develop a deep understanding of the customer's priorities, programs, challenges, and expectations.
- Establish yourself as a trusted partner who customers can rely on to get things done.
- Maintain consistent communication and follow-through with the customer.
Grow and Strengthen the Existing Account
- Develop and execute an account strategy focused on retention, relationship depth, and organic growth.
- Identify opportunities to expand Align Precision's involvement within existing BAE programs and adjacent opportunities.
- Listen for customer needs and translate them into opportunities for Align Precision to provide additional value.
- Monitor the health of the account and proactively address issues before they become problems.
- Look for ways to increase customer satisfaction, share of wallet, and long-term account value.
Coordinate Internally
- Partner closely with engineering, operations, quality, estimating, finance, and leadership to ensure customer commitments are met.
- Keep internal teams aligned on customer priorities, timelines, deliverables, and changes.
- Drive accountability and follow-up without necessarily having direct authority over every function.
- Escalate issues appropriately and keep the customer informed throughout resolution.
Manage Programs and Commercial Activity
- Track program milestones, deliverables, schedules, risks, and customer commitments.
- Support quoting, pricing, proposals, contract discussions, and other commercial activities as needed.
- Maintain accurate account and program information in the company's systems.
- Participate in customer meetings, business reviews, and program updates.
- Help ensure that what we promise the customer is clearly understood and executable internally.
What We're Looking For
We are looking for someone who naturally thinks:
"How do I make this customer successful?"
rather than:
"How do I make the next sale?"
The right person will likely have:
- 5+ years of experience in account management, program management, customer success, sales support, or a similar customer-facing role.
- Experience working with BAE Systems, aerospace/defense, or a comparable complex OEM/customer environment strongly preferred.
- A proven ability to build and maintain long-term customer relationships.
- Strong organizational and project/program management skills.
- Excellent communication and follow-through.
- The ability to coordinate across multiple internal functions and keep things moving.
- Commercial awareness and the ability to recognize opportunities within an existing account.
- Enough technical curiosity to understand customer requirements and communicate effectively with engineering and operations teams.
- Confidence interacting with customers while maintaining a collaborative, low-ego approach internally.
The Person We're Looking For
The ideal candidate is a farmer, not a hunter.
You enjoy taking an existing relationship and making it stronger. You remember what matters to the customer. You follow up when you say you will. You notice when something is slipping and address it early. You build credibility over time rather than relying on a hard sell.
You're comfortable being the person who says, "I'll take care of that," and then actually does.
You are naturally curious about the customer's business and look for ways to make Align Precision more valuable to them. You don't need a constant stream of new leads to stay motivated—you get satisfaction from building something durable with an important customer.
You are also comfortable navigating a complex organization. You can work with engineering one minute, operations the next, and a senior customer stakeholder after that, translating between groups and keeping everyone aligned.
How We'll Measure Success
Success in this role will be measured by:
- Strength and depth of the BAE customer relationship.
- Customer satisfaction and responsiveness.
- Retention and stability of existing business.
- Organic growth within the account.
- Successful execution of customer programs and commitments.
- Internal alignment and follow-through.
- Increased trust and credibility with key BAE stakeholders.
- Identifying and developing opportunities that naturally emerge from the existing relationship.
If you're someone who loves building long-term customer partnerships, coordinating complex work, and growing an account through trust and execution—not cold prospecting—we'd like to meet you.
Application Question(s):
- What are your salary expectations for this role?
- Have you worked directly managing BAE as a Program Mng. or Account Mng. before and for how long if so?
- How many years of CNC Machine Shop experience do you directly have? Please explain
- How many years of Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing experience do you have? Please list all that apply
Work Location: In person
