Project Manager Defense Systems

Based in Englewood, Colorado, United Rotorcraft designs and modifies mission-critical aircraft supporting military, air medical, firefighting, law enforcement, and other specialized operations.

As a Project Manager-Defense Systems, you’ll lead complex aviation projects from contract award through final delivery and closeout. You’ll coordinate across Engineering, Manufacturing, Certification, Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, and other teams to drive scope, schedule, cost, risk, and overall project performance while ensuring customer and business commitments are met.

Salary Range: $113,400 – $144,375 annuallyActual compensation is based on relevant experience, education, technical expertise, and overall qualifications. This position is also eligible for Air Methods’ comprehensive employee benefits package.

• Develop, maintain, and manage project execution plans for assigned projects, including scope definition, work breakdown structure, schedule baseline, cost baseline, resource planning, communication cadence, risk management approach, quality expectations, change-control process, and closeout requirements.
• Lead cross-functional project execution through Engineering, Certification, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Operations, Finance, Customer Experience, Customer Support, and other stakeholders to ensure project work is properly planned, sequenced, resourced, monitored, and completed.
• Manage integrated project schedules, including milestone planning, dependency management, critical path awareness, schedule status, recovery planning, and timely escalation of constraints affecting project delivery.
• Monitor project cost, revenue, margin, earned value, budget performance, estimates at completion, and financial risk in coordination with Finance, Operations, and functional leaders. Identify unfavorable trends and lead corrective-action planning to protect project and business performance.
• Maintain project risk, issue, action, and decision logs. Assign owners and due dates, track mitigation and recovery actions, ensure timely closure, and escalate unresolved risks or decisions through appropriate governance channels.
• Manage project scope and change-control discipline. Identify out-of-scope requests, coordinate impact assessments, support internal and customer change decisions, and ensure approved changes are reflected in project scope, schedule, cost, delivery commitments, and stakeholder communications.
• Provide clear, timely, and accurate project status reporting to internal and external stakeholders, including performance to plan, schedule health, cost performance, risks, issues, actions, decisions needed, recovery plans, and customer impacts.
• Coordinate delivery readiness, customer acceptance, contractual or project closeout, lessons learned, transition to post-delivery support, and customer satisfaction feedback.
• Support continuous improvement of project management processes, tools, reporting methods, governance routines, and project execution standards.
• Other Duties as assigned

Additional Job Requirements

• Regular schedule attendance
• Indicate the percentage of time spent traveling (up to) – 20%

Subject to applicable laws and Air Methods’ policies, regular attendance is an essential function of the position. All employees must follow Air Methods’ employment practices, policies, safety requirements, and applicable quality system procedures.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• This position may directly supervise project coordinators, customer service representatives, or other assigned personnel depending on organizational structure, project volume, and business need.
• This position is expected to exercise strong matrix leadership across assigned project teams. The Project Manager may not directly supervise all project team members but is responsible for coordinating project execution, assigning and tracking project actions, facilitating cross-functional alignment, identifying resource constraints, escalating unresolved issues, and driving accountability to approved project commitments.
• When direct supervisory responsibilities are assigned, the Project Manager carries out those responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities may include interviewing, selecting, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees.

• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, cross-functional aerospace or defense programs from contract award through delivery and closeout, with full accountability for scope, schedule, cost, risk, and performance outcomes. Proven capability to operate as the primary execution authority within a matrixed organization, driving alignment across engineering, certification, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, operations, and customer stakeholders.
• Strong working knowledge of project management disciplines, including integrated master scheduling (IMS), work breakdown structures (WBS), baseline management, earned value or cost/ schedule performance tracking, and structured risk and issue management. Ability to translate contractual and technical requirements into executable project plans and maintain disciplined change control throughout the program lifecycle.
• Demonstrated experience operating within regulated aerospace environments, with practical understanding of certification, quality systems, configuration control, and traceability expectations. Ability to manage projects in compliance with internal procedures and external regulatory frameworks, ensuring audit-defensible execution and documentation.
• Proven leadership capability in driving decisions, resolving cross-functional conflicts, and holding stakeholders accountable to commitments without direct authority. Ability to escalate constraints appropriately and lead recovery planning to protect delivery, cost, and quality objectives.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree (BS/BA) in Engineering, Aviation, Business, Program Management, or a related technical discipline from an accredited institution seven or more years’ related aviation or aerospace industry experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum of seven (7) years of progressive experience in project or program management within the aerospace, aviation, defense, or closely related regulated industry, including direct responsibility for managing scope, schedule, cost, and risk on complex projects.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional teams in a matrixed environment, including coordination of engineering, certification, manufacturing, and operational stakeholders through defined project lifecycle phases from planning through delivery and closeout.
• Hands-on experience developing and managing integrated project schedules, resource plans, and project baselines, including demonstrated success in meeting contractual or customer delivery commitments.
• Practical experience with aircraft modifications, MRO, STC development/ V&V qualification, product manufacturing, or similar aerospace programs strongly preferred.
• Experience operating in defense or government contracting environments, including familiarity with contractual requirements, customer reporting expectations, and compliance constraints, preferred.
• Equivalent combination of education, training, and experience may be considered where directly applicable to the role.

Skills

• Strong execution discipline with the ability to translate high-level requirements into structured, actionable project plans and drive closure against defined deliverables.
• Advanced communication capability, including the ability to provide clear, concise, and accurate status reporting, facilitate decision-making, and align diverse stakeholder groups across technical and business functions.
• Financial and business acumen sufficient to monitor project performance, identify adverse trends, and develop corrective actions to protect margin, cost, and schedule objectives.
• Risk-based thinking with demonstrated ability to proactively identify, assess, and mitigate risks and issues throughout the program lifecycle.
• Conflict resolution and negotiation skills with the ability to manage competing priorities, resource constraints, and stakeholder expectations in high-pressure environments.
• Continuous improvement mindset with the ability to identify inefficiencies in project execution processes and implement practical improvements that increase speed, predictability, and quality.
• High personal accountability, ownership mentality, and ability to operate with limited supervision while maintaining alignment to organizational priorities.

Computer Skills

• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, including advanced use of Excel (data analysis, tracking, reporting), PowerPoint (executive reporting), and Word (formal documentation).
• Demonstrated proficiency with project scheduling and management tools such as Microsoft Project