Principal Program Manager

Job Summary 
Our client, a leading airline company, is seeking a Principal Program Manager to join an Aircraft Cybersecurity Engineering team supporting a portfolio of cybersecurity and cyber-physical security initiatives. This is a delivery-focused technical project management role. The TPM will work closely with cybersecurity engineers, internal customers, and external suppliers to take projects from loosely defined requirements through planning, execution, delivery, and closure while facilitating Agile/Scrum practices across concurrent technical workstreams. The ideal candidate will be technically curious and credible enough to understand engineering discussions, ask the right questions, identify risks and roadblocks, and translate complex technical information into clear requirements, executive communications, documentation, and training materials.

This position is W-2 only. We do not work with third-party firms or C2C arrangements for this role.

Core Responsibilities

• Manages/oversees all aspects of multiple simultaneous fast-paced assigned initiatives with distributed teams.
• Leads IT initiatives throughout the entire project lifecycle (initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure)
• Develops and manages detailed project plans, manage project scope and set milestones, manage budget, tracks project status
• Ensures initiatives are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget
• Designs and maintains project vision, project working standards, and agreements
• Identifies potential risks and develop risk mitigation strategies
• Manages issues and troubleshoot problems that arise during the project lifecycle, ensuring minimal disruption to the project timeline
• Tracks, updates, and communicates project status in a proactive manner as it relates to project progress, budget/cost, resource utilization, change requests, issues, risks, and risk mitigation plans
• Communicates complex technical concepts to various stakeholders
• Leverages data analytics for tracking project performance, optimizing processes, and making informed decisions that align with strategic goals
• Runs project delivery for concurrent technical workstreams and facilitating Scrum/Kanban ceremonies (refinement, planning, stand-up, review, retrospective), with hands-on backlog management in Azure DevOps or equivalent (Jira, Rally)
• Elicits requirements directly from technical and business stakeholders, writing clear user stories with testable acceptance criteria, managing the intake-to-delivery pipeline, and producing recurring status reporting and executive-ready summaries for leadership
• Authors and refines runbooks, SOPs, process/architecture documentation, and knowledge base content, plus defining role-based training requirements and building and maintaining the associated training materials

 
Required Skills/Experience (Must-Haves)

• 11+ total years in technical project management or delivery management
• 5+ years in technical project management or delivery management supporting cybersecurity, IT infrastructure, or engineering teams (not general business/administrative PM experience), including hands-on facilitation of agile ceremonies and ownership of technical documentation
• With teams becoming more geographically dispersed, strong leadership and team-building skills are essential
• Technical project coordination & agile facilitation
• Requirements intake & status management
• Technical documentation & training development

Preferred Skills/Experience (Nice-to-Haves) 

• Scrum certification (CSM, PSM, PMI-ACP) or PMP strongly preferred
• Working familiarity with PKI/certificate lifecycle concepts, SIEM/security analytics, or endpoint platforms — enough to speak the team's language
• Aviation / OT / cyber-physical or embedded-systems exposure
• Use of AI/agentic tooling (e.g., Claude, Copilot) to accelerate documentation, requirements drafting, and reporting per CISO AI direction
• Aviation security standards (DO-326A/DO-355A, ATA Spec 42) or NIST risk frameworks (NIST 800-30, CSF)
• Vendor and third-party risk coordination (OneTrust or similar)
• Microsoft 365 / Teams / SharePoint, Power BI or similar reporting tools
• Instructional design or technical writing background

Work Environment 

• Location: Fort Worth, TX
• HYBRID
• Contract: 4 months

 
Compensation & Benefits 

• Pay Range: The approximate pay range for this position is between $42.00 and $60.00 per hour. Please note that the pay range provided is a good faith estimate. Final compensation may vary based on factors including but not limited to background, knowledge, skills, and location. We comply with local wage minimums. 
• Medical, Dental, & Vision Insurance Plans 
• Employee Stock Ownership Plan 
• 401K offered 

 
About KellyMitchell 
At KellyMitchell, our culture is world class. We’re movers and shakers! We don’t mind a bit of friendly competition, and we reward hard work with unlimited potential for growth. This is an exciting opportunity to join a company known for innovative solutions and unsurpassed customer service. We're passionate about helping companies solve their biggest IT staffing & project solutions challenges. As an employee-owned, women-led organization serving Fortune 500 companies nationwide, we deliver expert service at a moment's notice. 
  
Marketing Disclosure 
By applying for this job, you agree to receive calls, AI-generated calls, text messages, or emails from KellyMitchell and its affiliates, and contracted partners. Frequency varies for text messages. Message and data rates may apply. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. You can reply STOP to cancel and HELP for help. You can access our privacy policy at   https://www.careers.kellymitchell.com/privacy-policy 

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