Want to know if this job is worth applying to?
Austin, Texas, United States
Onsite
Not Available
Location: Onsite — Austin, TX
Employment Type: Direct Hire, Full-Time
Job Title: Technical Project Manager
About 9 Mothers
The modern battlefield has changed. Cheap, autonomous suicide drones have turned the tactical advantage upside down, and the world is looking for a solution. At 9 Mothers, we aren’t just "innovating"—we are building the shield.
Backed by top-tier investors, we develop AI powered machines designed to intercept and neutralize Group 1/sUAS threats in real-time. Our flagship product is a low-power, counter-drone system built for the edge—on vehicles, at bases, or in a soldier's pack.
Why 9 Mothers?
While others build for "awareness" or "long-term research," we build for the immediate survival of those in harm’s way. We are a team of hackers, engineers, and mission-driven builders who value field-ready capability over polished slide decks. If you want to see your code or hardware in the field next month—not next year—this is your playground.
Position Summary
You will be our first dedicated project manager, and your job is to fix that. You own the work breakdown structure and the integrated schedule. You run the weekly coordination rhythm, record every task and decision so nothing is dropped, and stay ahead of the risks that quietly kill hardware schedules: long-lead parts, manpower shortages and skill gaps, missing equipment and infrastructure. Leadership will continue to set priorities, assign responsibility, and hold people accountable; your job is to make the plan legible and current so those decisions are made with real information, and so every person on the team knows what they need to be doing and when.
This is a role for someone who treats a well-built Gantt chart as a love language. Your best days end with the ambiguity banished from the plan and a name and a date on everything that matters. We are a startup: the process you bring must be the lightweight 20% that delivers 80% of the value, not a bureaucracy the team routes around.
Essential Duties
Schedule & WBS Ownership (Primary)
Build and own the work breakdown structure across our product lines: decompose engineering, manufacturing, test, and delivery work into tasks with owners, durations, dependencies, and dates
Build and maintain the integrated master schedule in a Gantt-based tool; keep it current enough that the team and leadership trust it as the single source of truth for what happens when
Identify and track the critical path; flag slips early and quantify their downstream impact so leadership can re-prioritize before a deadline is blown, not after
Translate customer commitments, demo dates, and test events into backward-planned schedules with explicit margin
Risk & Dependency Management
Maintain a living risk register for the things that actually derail hardware programs: long-lead and allocated parts, manpower shortages and skill gaps, missing equipment, tooling, and facility/infrastructure needs
Chase dependencies across engineering, purchasing, and the shop: surface the part that isn’t ordered, the fixture that isn’t built, and the test range that isn’t booked while there is still time to fix it
Work with the buyer on long-lead procurement timing so build schedules are planned around real lead times, and with leadership on staffing gaps before they become schedule slips
Coordination, Tasking & Communication
Run the weekly coordination meeting: set the agenda, drive it to decisions, and finish with every action item recorded with an owner and a due date
Be the recorder of tasking for the company: capture tasks and decisions from meetings, hallway conversations, and test events into one tracked system so nothing is missed or forgotten
Follow up on open actions between meetings; keep status honest without becoming the person the team hides from
Give leadership a clear, current picture of status, risks, and upcoming decisions that is short, factual, and free of surprises
Building the Structure
Stand up the company’s project management practices from scratch: task tracking, schedule reviews, action-item discipline, and deliverable definitions where none formally exist today
Select and administer the scheduling and task-tracking tools the company will run on, sized for a lean team: powerful enough to be trusted, light enough to be used
Establish just enough process to bring order to tasking and project planning without slowing a fast-iterating R&D team
Requirements
5+ years of project management experience on complex hardware / electromechanical development programs in robotics, defense, aerospace, automotive, industrial equipment, or similar
Technical background: an engineering degree or hands-on engineering experience on hardware products. You must be able to follow a technical discussion, ask credible questions, and earn the respect of a senior engineering team
Demonstrated ownership of a WBS and integrated schedule on a multi-disciplinary program: you built and ran the plan, not just reported on it
Expert fluency in Gantt-based scheduling tools (Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, or similar): critical path, dependencies, baselines, and resource loading
Proven risk management on hardware programs, with a track record of catching long-lead, staffing, and equipment problems before they hit the schedule
Strong meeting facilitation and action-tracking discipline: you run tight meetings that end in owners and dates, and you close loops relentlessly
Comfortable leading through influence rather than authority: in this role, leadership sets priorities and holds people accountable; you make the plan visible, current, and impossible to ignore
Self-sufficient in a low-process environment: you impose structure on ambiguity rather than waiting for structure to be handed to you
US person (citizen or lawful permanent resident), required for ITAR compliance
Nice-to-Have
PMP, PMI-SP, or similar project management certification
Experience in a defense, ITAR-regulated, or government-customer environment, including milestone reviews, test events, and customer-driven schedules
Experience taking a hardware product from prototype through production transfer
Experience standing up project management practices at a startup or small company, rather than operating inside an established PMO
Working familiarity with manufacturing and machine-shop workflows, enough to plan realistically around fabrication, assembly, and test
What Success Looks Like
In the first 90 days, a real WBS and integrated schedule exist and the team trusts them. The weekly coordination meeting runs on rails, every task has an owner and a date in one tracked system, and the first schedule-threatening risks (a long-lead part, a skills gap, a missing piece of equipment) have been caught and raised while they were still cheap to fix.
On an ongoing basis, nothing falls through the cracks. Everyone on the team can tell you what they need to be doing and when it is due. Leadership sets priorities against a schedule that reflects reality, slips are seen weeks out instead of discovered at the deadline, and the company hits its demo and delivery commitments because the plan was honest all along.
Work Environment
This role is based on-site in Austin, TX at our shop, working directly alongside the engineering and manufacturing team; the plan gets built by walking the floor, not from a remote dashboard. The environment is a working R&D and manufacturing facility for weapons systems: expect an active shop floor and proximity to live-fire test activity, with strict adherence to safety protocols. Occasional travel to test ranges and demonstration events to keep the schedule connected to what actually happens in the field.
Benefits
Meaningful Early Equity: You aren't just an employee; you are a foundational owner. Your contributions directly drive the value of your stake in the company.
Direct Roadmap Influence: Forget the bureaucracy of big defense. You will have a seat at the table, directly shaping our product and technology trajectory from day one.
Mission-Critical Work: We don't build for "what if." We build systems the Department of War actively needs to counter immediate, real-world threats.
The Builder's Playground: Work in a brand-new lab fully optimized for rapid prototyping, equipped with NVIDIA Jetsons, high-end scopes, and 3-D printers.
100% Employer-Paid Premiums: We cover 100% of your medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums and cover 50% of healthcare premiums for your dependents.
Unlimited PTO: We value results, not clock-watching. Take the time you need to stay sharp and recharge.
Zero Red Tape: You have the autonomy to make technical decisions that would take months of committee approval at a larger firm.
Austin-Based Culture: Join an onsite team in Austin, TX, where we prioritize high-bandwidth collaboration and rapid field-testing.
Relocation Assistance: We want the best talent in the room. If you aren't in Austin yet, we’ll help you get here, to make your transition to the Silicon Hills seamless.
About the Interview
Initial screen with recruiter (30 min phone call)
Virtual interview with Director of HW Ops (45 min via MS Teams)
In-person interview (1 hour in Austin, TX) *9 Mothers will fly out candidates that are not local to the Austin area
Reference checks & offer