Project Officer - MACH-XL

About IWV

Iron Will Ventures is a defense engineering and technical services company supporting some of the Department of War's most challenging missile defense, hypersonic, flight test, and advanced technology programs.  Guided by the philosophy of “I Will,” we help scale the defense industrial base through advanced testing, deep technical analysis, and resilient industrial ecosystems—accelerating the delivery of hypersonic, missile defense, and other critical national security capabilities.  Our teams work alongside government program offices, laboratories, ranges, and industry partners to solve difficult technical and integration problems and accelerate capability from development through flight test and fielding.

Out Test. Out Analyze. Out Build.

Position Summary

Iron Will Ventures is seeking an experienced Project Officer to support the MACH-XL hypersonic flight-test program in Huntsville, Alabama.

The Project Officer will work directly with government program leadership, vehicle developers, test organizations, ranges, and other mission partners to plan and execute complex hypersonic flight-test activities. The position serves as a key integration point between program objectives and the organizations responsible for delivering the hardware, analysis, range capabilities, and operational support necessary to successfully execute a test.

This is a hands-on program execution role requiring a combination of test and evaluation experience, systems integration, project management, schedule discipline, technical judgment, and stakeholder coordination.

The successful candidate will be comfortable moving between technical and programmatic issues, identifying problems early, driving actions to closure, and providing government leadership with an accurate assessment of test readiness, schedule, risk, and recommended paths forward.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a Project Officer supporting the planning, integration, and execution of MACH-XL flight-test activities.
• Coordinate across government program offices, vehicle developers, test ranges, laboratories, support contractors, and other mission partners to accomplish program and flight-test objectives.
• Develop and maintain an integrated understanding of vehicle, payload, range, instrumentation, mission-analysis, safety, logistics, and operational requirements for assigned test activities.
• Lead or support flight-test planning activities from initial mission definition through execution and post-test closeout.
• Coordinate test requirements, objectives, schedules, resources, technical products, and organizational responsibilities across participating organizations.
• Track program and test-event schedules, identify dependencies and critical-path issues, assess schedule impacts, and develop recommended paths forward when off-nominal conditions occur.
• Lead and participate in test planning meetings, technical interchange meetings, working groups, readiness reviews, and mission execution activities.
• Assess technical and programmatic readiness for major test milestones and provide objective recommendations to government leadership.
• Identify integration issues and program risks early and coordinate resolution across government and industry stakeholders.
• Support development and review of test plans, procedures, tasking documents, schedules, technical assessments, briefings, and post-test products.
• Coordinate with test ranges and supporting organizations to ensure range, safety, instrumentation, telemetry, communications, logistics, and other mission-support requirements are identified and addressed.
• Provide on-site support during integration, checkout, rehearsals, and flight-test execution as required.
• Support real-time test execution and coordinate resolution of technical and operational issues that arise during mission activities.
• Monitor completion of test objectives and support post-test assessment, lessons learned, and follow-on actions.
• Develop concise program status, risk, schedule, and readiness assessments for senior government leadership.
• Build productive relationships across government, industry, laboratories, ranges, and the broader hypersonic test enterprise.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, science, mathematics, aviation, management, or another relevant discipline is preferred.  Significant directly relevant experience may be considered in lieu of specific degree requirements.
  
• 15+ years of relevant experience in test and evaluation, systems engineering, program/project management, missile systems, space systems, flight test, or another related national-security technical field.
• Demonstrated experience planning or executing complex flight-test, missile, space-launch, weapon-system, or comparable technical programs.
• Experience coordinating technical activities across multiple government and contractor organizations.
• Strong understanding of the test lifecycle, including requirements development, test planning, integration, readiness assessment, execution, and post-test analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex schedules involving multiple organizations, technical dependencies, and hard external milestones.
• Experience identifying technical, schedule, and programmatic risks and driving cross-organizational actions toward resolution.
• Ability to understand complex engineering and test issues and translate them into actionable recommendations for program leadership.
• Experience developing and delivering technical and programmatic briefings to senior government, military, and industry leaders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities and event-driven schedules.
• Active U.S. Government Secret security clearance at time of hire.
• U.S. citizenship.
  

Desired Qualifications

• A master's degree or relevant advanced technical, military, acquisition, or test-and-evaluation education.
• Experience supporting hypersonic weapon-system or flight-test programs.
• Experience with Department of War test and evaluation organizations, test ranges, or major missile-development programs.
• Missile Defense Agency, TRMC, Service test organization, or major range experience.
• Experience serving as a test project officer, test director, flight-test engineer, systems integrator, or comparable role.
• Experience with missile or launch-vehicle integration and flight-test execution.
• Experience coordinating range requirements, instrumentation, telemetry, safety, mission planning, or test-support assets.
• Experience supporting developmental or operational testing of missile, missile-defense, space, or other complex weapon systems.
• Experience developing or managing Integrated Master Schedules and performing schedule analysis and deconfliction.
• Familiarity with government acquisition, contracting, and test-planning processes.
• Experience working with non-traditional defense contractors or emerging technology companies.
• Previous experience supporting senior government program leadership in a SETA or technical advisory role.
• PMP or Defense Acquisition University certification in Test & Evaluation, Program Management, Systems Engineering, or a related functional area.
  

Travel

• Approximately 20–30% in support of integration and test activities.

What We're Looking For

The right person for this position understands that successful flight testing is fundamentally an integration problem.  We are looking for someone who can understand the technical details without losing sight of the mission; who knows how to bring vehicle developers, ranges, engineers, analysts, and government stakeholders together; and who recognizes problems early enough to do something about them.  This person should be equally comfortable walking through a detailed test issue with engineers, working a schedule conflict across multiple organizations, supporting a mission at the range, or briefing senior leadership on whether a test is actually ready to execute.

Why Iron Will Ventures

Iron Will brings together experienced test professionals, engineers, analysts, and program leaders who have spent their careers executing complex national-security programs.  Our role is not simply to observe the process. We help our customers plan the test, integrate the mission, identify the problems, drive them to resolution, execute successfully, and learn from the results.  The MACH-XL Project Officer will have the opportunity to work directly with government and industry leaders developing and testing the next generation of hypersonic capabilities while helping expand the nation's ability to test those systems at greater scale and cadence.

Iron Will Ventures Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status.