Product Manager SME

About

Everforth ECS is seeking a Product Manager SME to work in the National Capital Region covering the Pentagon, Falls Church, and Fairfax. This position is contingent upon contract award.

The War Data Platform (WDP) is a key initiative within the U.S. Department of War's (DoW) AI-First strategy introduced in early 2026. The WDP separates business and financial data from operational warfighting data, aiming to accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) on the battlefield. The WDP extends to Unclassified, Secret, and Top Secret environments, and supports collaboration between Combatant Commands, Joint Staff directorates, Senior Executive Service leaders, and operational analysts.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior program-level authority for Agile Engineering processes, Agile Release Train coordination, and cross-team delivery governance across the WDP Core Integration portfolio.
• Develop, maintain, and execute the War Data Platform (WDP) Core Integration Software Engineering Plan.
• Lead kickoff sessions with Government representatives to capture expectations, interpret PWS requirements, clarify ambiguous language, and confirm acceptance criteria.
• Facilitate stakeholder workshops to gather engineering inputs, validate lifecycle processes, and align software engineering objectives with program priorities.
• Establish a recurring cadence to maintain alignment with evolving mission needs, release schedules, and engineering standards.
• Oversee Agile program-level coordination by directing backlog refinement, cross-team dependency management, and roadmap development across multiple Agile teams.
• Apply Jira, Confluence, GitLab Continuous Integration, Cloud Metrics and enterprise reporting tools to monitor burndown metrics, track sprint progress, and maintain visibility into engineering execution.
• Provide program-level progress reporting to senior leadership, integrating risk assessments, impediment tracking, and milestone status.
• Coordinate cross-team planning events, synchronization meetings, and engineering reviews to maintain operational readiness and mission assurance.
• Support mission-critical deliverables including the Software Engineering Plan, burndown reports, program-level dashboards, and engineering status summaries.

Qualifications

• Current Secret security clearance with the ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret (TS) security clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI).
• 15 or more years of progressive experience in product management, program management, or software engineering leadership supporting enterprise-scale federal or defense software development programs.
• Experience developing, maintaining, and executing formal Software Engineering Plans or equivalent program lifecycle documentation in compliance with Government-defined requirements and PWS obligations.
• Experience leading Government-facing kickoff sessions, requirements workshops, and stakeholder reviews, including interpretation of PWS language and facilitation of acceptance criteria definition.
• Hands-on proficiency with Agile program management and DevSecOps tooling, including Jira, Confluence, and GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience leading program-level agile ceremonies across multiple concurrent Agile delivery teams.
• Proven ability to produce and present program-level progress reports, risk assessments, impediment logs, and milestone status summaries to Senior Executive Service-level or equivalent Government leadership.
• Experience managing cross-team dependencies, feature sequencing, and engineering roadmap development in a complex, multi-team program environment spanning classified and unclassified networks.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making capabilities.
• Highly developed interpersonal and oral/written communication skills.