Program manager resume example

What recruiters look for

• Program size: contract value, number of projects, staff, subcontractors. Put it in the first bullet.
• Cost and schedule control: CPI, SPI, variance, recovered slips. In defense and government, earned value is the shared language.
• Customer relationship: program reviews with the customer, award fees, follow-on work won.
• Risk management: risk boards, retired risks, opportunities captured.
• Business growth: proposals written, re-competes won, contract growth. Program managers often own the next sale.
• Clearance and certifications: PMP, PgMP and an active clearance are often listed as requirements.

Writing the summary

Name your industry, years, and the biggest program you run in one line (value, scope, team). Then how you manage: honest reporting, risk, customer trust. End with certifications and clearance, because recruiters search for them.

Bullet points that work

Strong lines for this role, beyond the ones in the example. Borrow the shape and put in your own numbers.

• Grew a program from $35 million to $61 million through 3 contract modifications by proposing scope the customer needed.
• Earned 96% of the available award fee for 4 consecutive periods based on customer evaluations.
• Cut the program’s estimate at completion by $2.3 million by renegotiating two subcontracts and dropping a redundant test phase with customer approval.
• Ran a red team review of a $90 million re-compete proposal; the company won with the highest technical score.
• Brought a program out of a corrective action plan in 6 months by rebuilding the baseline and weekly variance reviews.
• Built a program dashboard combining earned value, risks and staffing for 7 programs, used in monthly executive reviews.
• Led 4 project managers and 2 control account managers, all of whom stayed through the program’s 3-year period of performance.
• Prepared for and passed a Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) EVMS surveillance review with no corrective action requests.
• Moved 12 subcontracted parts to second sources after a supplier failure, protecting a delivery schedule worth $14 million.

Skills to list

Certifications and licenses worth listing

• Program Management Professional (PgMP): PMI’s program-level certification; it signals experience with several related projects and is rarer than the PMP.
• Project Management Professional (PMP): expected by most defense and government contractors.
• Earned value training or the AACE Earned Value Professional (EVP): useful where EVMS compliance is a contract requirement.
• Security clearance: list level and status (“active Secret”); never details of the investigation.
• DAU courses: worth a line if you completed Defense Acquisition University training relevant to the role; formal DAWIA certification is for government employees.

Length and format

Two pages are normal for a senior program manager. Page one carries the current program in full; the second page holds earlier roles, education and certifications. A traditional single-column layout suits defense and government readers.

Common mistakes

• Describing the program’s technology at length and your management of it in a single line. The reader is hiring a manager.
• No contract values or staff numbers, which makes a $5 million and a $500 million program look the same.
• Acronyms with no plain meaning. CDRL, IMS and EAC are fine for defense readers, but say what you achieved with them.
• Leaving out business development. Follow-on work and proposals you led are some of the most valuable lines you can write.
• Hiding the clearance at the end of page two.