Program Manager - Exercise Planning

Pay: $190,000.00 - $200,000.00 per year

Job Description: Program Manager - Exercise Planning

Constellation, Inc. is seeking an accomplished Program Manager (PM) – Exercise Planning to lead planning and exercise support activities for a major Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) consequence management and special-event planning program. The Program Manager will provide executive leadership, technical direction, and overall accountability for the successful planning, coordination, execution, and delivery of program requirements supporting large-scale national and international special events.
The PM will lead multidisciplinary teams responsible for consequence management planning, exercise design and execution, stakeholder engagement, interagency coordination, planning product development, data analysis, executive reporting, and project management. The PM will coordinate activities across FEMA Headquarters, FEMA Regions, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) components, federal interagency partners, state and local stakeholders, and other organizations supporting integrated preparedness and consequence management planning.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary program leadership interface with Government stakeholders and provide overall management, technical direction, and accountability for program performance.

• Direct, organize, coordinate, and oversee all exercise planning, consequence management planning, and major special-event preparedness activities.

• Lead the full exercise lifecycle, including exercise concept development, design, planning, facilitation, conduct, evaluation, reporting, and corrective-action tracking.

• Lead multidisciplinary teams supporting national- and regional-level consequence management planning across multiple venues, jurisdictions, agencies, and operational environments.

• Coordinate with FEMA Headquarters, FEMA Regions, DHS components, federal interagency partners, state and local organizations, and other stakeholders to ensure integrated planning and operational alignment.

• Plan and facilitate planning meetings, workshops, working groups, exercise planning conferences, stakeholder engagements, and senior-leader activities.

• Oversee development, coordination, validation, maintenance, and presentation of complex planning products, including exercise plans, scenarios, briefing materials, executive summaries, decision documents, reports, timelines, and supporting documentation.

• Ensure exercises effectively validate plans, identify operational gaps, assess coordination mechanisms, and generate actionable observations and recommendations for improving preparedness and consequence management capabilities.

• Manage the Project Management Plan, Integrated Master Schedule (IMS), deliverable tracker, risk and issue log, action-item tracker, staffing, dependencies, milestones, and program status reporting.

• Identify schedule, staffing, technical, operational, and stakeholder risks; develop mitigation strategies; elevate critical issues; and drive timely resolution.

• Oversee collection, organization, analysis, visualization, and presentation of planning and exercise data to support senior leadership decision-making.

• Ensure development of professional executive-level products, including presentations, dashboards, timelines, maps, graphics, infographics, status reports, and decision-support materials.

• Establish and enforce quality control processes to ensure all planning and exercise deliverables are technically accurate, complete, consistent, timely, professionally presented, and suitable for their intended audiences.

• Maintain configuration management, version control, decision histories, source documentation, action tracking, and knowledge-management practices across program activities.

• Manage program staffing, workload allocation, personnel performance, surge requirements, and continuity of operations to ensure uninterrupted support during critical planning and exercise periods.

• Provide timely executive-level reporting on program status, upcoming milestones, risks, dependencies, decisions, staffing, exercise readiness, and required Government actions.

• Capture lessons learned, exercise observations, corrective actions, and best practices and incorporate them into subsequent planning and exercise activities.

• Manage transition, knowledge transfer, and closeout activities to preserve Government access to planning products, exercise documentation, schedules, methodologies, decision histories, and institutional knowledge.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Emergency Management, Homeland Security, Public Administration, Business Administration, Project Management, or a related field.

• Minimum 10–15 years of progressively responsible experience managing complex federal emergency management, homeland security, exercise planning, consequence management, or major special-event programs.

• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale exercise planning and execution, including exercise concept development, design, planning, facilitation, conduct, evaluation, and reporting.

• Demonstrated experience supporting national- or regional-level consequence management, emergency preparedness, or major national/international special-event planning.

• Strong experience coordinating complex activities involving Federal, state, local, regional, and interagency stakeholders.

• Demonstrated ability to manage multidisciplinary teams and simultaneously oversee multiple planning workstreams, exercises, deliverables, dependencies, and deadlines.

• Demonstrated program management experience with IMS, project plans, deliverable tracking, risk and issue management, action-item tracking, performance metrics, and executive status reporting.

• Experience developing and reviewing technically complex planning products, exercise documentation, executive briefings, reports, decision-support materials, and senior-leadership presentations.

• Strong understanding of emergency management, preparedness, response, recovery, consequence management, continuity, and interagency coordination principles.

• Excellent facilitation skills with demonstrated ability to lead planning conferences, workshops, working groups, exercises, and senior-level stakeholder engagements.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex operational and planning information into concise executive-level products.

• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, Microsoft Project or comparable scheduling tools, SharePoint, Teams, and other collaboration, project management, and data visualization platforms.

Preferred Qualifications

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

• FEMA Master Exercise Practitioner Program (MEPP) or comparable advanced exercise-planning qualification.

• FEMA Emergency Management Institute (EMI) and/or National Incident Management System (NIMS)/Incident Command System (ICS) training.

• Experience applying Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) principles and methodologies.

• Previous experience supporting FEMA, DHS, or another federal emergency management/homeland security organization.

• Experience supporting National Special Security Events (NSSEs), Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) events, Olympic/Paralympic Games, large-scale sporting events, or similarly complex national/international events is highly desirable.

Job Type: Full-time

Work Location: Remote

Education: Bachelors Preferred

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible schedule
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance
• Vision insurance

Originally posted on Himalayas