(Senior) Technical Programme Associate

Help Build Europe's Hypersonic Capability At Hypersonica , we’re redefining what’s possible in European defence technology. We exist to deliver speed, resilience, and technological independence at a pace that sets a new standard. We are a small, elite team working on problems that matter, and solving them fast. By joining Hypersonica , you’re not stepping into a predefined role. You’re joining a talent dense environment where every individual shapes the direction of the company. Our philosophy is to hire a small number of exceptional people with broad, deep technical capability, strong judgement, and the ability to operate autonomously. We hire for talent, not rigid boxes. This role represents a business need, but the way it evolves will be shaped by the individual. If you’ve achieved what others said was impossible, or you bring a unique combination of skills that doesn’t fit a traditional mould, we want to hear from you. The work you do here directly contributes to Europe’s technological independence. What you'll do • Support the day-to-day delivery of defence programmes with close attention to the technical scope, risk, and maturity of the underlying engineering work. • Work directly with engineering teams to understand technical progress and translate it into clear programme status, risk, and decision inputs. • Translate customer requirements, technical and contractual inputs, and complex engineering information into clear plans, milestones, and actionable next steps. • Support technical reviews and technical discussions and reporting, preparing materials and tracking actions through to closure. • Manage day-to-day relationships with technical partners and subcontractors, coordinating their deliverables, resolving technical queries, and holding them to schedule and quality. • Help ensure relevant safety and assurance frameworks (e.g. airworthiness, range safety, product safety) are correctly understood and applied across the programme. • Support commercial and programme activities, including delivery planning and proposals, working closely with engineering to ensure technical content is accurate and well presented. • Build growing fluency in the underlying technology sufficient to engage credibly with engineering teams and represent technical status to programme and customer stakeholders. • Take ownership of defined workstreams and increasingly complex technical and programme responsibilities as you develop in the role. • Who you are • An ambitious early-career professional with at least 2–3 years of experience in a technical or engineering-adjacent environment - aerospace, defence, engineering consulting, a deep-tech start-up, or another demanding and high-paced setting. • A background in engineering, physics, materials science, or a similarly technical discipline, giving you genuine fluency with engineering content rather than needing it pre-translated. • Experienced in breaking down complex or technically ambiguous problems, structuring your thinking, and turning analysis into practical action. • Comfortable operating between technical detail and programme execution; you do not want a role confined to producing slides, reports, or recommendations. • A strong communicator who can translate technical content into clear materials for non-technical audiences, and translate programme and commercial constraints back into terms engineering teams can act on. • Comfortable managing external partners and subcontractors, holding them to schedule and quality without being heavy-handed. • Comfortable navigating applicable safety, quality, and regulatory frameworks (e.g. airworthiness, range safety, product safety) well enough to ensure they're correctly applied, without needing to be the technical authority on them