Associate Director Mission Engineering Department
About The Position
The Aerospace Corporation is the trusted partner to the nation’s space programs, solving the hardest problems and providing unmatched technical expertise. As the operator of a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), we are broadly engaged across all aspects of space— delivering innovative solutions that span satellite, launch, ground, and cyber systems for defense, civil and commercial customers. When you join our team, you’ll be part of a special collection of problem solvers, thought leaders, and innovators. Join us and take your place in space. The Enterprise Effects Division (EED) drives integration of Aerospace’s strategic capabilities across the national space enterprise. The division leverages a broad array of engineering disciplines against a dynamic portfolio of programs, customers, and national challenges. EED spans the capability lifecycle from concept and architecture design to performance assessment to application of space and space-enabled capabilities. The Mission Engineering Department (MED) provides technical expertise and leadership in mission engineering methods, processes, and tools to a broad range of customers, including DoD, NSS, NASA, NOAA, NNSA, and others. Members of the Mission Engineering Department evaluate and assess customer mission-integration needs and/or challenges, develop end-to-end mission threads, and provide timely advice, make recommendations to enterprise leaders on risks, issues, and gaps, and develop recommended solutions to enable desired mission outcomes. MED applies the mission-engineering tradecraft to characterize, build, and analyze end-to-end effects-chains. The Associate Director will lead these efforts, build partnerships with customers, and ensure that MED is staffed with top talent to solve complex challenges. The Associate Director is expected to mentor and serve as a role model for MED and junior staff.
Requirements
- Bachelor of Science degree in a technical field, or a bachelor’s degree and equivalent technical experience
- Substantive experience in space, intelligence, and/or defense domains, typically 10 or more years
- Demonstrated experience with team leadership and project planning
- Exhibits exceptionally high level of initiative, innovation, and creativeness
- Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively with customers, Aerospace program offices, and contractors; to collaborate with other functional organizations within Aerospace
- Experience developing and presenting strategic decision-making and strategic communications artifacts for senior-level management and technical architecture design artifacts for engineering-level reviews
- Time-management skills with the ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and to organize and lead cross-functional, cross-organizational teams to execute studies and assessments
- Proficient with engineering and analytic capabilities such as Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) or modeling and simulation
- Willing to travel domestically < 10%
- This position requires a current and active TS/SCI security clearance
Nice To Haves
- Demonstrated success in organizing and leading cross-functional, cross-organizational teams to execute studies and assessments and generate quality products
- Hands-on experience with system or enterprise modeling in the Systems Modeling Language (SysML), Unified Architecture Framework (UAF), or Unified Profile for DoDAF and MODAF (UPDM)
- Experience working closely with key Aerospace customer agencies in the defense and intelligence community, including strong knowledge of their domain and strong professional networks ranging from operations, requirements, resourcing, acquisitions, test and training
- Experience working large, complex issues and the ability to break down problems into meaningful steps, assigning the tasks to a team and ensuring the team provides the requisite deliverables on time
Responsibilities
- Lead multi-disciplinary teams and foster a culture of innovation and collaboration
- Ensure the department maintains a robust relationship with peer organizations and the program offices, leveraging expertise from across Aerospace and incorporating best practices in enterprise systems engineering
- Oversee tasks to ensure proper implementation resulting in delivery of key objectives and key results to the customer
- Identify risks, issues, and gaps in key deliverable; Provide recommendations that will inform customer decisions on priorities, funding, requirements, and resourcing for organizations, systems, and training
- Develop and lead project teams comprising of Aerospace, customer, and contractor personnel on multiple concurrent projects to elicit and identify needs, requirements, and constraints for studies and marshal technical expertise in multiple technical disciplines and domains to enable concurrent engineering approaches
- Mentor early career and experienced staff, serving as a role model and technical advisor to an exceptionally talented and highly motivated cadre of mission engineers to develop department capabilities and meet emerging demands for department expertise
Benefits
- Comprehensive health care and wellness plans
- Paid holidays, sick time, and vacation
- Standard and alternate work schedules, including telework options
- 401(k) Plan — Employees receive a total company-paid benefit of 8%, 10%, or 12% of eligible compensation based on years of service and matching contributions; employees are immediately eligible and vested in the plan upon hire
- Flexible spending accounts
- Variable pay program for exceptional contributions
- Relocation assistance
- Professional growth and development programs to help advance your career
- Education assistance programs
- An inclusive work environment built on teamwork, flexibility, and respect
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
