Director of Supplier Development and Production Acceleration

ACT1 Federal•Arlington, VA

2d•$180,000 - $200,000•Hybrid

About The Position

ACT1 Federal seeks a Director of Supplier Development and Production Acceleration for its Transformation, Acceleration, and Supplier Capacity Team (TASC). The Director will lead approximately six to seven Senior Supplier Development and Manufacturing Readiness Engineers supporting Department of the Navy industrial-base initiatives, particularly missile production and critical supplier capacity. The role applies substantial automotive manufacturing, supplier-development, industrialization, and production-launch experience to accelerate defense production. The Director will organize concurrent supplier interventions, establish consistent assessment and recovery methods, allocate engineering resources, and ensure improvements result in sustained delivery of conforming products. The role reports to ACT1’s TASC Program Manager and coordinates Government priorities through the established program structure. The Director leads and develops the engineering team, translates approved priorities into supplier assignments and measurable outcomes, prioritizes supplier interventions, and maintains an integrated view of risks, milestones, resource requirements, and decisions. The role establishes and assures consistent assessment and recovery methods, challenges supplier capacity assumptions, supports production ramp-ups and launches, and coordinates multidisciplinary efforts to address constraints. It also evaluates capacity and investment proposals, tracks realized benefits, engages supplier and prime-contractor leaders through authorized channels, and provides executive-level assessments and decision support to program and Government stakeholders. The position is hybrid, involving Government and supplier locations as assigned. Frequent domestic travel is required, including supplier-site deployments and Government meetings. U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Top Secret security clearance are required. An active Secret or Top-Secret clearance is preferred but is not required to apply; clearance sponsorship may be available for qualified candidates subject to contract requirements and Government authorization. Assignments before clearance approval will be limited to authorized unclassified duties.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in industrial, manufacturing, mechanical, systems, or another relevant engineering discipline; an equivalent combination of technical education and substantial manufacturing leadership experience may be considered where permitted by contract and Government requirements.
At least 15 years of progressively responsible experience in manufacturing, supplier development, supplier quality, industrialization, program launch, or production operations.
At least five years leading engineering teams, supplier-development organizations, or manufacturing-improvement teams responsible for multiple concurrent supplier or plant assignments.
Substantial automotive OEM, Tier 1, or Tier 2 experience, including direct responsibility for supplier recovery, industrialization, production launches, or major rate increases.
Demonstrated leadership of successful interventions across multiple suppliers, plants, commodities, or manufacturing processes.
Strong technical knowledge of manufacturing capacity, equipment, tooling, labor, process capability, material flow, quality, and production planning.
Ability to distinguish symptoms from root causes and verify sustained increases in conforming output.
Strong working knowledge of automotive launch and quality methods, including APQP, PPAP, PFMEA, control plans, SPC, MSA, 8D, Lean manufacturing, standardized work, and error proofing.
Experience allocating technical resources and prioritizing interventions according to delivery impact, risk, and recovery potential.
Ability to influence supplier executives and lead cross-organizational recovery activities without direct authority over external organizations.
Experience preparing executive-level assessments, recovery recommendations, and performance briefings.
Ability to manage competing priorities, extensive travel, and time-sensitive supplier issues.
U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Top Secret security clearance.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in engineering, manufacturing, operations management, business administration, or a related field.
Experience leading a regional or enterprise supplier-development organization, launch team, supplier recovery task force, or manufacturing operations function.
Experience transferring automotive manufacturing disciplines into aerospace, defense, or another regulated industry.
Missile, propulsion, aerospace, electronics, or defense production experience.
Experience across several manufacturing commodities, including precision machining, castings and forgings, composites, electronics, electrical harnesses, electromechanical assemblies, welding, and special processes.
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or Master Black Belt, ASQ certification, professional engineering license, or comparable technical credential.
Experience evaluating capital investments and verifying their operational benefits.
Experience coordinating with Government program offices, defense prime contractors, or designated technical and quality authorities.
Active Secret or Top-Secret security clearance.
Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate leadership of a supplier-development team comparable in size and complexity to the proposed six-to-seven-engineer organization; a portfolio of supplier recoveries with resource prioritization and verified results; a difficult production ramp-up and its sustained outcome; escalation of a structural issue; an investment that delivered measurable capacity or delivery benefit; coaching and repeatable team methods; and sanitized examples of recovery plans, dashboards, assessments, and executive decision packages.

Responsibilities

Lead, supervise, and develop a team of approximately six to seven supplier-development and manufacturing-readiness engineers.
Translate approved Government priorities into supplier assignments, assessment objectives, recovery activities, and measurable team outcomes.
Assign engineers to suppliers based on expertise, process knowledge, risk, urgency, and availability; establish staffing, travel, coverage, and escalation plans for concurrent interventions.
Coach engineers in manufacturing diagnosis, supplier engagement, structured problem solving, and verification of results; review performance and work products and identify capability gaps.
Prioritize suppliers with the TASC Program Manager, supply-chain lead, and Government stakeholders according to production and delivery impact, dependencies, shortfalls, recovery lead time, substitutability, qualification constraints, and potential capacity benefit.
Maintain an integrated portfolio view of interventions, resources, risks, milestones, and decisions; identify shared constraints and distinguish local process problems from systemic issues.
Recommend whether to intensify, redirect, supplement, or conclude interventions based on evidence and approved priorities.
Establish consistent supplier-assessment, manufacturing-readiness, and recovery methods; review capacity models and challenge assumptions about cycle time, equipment, labor, yield, scrap, rework, material flow, and schedules.
Guide use of automotive practices such as APQP, PPAP, PFMEA, control plans, SPC, MSA, run-at-rate, 8D, standardized work, and error proofing, adapting them to defense requirements and constraints.
Conduct site visits and participate directly in difficult assessments, recoveries, and executive escalations; ensure technical recommendations are evidence-based and use realistic implementation assumptions.
Review and integrate supplier recovery plans with defined actions, owners, resources, dependencies, milestones, and objective closure criteria; establish operating reviews to surface stalled actions, risks, and needed decisions.
Support readiness for launches, production transfers, additional shifts, equipment installations, facility expansions, and rate increases; coordinate multidisciplinary support for constraints beyond an assigned engineer’s expertise.
Escalate issues requiring supplier leadership, prime-contractor action, Government decisions, capital investment, alternate sourcing, or engineering approval; ensure recovery addresses the binding constraint rather than shifting bottlenecks downstream.
Work with TASC cost and business-case analysts to compare process, staffing, tooling, equipment, sourcing, and facility alternatives; assess implementation time, qualification needs, cost, risk, and expected usable output.
Identify opportunities to increase production using existing assets before recommending additional capital expenditure; track action completion, installation, qualification, capacity demonstration, and sustained delivery improvement separately.
Prevent double counting of capacity gains; recommend intervention exit criteria and sustainment checks.
Serve as ACT1’s senior supplier-development technical lead for assigned production-acceleration activities and engage supplier executives and prime-contractor manufacturing, engineering, procurement, and quality leaders through authorized channels.
Provide concise production-risk, recovery-status, resource-needs, and decision-option assessments to the TASC Program Manager and Government stakeholders.
Integrate recovery milestones and dependencies into schedules and execution reporting; maintain a portfolio-level risk and issue register with owners, mitigations, due dates, and escalation thresholds.
Prepare executive briefings, technical recommendations, site-visit summaries, and decision-support packages; coordinate with Government program offices and designated engineering, quality, acquisition, and industrial-base organizations.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision insurance
ACT1 Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
Company-paid life and AD&D insurance
Company-paid short-term disability
Voluntary long-term disability
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
Health Savings Account (HSA)
401(k) with employer match
Paid time off
Paid holidays
Parental leave
Military leave
Education, training, and professional development
Voluntary accidental injury, critical illness, and hospital care coverage
Voluntary pet insurance, legal resources, and identity protection
Flexible and collaborative work culture, with flexibility for in-person or remote collaboration