Portfolio Director, Missile Defense Agency Programs

Astrion•Huntsville, AL

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Portfolio Director provides senior-level leadership and business growth for a portfolio of technical programs supporting the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and associated government customers. The role is accountable for integrated technical, schedule, cost, staffing, quality, risk, customer, and growth performance across major programs or multiple related programs. Working within contract requirements, company policies, and applicable government regulations, the director leads program and project managers, aligns technical and business execution, and connects customer outcomes to delivery performance and sustainable growth. The position serves as a senior interface with government stakeholders, contract representatives, teammates, subcontractors, industry partners, and internal leadership. The director develops and executes the portfolio growth strategy, maintains trusted customer relationships, shapes demand and acquisition opportunities, supports capture and proposal activities, and recommends priorities, resources, investments, and corrective actions. The role includes developing personnel and applying entrepreneurial judgment to complex matters affecting the directorate, customer mission, and company operations. The Portfolio Director is expected to operate with initiative and an enterprise mindset, identify opportunities early, and make clear recommendations based on customer evidence, mission relevance, competitive assessment, solution maturity, and business case. Pursuit decisions, pricing, resource commitments, and other corporate approvals are subject to Astrion governance and the Bid Approval Process. The position is located in Huntsville, Alabama, is full-time, requires an active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility, and involves travel up to 25% to customer, partner, and program locations.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in engineering, science, business, program management, or a related discipline and at least 12 years of relevant experience; alternatively, a master's degree and at least 10 years of relevant experience.
At least 6 years of management experience, including responsibility for experienced professional staff and/or subordinate program or project managers.
Demonstrated experience leading major technical programs or multiple related programs in a government contracting environment, with accountability across technical, schedule, cost, staffing, risk, and customer dimensions.
Demonstrated experience developing or executing a growth strategy, building senior customer relationships, and converting customer insight into qualified opportunities, capture plans, proposals, or follow-on work.
Experience interpreting and executing contract requirements, managing customer commitments, preparing program performance reports, and supporting contract reviews or equivalent governance activities.
Experience developing staffing plans, budgets or financial forecasts, integrated schedules, risk and issue plans, and corrective-action strategies for complex programs.
Strong written, verbal, briefing, negotiation, and executive-level communication skills, including communicating complex program information to government and company leadership.
Working knowledge of federal acquisition and business-development practices, including FAR and DFARS environments, contract vehicles, task orders, recompetes, proposal development, pricing coordination, and capture governance.
Ability to work collaboratively across technical and business functions, exercise sound judgment, protect sensitive information, and make timely decisions amid competing priorities.
Ability to obtain and maintain any security clearance, access authorization, or customer-specific eligibility required by the assigned contract, if applicable.
Active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting MDA, Department of Defense acquisition, integrated air and missile defense, missile defense systems, command and control, testing, modeling and simulation, or related mission areas.
Experience managing a portfolio with multiple contracts, task orders, subcontractors, geographically distributed teams, or matrixed technical organizations.
Advanced degree in engineering, science, business, systems engineering, or a related field.
Program management certification such as PMP, DAWIA, or an equivalent credential, when relevant to assigned work and contract requirements.
Experience with earned value management, program management reviews, technical interchange meetings, integrated baseline reviews, milestone reviews, or similar government program-control practices.
Experience leading proposal, capture, recompete, or customer-growth activities in the federal government market, preferably in missile defense or another complex national security mission area.
Established customer or industry relationships across MDA, Department of Defense acquisition organizations, prime contractors, OEMs, and mission partners.
Experience developing reusable, solution-led offerings and moving a business toward outcome-based work, repeatable delivery, and scalable growth.
Experience working with classified or otherwise controlled program information in accordance with applicable security and information-protection requirements.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain senior customer relationships across MDA, relevant program executive and program management offices, Department of Defense stakeholders, mission partners, and other organizations relevant to missile defense operations.
Own and execute the MDA portfolio growth strategy, establishing priorities, target customers, market approaches, measurable objectives, and investment recommendations with Astrion leadership and the Growth organization.
Lead execution of a portfolio of MDA-related programs, ensuring technical, contractual, schedule, cost, staffing, quality, and customer objectives are understood, integrated, and achieved.
Direct subordinate program and project managers and technical leads; establish priorities, decision rights, staffing plans, labor mix, and performance expectations across the portfolio.
Represent the company to government customers and contract stakeholders; communicate status and risks and ensure commitments are understood and met.
Engage early with customers and partners to understand operational needs, acquisition plans, funding, decision makers, incumbent positions, mission priorities, and timing; shape requirements and acquisition strategies through ethical, compliant engagement.
Make evidence-based recommendations on whether to prime, subcontract, team, invest, defer, or decline opportunities, and execute approved pursuits through the Bid Approval Process.
Develop differentiated, executable, and scalable solutions connecting company capabilities to customer mission outcomes and measurable value.
Develop strategic relationships with prime contractors, OEMs, nontraditional firms, universities, and mission partners to close capability gaps, strengthen teaming positions, and expand access to contract vehicles and opportunities.
Coordinate with Growth, contracts, pricing, finance, recruiting, technical leaders, operations, and proposal teams so pursuits are customer-centered, executable, properly resourced, compliant, and financially sound.
Prioritize and maintain the pipeline using customer access, mission fit, funding and timing, solution maturity, competitive position, probability of win, expected value, and strategic relevance; provide candid, data-supported assessments to leadership.
Represent Astrion in customer, industry, partner, and professional engagements and communicate portfolio mission value, capabilities, delivery record, and growth priorities.
Translate contract requirements, statements of work, technical baselines, and customer priorities into executable portfolio plans, operating rhythms, and measurable outcomes.
Monitor contract, subcontract, funding, and resource status; forecast program financial performance, review variances, and direct corrective actions when needed.
Oversee integrated program planning, including schedules, milestones, dependencies, staffing, deliverables, technical reviews, and readiness for customer and internal decision points.
Establish and maintain portfolio-level risk, issue, opportunity, and change-management processes, ensuring timely escalation and resolution of matters affecting mission, cost, schedule, or technical performance.
Ensure required program and financial reports, briefings, metrics, deliverables, and contract reviews are accurate, timely, and aligned with customer expectations and contract terms.
Lead quality assurance, mission assurance, and continuous-improvement activities; promote repeatable processes, lessons learned, and compliance with approved procedures.
Coordinate with engineering, operations, contracts, finance, security, human resources, pricing, business development, and other functions to resolve issues and sustain execution.
Support capture and new-business activities by shaping customer solutions, leading or supporting proposals, identifying follow-on opportunities, and coordinating with pricing and contracts personnel.
Partner with program and delivery leaders to protect customer trust, identify emerging needs, capture follow-on work, and use successful performance and customer outcomes to support new opportunities.
Identify capability, past-performance, workforce, clearance, facility, tool, partner, or contract-access gaps that constrain growth; recommend practical actions and investment cases.
Recruit, select, develop, mentor, and retain program and technical personnel; conduct performance and salary reviews under company policy and applicable employment requirements.
Provide clear technical and programmatic direction while maintaining separation of duties, protecting controlled information, and complying with government and company security requirements.
Perform other duties consistent with the position's scope and business needs.