Senior/SME Weapon Manufacturing Professional

KBR, Inc.•Beavercreek, OH

1d•Onsite

About The Position

KBR's National Security Solutions team provides high-end engineering and advanced technology solutions to customers in the intelligence and national security communities. This position will have a profound impact on the country’s most critical role – protecting our national security. KBR is seeking a highly experienced Senior to SME-level Manufacturing and Industrial Base professional to support a U.S. Government program office executing a fast-paced acquisition effort to field next-generation counter-air capabilities. This position will provide expert technical and programmatic support across manufacturing readiness, production scalability, supplier capacity, industrial base risk, supplier resilience, and transition-to-production planning. The ideal candidate has direct experience assessing or supporting the manufacture of complex defense systems, preferably missiles, munitions, air defense systems, launchers, aerospace systems, or other high-consequence weapon systems.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Industrial Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
10+ years of relevant experience in defense manufacturing, missile systems, aerospace production, industrial base analysis, supply chain risk management, or closely related domains.
Direct experience supporting manufacturing, production, supplier management, quality, industrial base, or transition-to-production activities for complex defense or aerospace systems.
Experience assessing production readiness, manufacturing maturity, supplier capability, production capacity, or manufacturing risk.
Strong understanding of manufacturing processes, production constraints, quality systems, configuration control, supplier qualification, and supplier risk management.
Ability to independently assess technical, manufacturing, and supplier issues; identify risks; and develop actionable recommendations for Government decision-makers.
Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced program office environment supporting time-sensitive acquisition and fielding decisions.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to brief technical findings and recommendations to Government, military, and senior leadership stakeholders.
Active DoD Secret clearance required.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting missile, munition, air defense, launcher, hypersonic, aerospace, or other advanced weapon system production programs.
Familiarity with Manufacturing Readiness Levels, Technology Readiness Levels, production readiness assessments, and transition-to-production planning.
Experience evaluating major missile or launcher subsystem suppliers, including propulsion, energetics, electronics, seekers, sensors, batteries, power systems, structures, and ground equipment.
Experience supporting production ramp-up, multi-year procurement, surge capacity, replenishment planning, or industrial base expansion efforts.
Familiarity with Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages issues.
Experience with advanced manufacturing, automation, additive manufacturing, digital engineering, model-based manufacturing, automated inspection, or production digital threads.
Experience evaluating contractor proposals, production plans, supplier strategies, or manufacturing readiness in support of Government acquisition decisions.
Prior experience supporting a Government program office, System Program Office, acquisition organization, or defense prime/subcontractor production environment.
Active Top Secret clearance or eligibility for TS/SCI.

Responsibilities

Serve as a senior technical resource for manufacturing, production, and industrial base considerations related to ground-launched counter-air missile and launcher systems.
Evaluate contractor production plans, manufacturing readiness, supplier strategies, production ramp assumptions, and industrial base risks.
Assess contractor and supplier ability to support affordable, scalable, and repeatable missile and launcher production.
Identify production bottlenecks, long-lead material concerns, supplier capacity constraints, single points of failure, and other barriers to timely fielding.
Evaluate manufacturing approaches for major missile and launcher subsystems, including propulsion, structures, seekers, sensors, electronics, power systems, energetics, ground equipment, and launcher components.
Assess manufacturing maturity, producibility, process capability, and readiness to transition from prototype development to low-rate and full-rate production.
Support evaluation of contractor make-versus-buy decisions, supplier selection strategies, second-source options, and vertical integration approaches.
Assess risks related to foreign dependency, specialty materials, microelectronics, energetics, castings, forgings, motors, batteries, composites, and other critical supply chain vulnerabilities.
Evaluate contractor quality control, process repeatability, configuration management, yield improvement, production surveillance, and nonconformance management approaches.
Support technical reviews focused on manufacturing readiness, supply chain performance, production scalability, cost reduction, and industrial base health.
Research comparable missile, munitions, air defense, and launcher production approaches across the Department of War and industry to identify best practices, lessons learned, and scalable manufacturing concepts.
Assess opportunities to reduce cost and accelerate production through design simplification, modularity, commonality, automation, advanced manufacturing, open architectures, and production-oriented design trades.
Evaluate the appropriate use of additive manufacturing, digital engineering, model-based manufacturing, automated inspection, and other modern production techniques.
Support planning for production ramp-up, surge capacity, depot integration, sustainment, replenishment, and long-term production viability.
Develop technical assessments, risk summaries, decision papers, briefing materials, and recommendations for Government stakeholders.
Advise Government leaders on manufacturing and industrial base implications of acquisition strategies, contractor proposals, schedule assumptions, and production decisions.