Director – Space Mission Assurance & EEE Parts Strategy

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant work experience is required plus a minimum of 15 years of demonstrated leadership; or Master's degree plus a minimum of 13 years of demonstrated leadership.

CLEARANCE REQUIREMENTS:Department of Defense Secret security clearance obtainable within reasonable time based on requirements. Candidates must be able to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret clearance and may be required to obtain a Top Secret/SCI clearance based on assigned programs. Applicants selected will be subject to a U.S. Government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information. Due to the nature of work performed within our facilities, U.S. citizenship is required.

Responsibilities for this Position

General Dynamics Mission Systems has an immediate opening for a Director, Space Mission Assurance & EEE Parts Strategy, serving as the lead Mission Assurance architect for the Space Systems business. This role is based in Scottsdale, Arizona, with a hybrid work arrangement where business and security requirements permit. Relocation assistance may be available.The Director will define, modernize, and govern an integrated Space Systems Mission Assurance plan and enterprise electrical, electronic, and electromechanical (EEE) parts strategy for mission-critical payloads and communications systems across proliferated low Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit, geosynchronous orbit, and cislunar or deep-space missions. The role combines the execution speed and product discipline of commercial space with rigorous, risk-informed engineering and mission assurance appropriate to each mission environment and operational life.The successful candidate will establish reusable GDMS mission-assurance profiles, standard operating media, proposal artifacts, and a multi-orbit Common Parts List. This leader will engage directly in capture and proposal efforts, negotiate practical tailoring of customer requirements, align engineering and operations to approved standards, and lead the technical and organizational change required to improve affordability, schedule, supply resilience, and mission success.REPRESENTATIVE DUTIES AND TASKS:• Develops, publishes, and maintains the enterprise strategy, governance model, roadmap, and implementation plan for Space Systems Mission Assurance and EEE parts across Space Systems products and programs.• Establishes a family of risk-informed Space Systems Mission Assurance Profiles that define scalable requirements for parts selection, screening, qualification, derating, environmental testing, process controls, reliability, surveillance, and acceptance based on mission risk, orbital environment, and operational life.• Ensures Space Systems Mission Assurance Profiles are appropriately aligned with contractual obligations, applicable government and industry standards, customer risk posture, and the technical needs of each mission rather than relying solely on generic mission-class labels.• Authors and governs policies, operating instructions, engineering standards, standard work, proposal language, statement-of-work content, compliance matrices, and data-item or SDRL boilerplate supporting the approved mission-assurance approach.• Partners from the outset with capture, program management, systems engineering, contracts, supply chain, and legal teams to analyze customer statements of work, Mission Assurance Requirements, specifications, quality clauses, and data requirements.• Develops and executes proposal-tailoring strategies, including technical redlines, exceptions, assumptions, compliance positions, and recommended replacement language that uses approved GDMS processes and product baselines whenever acceptable to the customer.• Leads technical discussions and negotiations with prime contractors and government customers to remove redundant or non-value-added requirements while maintaining objective evidence that mission, quality, safety, and contractual expectations are satisfied.• Creates standard proposal and execution artifacts that enable capture teams to price, schedule, and implement mission assurance consistently and with reduced nonrecurring effort.• Partners across engineering, manufacturing, operations, supply chain, procurement, quality, program management, and business development to ensure approved standards govern product design, sourcing, assembly, inspection, test, acceptance, and delivery.• Establishes, governs, and drives adoption of an enterprise multi-orbit Common Parts List across Space Systems product lines, including clear ownership, configuration control, approved use cases, qualification evidence, and exception processes.• Structures the Common Parts List into practical, pre-characterized environmental and radiation tiers based on total ionizing dose, single-event effects, destructive-event susceptibility, thermal range, reliability, mission duration, and other relevant application constraints.• Leads the technical strategy for identifying, evaluating, qualifying, and sustaining radiation-hardened, space-grade, high-reliability commercial, and automotive-grade components for appropriate space applications.• Establishes standard qualification, screening, upscreening, radiation-characterization, derating, lot-control, traceability, and obsolescence-management approaches for EEE parts and related materials and processes.• Partners with Supply Chain to translate the Common Parts List into a strategic procurement and inventory model for long-lead microelectronics, semiconductors, passives, and other critical components.• Defines business cases, demand aggregation, safety-stock policies, inventory controls, ownership models, and replenishment strategies that reduce proposal and production lead time while managing carrying cost and obsolescence risk.• Maximizes use of the GDMS Components and Materials Laboratory by establishing priorities and integrated plans for screening, destructive physical analysis, failure analysis, upscreening, radiation testing and characterization, and lot date code re-life evaluation.• Chairs or provides senior technical leadership to the Parts, Materials, and Processes Control Board and related EEE parts governance forums; establishes decision rights, membership, records, metrics, and escalation paths.• Defines a contractually compliant governance model that preserves appropriate GDMS Material Review Board and PMPCB authority for nonconformances, substitutions, waivers, deviations, obsolescence, and parts or process decisions.• Standardizes acceptance and delivery evidence, including automated End-Item Data Packages, as-built parts lists, compliance records, and disciplined Pre-Ship Reviews, to reduce reliance on disruptive in-process customer surveillance where contractually permitted.• Promotes timely, physics-based failure investigation and corrective action focused on containment, most likely cause, risk assessment, recurrence prevention, and objective closure criteria.• Establishes metrics and recurring reviews for mission-assurance effectiveness, parts reuse, qualification cycle time, customer requirements tailoring, supplier quality, escapes, failure resolution, inventory availability, cost avoidance, and schedule improvement.• Advises senior leaders on mission-assurance risk, EEE parts strategy, investment priorities, customer positions, product competitiveness, and enterprise capability needs.• Builds and leads a high-performing network of mission assurance, quality, reliability, radiation-effects, EEE parts, materials, process, laboratory, and supply-chain specialists across organizational boundaries.• Represents GDMS with customers, partners, suppliers, standards organizations, and industry forums and may be required to travel.KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITIES:• Extensive knowledge of mission assurance, product assurance, quality, reliability, and EEE parts engineering for space vehicles, payloads, communications systems, or other high-reliability aerospace products.• Deep knowledge of EEE parts selection, radiation effects, total ionizing dose, single-event effects including SEU and SEL, screening, qualification, derating, destructive physical analysis, traceability, lot control, counterfeit avoidance, and obsolescence management.• Extensive working knowledge of applicable space and microelectronics standards, including relevant portions of TOR-2006, MIL-STD-883, MIL-STD-1546, MIL-STD-1547, EEE-INST-002, NASA-STD-8739, and customer-specific mission-assurance requirements.• Ability to translate orbital environment, mission duration, architecture, redundancy, radiation exposure, consequence of failure, and customer risk posture into a coherent and defensible assurance plan.• Demonstrated ability to develop enterprise policies, standard processes, reusable technical baselines, governance boards, and implementation roadmaps that are adopted across multiple programs and product lines.• Expert ability to analyze and tailor customer statements of work, specifications, Mission Assurance Requirements, quality clauses, and data requirements during capture, proposal, and contract execution.• Advanced negotiation and communication skills with the ability to defend risk-informed technical positions while building customer confidence and maintaining contractual compliance.• Ability to balance commercial-space execution speed, affordability, and product reuse with the rigor required for national-security and high-consequence missions.• Extensive knowledge of components and materials laboratory capabilities, including parts screening, upscreening, radiation characterization, destructive physical analysis, failure analysis, and lot date code evaluation.• Ability to evaluate and qualify commercial and automotive-grade components for appropriate space applications using physics-of-failure analysis, test evidence, application constraints, and risk controls.• Extensive understanding of supply-chain strategy, strategic sourcing, demand aggregation, long-lead procurement, inventory policy, safety stock, supplier quality, and obsolescence risk.• Ability to develop and govern an enterprise Common Parts List with effective configuration control, approved-use guidance, technical evidence, and exception management.• Strong understanding of design, manufacturing, inspection, test, configuration management, nonconformance, Material Review Board, and product-acceptance processes.• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence senior stakeholders in a matrix organization without relying solely on direct reporting authority.• Demonstrated change leadership and the ability to shift organizational behavior from program-specific reactive compliance toward scalable, product-based, risk-informed standardization.• Strong analytical ability and judgment in complex technical and business situations with significant cost, schedule, quality, customer, or mission consequences.• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and executive-communication skills.• Ability to establish meaningful metrics, analyze trends, identify systemic issues, and drive corrective and preventive action to closure.• Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and relevant requirements, quality, parts, configuration-management, and product-lifecycle systems.

PREFERRED DEGREE TYPES AND EXPERIENCE:• Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, Systems Engineering, Business Administration, or a related field.• At least five years directly architecting or leading mission assurance, EEE parts engineering, reliability, radiation effects, product assurance, or quality frameworks for space systems.• Direct experience developing and deploying an enterprise Common Parts List across multiple space products, missions, or orbital regimes.• Experience partnering with supply-chain leadership to establish strategic component stocking, buffer inventory, or enterprise material-planning models.• Demonstrated capture and proposal experience, including customer-requirement analysis, technical redlines, compliance matrices, basis-of-estimate development, and negotiation of mission-assurance scope.• Practical experience qualifying high-reliability commercial or automotive components for space applications.• Experience directing an advanced components and materials laboratory or developing integrated screening, failure-analysis, DPA, upscreening, and radiation-test strategies.• Prior chair, technical authority, or voting-member experience on a corporate PMPCB, Material Review Board, EEE parts council, or comparable governance body.• Experience in both agile commercial-space and government or national-security space environments.• Experience introducing automated end-item data packages, as-built parts lists, digital thread, model-based assurance, or data-driven quality systems.• Lean, Six Sigma, reliability engineering, quality engineering, or related professional certification.• Active Department of Defense Secret or Top Secret/SCI security clearance.

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Salary Note

This estimate represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors (geographic location, etc.). Actual pay may vary. This job posting will remain open until the position is filled.

Combined Salary Range

USD $228,408.00 - USD $247,145.00 /Yr.

Company Overview

General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) engineers a diverse portfolio of high technology solutions, products and services that enable customers to successfully execute missions across all domains of operation. With a global team of 12,000+ top professionals, we partner with the best in industry to expand the bounds of innovation in the defense and scientific arenas. Given the nature of our work and who we are, we value trust, honesty, alignment and transparency. We offer highly competitive benefits and pride ourselves in being a great place to work with a shared sense of purpose. You will also enjoy a flexible work environment where contributions are recognized and rewarded. If who we are and what we do resonates with you, we invite you to join our high-performance team!

Equal Opportunity Employer / Individuals with Disabilities / Protected Veterans