Associate Director Mission Engineering Department

aero; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

The Aerospace Corporation is seeking an Associate Director in the Mission Engineering Department (MED) to lead multidisciplinary teams and mentor a talented staff, driving mission engineering initiatives and enterprise systems engineering across programs for DoD, NASA, and other customers.

Based onsite in El Segundo, CA, the role requires leadership, strategic communication, and the ability to manage multiple concurrent projects with senior stakeholders; travel up to 10% is required, with active

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in a technical field or equivalent experience.
• Experience in space, intelligence and/or defense domains, typically 10+ years.
• Demonstrated experience with team leadership and project planning.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work with customers and teams.
• Experience developing and presenting strategic decision-making artifacts for senior management.
• Time-management to lead multiple projects and cross-functional teams.
• Proficient with MBSE or modeling and simulation.

Responsibilities

• Lead multi-disciplinary teams and foster a culture of innovation and collaboration.
• Oversee relationships with peer organizations and program offices, leveraging Aerospace expertise.
• Identify risks and gaps; provide recommendations to inform priorities and resourcing.
• Develop and lead project teams across Aerospace, customers, and contractors.
• Mentor early career and senior staff to build department capabilities.

Skills

Team leadership

Project planning

Initiative & creativity

Interpersonal skills

Time management

Willing to travel

TS/SCI security clearance

Education

Bachelor's degree in a technical field

Tools

MBSE

SysML

UPDM

UAF

Job description

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.

Work Model

This is a full-time , on‑site position based in one of our Aerospace offices in. ( El Segundo, CA or Chantilly , VA )

What You'll Be Doing

• L ead multi-disciplin ary teams and f oster a culture of innovation and collaboration
• Ensure the d epartment maintain s a robust relationship with peer organizations and the program offices, leverag ing 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

What You Need to be Successful

Minimum Requirements for MED Associate Director :

• Bachelo r of Science degree in a technical field, or a bachelor's degree and equivalent technical experience
• S ubstantive 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
• E xcellent interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively with customers, Aerospace program offices, and contractors; to collaborate with other functional organizations within Aerospace
• E xperience developing and presenting strategic decision‑making and strategic communications artifacts for senior‑level management and technical architecture design artifacts for engineering‑level reviews
• T ime‑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
• P roficient with engineering and analytic capabilities such as Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) or modeling and simulation
• W illing to travel domestically 10%
• This position requires a current and active TS/SCI security clearance

How You Can Stand Out

It would be impressive if you have one or more of these:

• 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 Aeros