Director of Launch Operations & Site Excellence

Firefly Aerospace; California; On-site; USD 195,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental and vision coverage

Parental leave

Educational reimbursement

Flexible PTO

Job summary

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. seeks a seasoned leader to shepherd the Vandenberg Launch Operations and Facilities team through launch campaigns. You will direct cross‑functional engineering and operations efforts, ensuring safe, on‑schedule executions and strong customer/range communications.

The role requires a Bachelor’s in engineering, 5+ years in aerospace leadership, and hands-on experience with launch campaigns and integrated schedules. ITAR compliance is mandatory.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field.
• Experience leading multi-disciplinary engineering and operations teams.
• 5+ years of aerospace leadership across complex systems.
• Experience with Atlassian products like Confluence & Jira.
• ITAR/compliance requirements for U.S. government space projects.

Responsibilities

• Direct launch campaigns from pre-vehicle arrival to on-pad operations.
• Lead daily tagups for vehicle and pad campaigns.
• Manage pad maintenance to maximize availability and reduce costs.
• Identify opportunities to reduce campaign durations.
• Develop Integrated Master Schedule with program teams.
• Participate in hiring for launch operations and facilities.
• Coordinate with Safety Teams to ensure deliverables.

Skills

Leadership

Aerospace operations

MS Excel

MS Project

MS Visio

Confluence

Jira

Python

LabVIEW

MATLAB

SVN/Bitbucket

Launch operations

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related

Tools

Jira

Confluence

SVN

Bitbucket

Job description

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. seeks a seasoned leader to shepherd the Vandenberg Launch Operations and Facilities team through launch campaigns. You will direct cross‑functional engineering and operations efforts, ensuring safe, on‑schedule executions and strong customer/range communications.

The role requires a Bachelor’s in engineering, 5+ years in aerospace leadership, and hands-on experience with launch campaigns and integrated schedules. ITAR compliance is mandatory.