Earth-Orbit Flight Dynamics Section Manager

The Aerospace Corporation; Colorado Springs (CO); Hybrid; USD 148,000 - 221,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health care plans

Paid holidays

Relocation assistance

Education assistance

Telework options

401(k) plan

Job summary

The Aerospace Corporation seeks a Section Manager for the Contested Operations Section in Colorado Springs. You will lead a geographically distributed team of analysts, shaping resiliency tactics and mission analyses across multiple programs and government customers.

You’ll partner with aerospace program offices and US Government customers, drive staff development, and coordinate cross-functional efforts to align customer needs with internal capabilities, while maintaining required TS/SCI

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in applicable STEM areas.
• 8 years of applicable professional or educational experience is required.
• Demonstrated ability to initiate and lead team efforts, manage projects, and develop staff for new collaborations with internal and external organizations.
• Willingness to travel domestically as necessary.
• Current TS/SCI Access.

Responsibilities

• Lead geographically distributed teams of analysts and direct reports in developing analysis capabilities, supporting operational communities, and implementing resiliency tactics, techniques, and procedures through workload management, performance assessment, mentoring, and staff development.
• Develop relationships with Aerospace Program Offices and US Government customers to identify opportunities, deliver tactical solutions to operational challenges, and prioritize business development, capability awareness, and long-term customer engagement.
• Partner with department management to synthesize and execute organizational strategic vision across multiple sections, coordinating cross-functional teams and subdivision partnerships to ensure bench depth and career growth opportunities.
• Enhance warfighter training across the space enterprise and cultivate state-of-the‑art modeling and simulation capabilities through strategic road mapping and resource integration.
• Drive staff retention, recruiting, hiring, and onboarding while pursuing organizational enablers including classified IT resources and clearance portfolios to ensure long-term organizational health.

Skills

Leadership

Team management

Customer engagement

Strategic coordination

Staff development

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in applicable STEM areas

Tools

Security Clearance TS/SCI

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. As a core component of EED, the Earth-Orbit Flight Dynamics Department provides flight mechanics expertise for launch and space vehicles. This includes expertise in orbital mechanics, astrodynamics, trajectory design and optimization, and atmospheric flight modeling and simulation. The department is a critical integration partner for a wide range of engineering disciplines to facilitate the company’s mission of providing multi-disciplinary insights. We are looking for a Section Manager to help lead the Contested Operations Section.

As a Section Manager, the selected candidate will lead a group of analysts across a variety of mission areas. Core focus areas include contested missions/resiliency tactics development and assessment, Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) maneuver analysis, and Dynamic Space Operations (DSO). Furthermore, opportunities exist to partner on efforts with technically adjacent departments to strengthen the entire organization. The selected candidate will help lead department efforts in these areas, providing critical customer interfaces to the operational community, including USSF/SpOC, STARCOM, OTTI, SPACECOM and NRO components. The Section Manager will be expected to work with EOFFD leadership to fuse these customer needs with important equities across the corporate customer landscape, notably SSC, SpRCO, AFRL, NASA, FAA, and NOAA.

Work Model This position will be a hybrid work model based in Colorado Springs, CO, Chantilly, VA or El Segundo, CA, with the expectation that the selected candidate works at least 4 days per week onsite, as the business needs allow.

What You’ll Be Doing

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead geographically distributed teams of analysts and direct reports in developing analysis capabilities, supporting operational communities, and implementing resiliency tactics, techniques, and procedures through workload management, performance assessment, mentoring, and staff development

Customer Engagement & Business Development

• Develop relationships with Aerospace Program Offices and US Government customers to identify opportunities, deliver tactical solutions to operational challenges, and prioritize business development, capability awareness, and long-term customer engagement

Strategic Coordination & Execution

• Partner with department management to synthesize and execute organizational strategic vision across multiple sections, coordinating cross-functional teams and subdivision partnerships to ensure bench depth and career growth opportunities

Capability Development & Training

• Enhance warfighter training across the space enterprise and cultivate state-of-the‑art modeling and simulation capabilities through strategic road mapping and resource integration

Organizational Enablement

• Drive staff retention, recruiting, hiring, and onboarding while pursuing organizational enablers including classified IT resources and clearance portfolios to ensure long-term organizational health

What You Need to be Successful

• Bachelor’s degree in applicable STEM areas
• 8 years of applicable professional or educational experience is required
• Demonstrated ability to initiate and lead team efforts, manage projects, and develop staff for new collaborations with internal and external organizations
• Experience with taking Aerospace analytical frameworks and deploying operational prototypes to the user community
• Willingness to travel domestically as necessary
• Current TS/SCI Access

How You Can Stand Out

• It would be impressive if you have one or more of these: Advanced degree in an applicable field
• Previous management experience including staff recruitment and development, performance management, conflict resolution, organizational planning, and resource management
• Operations-focused experience, e.g., maneuver planning for real-world missions
• Experience supporting military exercises and wargaming events
• Leveraging or building analysis software to combine numerical methods, flight mechanics, and optimization for launch vehicles, missiles, interceptors, spacecraft, or reentry vehicles
• Experience applying optimization techniques such as nonlinear programming, indirect/direct methods, genetic algorithms, as well as others
• Current TS/SCI and TS/SAP Access

We offer a competitive compensation package

(Min - Max) $147,600.00 - $221,400.00

Pay Basis: Annual

Leadership Competencies

Our leadership philosophy is simple: every employee, regardless of level and role, can demonstrate leadership. At Aerospace, our commitment is our people. To cultivate our talent and ensure that we have a strong pipeline of future leaders, we want individuals who:

• Operate Strategically
• Lead Change
• Engage with Impact
• Foster Innovation
• Deliver Results

Ways We Reward Our Employees

During your interview process, our team will provide details of our industry-leading benefits. Benefits vary and are applicable based on Job Type. A few highlights include:

• Comprehensive health care and wellness plans
• Paid holidays, sick time, and vacation
• Standard and alternate work schedules, including telework options
• 401(k) Plan — Employees receive a total company-paid benefit of 8%, 10%, or 12% of eligible compensation based on years of service and matching contributions; employees are immediately eligible and vested in the plan upon hire
• Flexible spending accounts
• Variable pay program for exceptional contributions
• Relocation assistance
• Professional growth and development programs to help advance your career
• Education assistance programs
• An inclusive work environment built on teamwork, flexibility, and respect

Equal Opportunity Commitment The Aerospace Corporation is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, color, religion, genetic information, marital status, ancestry, national origin, protected veteran status, physical disability, medical condition, mental disability, or disability status and any other characteristic protected by state or federal law. If you’re an individual with a disability or a disabled veteran who needs assistance using our online job search and application tools or need reasonable accommodation to complete the job application process, please contact us by phone at 310.336.5432 or by email at [e-mail] . You can also review Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal.

Right Place The Aerospace Corporation has over 26 locations nationwide, which allows us to build a workforce that will nurture the best ideas, and generate the most novel innovations and solutions to our nation’s toughest space enterprise challenges.

Right Path Aerospace covers all stages of the space lifecycle, from concept to operations. We believe our people are our most valuable resource and that’s why we propel our employees forward in their careers through ongoing education, training, and professional development.

Right Purpose We can all serve a mission much greater than ourselves, and at Aerospace that is exactly what we do. By hiring the industry’s most preeminent scientists and engineers, Aerospace advances emerging technologies that protect some of the most critical missions on Earth and above it.

Aerospace employees working in organizations with technical responsibilities are required to obtain a Security Clearance. U.S. citizenship is required for those positions.