Sr Manager, 7m Reusable Payload Fairing – New Glenn

Blue Origin Personnel, LLC; Washington; On-site; USD 184,000 - 257,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision care

Life insurance (basic & supplemental)

Parental leave

Disability coverage

401(k) with company match

Education Support Program

Stock options

Job summary

Blue Origin is seeking a Senior Manager to lead the 7m Reusable Payload Fairing (rPLF) program for New Glenn. You will guide a multidisciplinary team across composites, thermal protection, deceleration, and deployment systems, ensuring safe, on‑time, and cost‑effective flight hardware delivery.

You will own program cost, schedule, and technical performance in a fast-paced environment, drive manufacturability decisions, and stand up qualification campaigns and refurbishment processes while

Qualifications

• B.S. degree in engineering or another technical field is required.
• Managerial or Technical Team Lead experience of an engineering or program team, or equivalent.
• 10+ years of proven experience in hardware programs.
• Ownership of a hardware program through production transition.
• Experience with composite structures and layup, automated fiber placement or tape laying, core, and bonded or bolted joints.
• Experience leading qualification or structural test campaigns from planning through closure.
• Experience delivering hardware under hard cost constraints and defending a business case.

Responsibilities

• Lead a multidisciplinary team across composite structures, thermal protection, deceleration and deployment systems, avionics, and manufacturing engineering.
• Deliver flight hardware at launch cadence while controlling cost, schedule, and performance.
• Stand up inspection and refurbishment processes and defend program assumptions to executives.
• Partner with manufacturing, supply chain, recovery operations, launch operations, and systems engineering to meet vehicle delivery targets.

Skills

Program management

Hardware development

Composite structures

Leadership

Cost and schedule management

Strategic system thinking

Communication

Team-building

Travel readiness

Education

B.S. degree in engineering or technical field

Job description

Application close date: Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the requisition is closed. At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! This role supports the development and operations of NewGlenn, a single-configuration, heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle capable of routinely carrying people and payloads to low-Earth orbit, geostationary transfer orbit, cislunar, and beyond. Its first stage is fully reusable, and the vehicle was designed from the beginning to be human-capable. As part of a small, passionate, and accomplished team of experts, you will lead the 7m Reusable Payload Fairing (rPLF) program supporting NewGlenn second stage and Payload Accommodations. The Sr Manager will lead a multidisciplinary team across composite structures, thermal protection, deceleration and deployment systems, avionics, and manufacturing engineering to deliver flight hardware at launch cadence. As Sr Manager of the rPLF program you will be accountable for cost, schedule, team management and technical performance in a fast-paced development and production environment. Balancing rigor and speed is paramount in this role, as is a willingness to simplify. The successful candidate will drive design and manufacturability decisions to closure with imperfect data, lead qualification test campaigns, stand up inspection and refurbishment processes, and defend the program's cost, mass, and reuse-life assumptions to executive review. You will partner closely with manufacturing, supply chain, recovery operations, launch operations, and systems engineering.

Required Qualifications:

• B.S. degree in engineering or another technical field
• Managerial or Technical Team Lead of an engineering or program team or equivalent
• 10+ years of proven experience
• Demonstrated ownership of a hardware program through a production transition
• Experience with composite structures, including layup, automated fiber placement or tape laying, core, and bonded or bolted joints
• Experience leading qualification or structural test campaigns from planning through closure
• Experience delivering hardware under hard cost constraint, including defending a business case to executive review
• Experience driving design-for-manufacturability trades in partnership with a production organization
• Possess skills in strategic system thinking, excellent written and oral communication skills, proactive in moving program forward through team collaborations to achieve timely decisions, ability to earn trust, maintain positive and professional relationships, and contribute to a collaborative, inclusive culture
• Ability to develop project summary presentations and memos for executive review, internal team meetings, and support to the Blue Origin communications team
• Maintain and routinely report performance to plan on schedule, resources, cost, and technical performance metrics
• Work across business units and functional organizations within Blue Origin to meet vehicle delivery, including partnering with subsystems and supplier management to ensure hardware is on track
• Highly organized leader with excellent technical written and verbal communication skills with a demonstrated track record of resourcefulness, strong business and technical judgment and bias for action
• Successful experience in hiring and developing strong teams with diverse skill sets and a demonstrated ability to motivate and effectively organize teams and resolve conflict
• Dynamic leader with strong collaboration and team building skills
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, dynamic work environment and ability to travel in support of the program and customer activities
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum

Preferred Qualifications:

• Reusable flight hardware experience, including recovery, inspection, refurbishment, or life-limit determination on returned hardware
• Experience with nondestructive testing methods and strategy, including ultrasonic, infrared thermography, or computed tomography
• Experience standing up a manufacturing or inspection process or capability that did not previously exist
• Experience with water impact, landing loads, or recovery system qualification
• Launch vehicle payload accommodations or fairing experience
• Experience transitioning a program from an experimental or demonstrator phase into serial production
• Launch vehicle experience

Base Pay Range for: WA applicants is $183,807.00 - $257,328.75. Other site ranges may differ.

Export Control Regulations

Applicants for employment at Blue Origin must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e. current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Background Check Required for all positions:

Blue’s Standard Background Check Required for Certain Job Profiles: Defense Biometric Identification System (DBIDS) background check if at any time the role requires one to be on a military installation Required for Certain Job Profiles: Drivers who operate Commercial Motor Vehicles with a Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW), Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) or combination of power unit and trailer that meets or exceeds 10,001 lbs. and/or transports placardable amounts of hazardous materials by ground in any vehicle on a public road while in commerce, may be subject to additional Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations including: Driver Qualification Files, Medical Certification (obtained before onboarding), Road Test, Hours of Service, Drug and Alcohol Testing, vehicle inspection requirements, CDL requirements (if applicable) and hazardous materials transportation/shipping training. Required for certain Job Profiles: Ability to obtain and maintain Merchant Mariner Credential, which includes pre-employment and random drug testing as well as DOT physical.

Benefits

Benefits include:

• Medical
• dental
• vision
• basic and supplemental life insurance
• paid parental leave
• short and long-term disability
• 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%
• Education Support Program

Stock Options for all regular employees (working at least 20 hours/week)

Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.

Dependent on role type and job level, employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on the company's intent to reward individual contributions and enable them to share in the company's results, or other factors at the company's sole discretion. Bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed and subject to change and cancellation. Please check with your recruiter for more details.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Blue Origin is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and is committed to attracting, retaining, and developing a highly qualified and dedicated work force. Blue Origin hires and promotes people on the basis of their qualifications, performance, and abilities. We support the establishment and maintenance of a workplace that fosters trust, equality, and teamwork. We provide all qualified applicants for employment and employees with equal opportunities for hire, promotion, and other terms and conditions of employment, regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin/ethnicity, age, physical or mental disability, genetic factors, military/veteran status, or any other status or characteristic protected by federal, state, and/or local law. Blue Origin will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws, including the Washington Fair Chance Act, the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles Fair Chance in Hiring Ordinance, and other applicable laws. For more information on “Know Your Rights,” please see here.

Affirmative Action and Disability Accommodation Applicants wishing to receive information on Blue Origin’s affirmatively and etc. Please contact us at [e-mail]. Please note this is a publicly managed inbox. Please do not include any personal medical information in your request.

We’re committed to building the road to space so our children can build the future. We are a mission-driven company focused on ideas and innovation, and encourage fresh perspectives from bold voices. At Blue, our team is building the future as their unique selves.

Thank you for your interest in working at Blue Origin! Blue Origin was founded with a vision to enable a future where millions of people are living and working in space to benefit Earth. In order to preserve Earth, Blue Origin believes in the need to enable humanity to expand, explore, find new energy and material resources, and move industries that stress Earth into space. Blue Origin believes it has an important role in building a road to space and lowering the cost of getting there. At Blue Origin, we’re working on this today by developing fully reusable launch vehicles and systems that are safe, reliable and affordable. Every launch vehicle is designed for human spaceflight from the beginning and able to ferry payloads to space.

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