Description

Northrop Grumman’s Defense Systems is looking for a Director Mission Assurance 2 to lead the Quality and Mission Assurance organization for the Weapons Systems Division. This leadership role can be located at one of the following locations: Northridge, CA; Mesa, AZ; Plymouth, MN; Elkton, MD; or Rocket Center, WV. This role requires strong leadership, communication, and organizational skills to lead in a dynamic engineering and production environment. There is significant responsibility and visibility with executive leadership and the broad customer organization.  

The selected candidate will be responsible for the following: 

• Defines and monitors mission assurance program specifications and processes to ensure mission success of programs. Performs or assures quality, risk management, safety, reliability and maintainability of program achievements, subcontractors, and suppliers in accordance with contractual requirements. Assesses program performance and risks and determines resources to ensure mission assurance. 

• The on-time delivery of high-quality products and services that meet all contractual requirements and business objectives. 

• Driving the continuous improvement of people (to include training & development), products, processes, systems and services through the application of world class manufacturing to include innovative technologies, lean principles, six-sigma projects, and common best practices. 

• Develop, maintain, and ensure compliance with mission assurance programs, policies, processes, procedures and that the performance and quality of products/processes conform to established standards, specifications and agency guidelines. 

• Provide expertise and guidance in interpreting policies, regulatory and/or governmental regulations, and agency guidelines to assure compliance. 

• Providing leadership that fosters an inclusive, motivated and engaged work culture. 

• Support the development phase of programs by assuring engineering products and processes conform to internal and customer requirements. 

• Work directly with operating entities such as engineering and manufacturing to ensure that inspections, process control analyses and audits are conducted on a continuing basis to enforce requirements and compliance. 

• Ensuring the Quality/Mission Assurance, Manufacturing, and Engineering processes are consistent with industry capability maturity models and QMS standards (AS9100). 

• Provide direct oversight in all efforts related to factory accountability and foreign object elimination practices. 

• Review trend metrics and analyze misses in order to implement the appropriate improvements to improve performance. 

• Standardize and facilitate root cause / corrective action efforts to resolve quality issues. 

• Overseeing supplier quality management collaborating closely with multiple sites’ Quality & Mission Assurance and Global Supply Chain (GSC) leaders to provide strategic thought leadership and preventive solutions to ensure the quality of procured material and services. 

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree and 10 + years of related experience as defined below, OR a Master’s degree and 8 + years of related experience as defined below;
  • Related experience includes professional and/or military experience to include a background in aircraft, aerospace, manufacturing, quality, program management, engineering, and/or business management related functions
• A minimum of 5 years of experience as a leader, manager, or other team lead roles
• Active US Clearance (Secret or higher)

Preferred Qualifications:

• MS or MBA degree
• A minimum of 10 years of experience in Quality Assurance or Mission Assurance specific roles
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in metric development for process health and performance monitoring large programs/projects
• Extensive Leadership experience, preferably within the Aerospace and Defense industry
• Leadership experience in Production programs