CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: Top Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10 of the TimeDescription

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact peoples lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nations history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, theyre making history.

Northrop Grumman’s Space Sector is seeking a Mission Assurance Manager – Level 2 to join our team in Baltimore, MD. This position is 100 onsite and cannot accommodate telecommute work.

The mission Assurance Manager 2 ( S&MA – ITL) leads Safety & Mission Assurance activities supporting space systems, integration, test, and launch operations. This role ensures flight hardware integrity, payload readiness, full pedigree traceability, and compliance with customers and regulatory requirements. The position requires strong technical judgement, real-time risk management, and direct engagement with test and launch operations to ensure mission success.  This position is in Baltimore, MD and reports to the Eastern Region Senior Manager, Integration, Test & Launch Quality .

This position will work a 9/80 schedule, with every other Friday off.

In this job you will:

• Be accountable for meeting or exceeding the Safety, Quality, Employee, Delivery and Cost expectations for internal and external customers within Space Systems Quality ITL .

• Lead S&MA activities across Integration, Test and Launch site processing and operations

• Ensure compliance with customer requirements ( NSA, DoD, DCMA), Program S&MA and safety requirements

• Drive mission success criteria, ensuring zero-defect escape for flight hardware

• Provide mission assurance oversight for: Payload integration activities and ensure payload hardware meets environmental, electrical, and mechanical requirements

• Manage staffing needs to support existing and forecasted program schedules within Space Systems ITL Quality Team.

• Ensure all hardware meets design requirements and workmanship standards, Test acceptance criteria

• Support and approve Test Readiness Reviews, Launch Readiness Reviews, Ship Readiness Reviews

• Establish strong presence on test and integration floor

• Partner with Tests, Systems engineering, and manufacturing teams

• Ensure compliance to work instructions, Test procedures, and inspection criteria

• Drive immediate containment and resolution of issues during test executions

• Lead nonconformance management for ITL hardware

• Drive timely and technically sound RCCA investigations: Lead team to investigate and initiate corrective action to ensure product quality

• Resolve quality issues that arise during the build process to ensure all parts conform to the design configuration

• Evaluate and communication hardware risk, process deviations, Test anomalies

• Support risk boards, FRACAS, and anomaly resolutions teams

• Intense focus and ownership of employee development, conflict resolution, performance management, and technical training for staff.

• Manage staffing and shift coverage

• Accountable for maintenance of site-specific manufacturing standard operating procedures, work instructions, forms, instructions/procedures and annual reviews/audits.

• Support tracking of department budgets that include non-labor and overhead, and key milestones associated with Manufacturing and program initiatives.

• Ability to formulate, communicate, and execute complex project plans and initiatives.

• Create and demonstrate an environment of trust and transparency.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree  in STEM field with 8 years of professional experience – OR – Master’s degree with 6 years of professional experience.  

• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government DoD Top-Secret security clearance

• Minimum of 6 years of relevant, direct experience with people or project leadership in manufacturing/production, operations, or engineering.

• Experience working in a Manufacturing Execution System (MES)

• Experience with Root Cause and Corrective Action Analysis, Risk Management, Quality Management Systems (AS9100) and DoD contractive activities

• Familiar with APQP, PPAP, AS9145 concepts and principles

• Strong communication skills, forward thinking, adaptable, ability to drive process improvements and decisive decision-making ability

• Proficient use of MS Office (Word, Excel & PowerPoint)

• Experience with data analysis and utilizing SPC techniques.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with engineering staff, support personnel, functional management, and related groups.

• Excellent presentation skills with the ability to effectively communicate with all levels of leadership.

• Ability to formulate, communicate, and execute complex project plans and initiatives.

• Excellent interpersonal and critical thinking skills.

• Commitment to positive employee relations, ethics, and compliance.

 Preferred Qualifications:  

• Experience with new product introduction into a manufacturing environment. Able to transform a product concept into a fully developed, manufacturable, and launchable product and associated processes.

• 6 years of experience in a quality and mission assurance leadership role

• Familiarity with First Article Inspection ( FAI) procedures, AS9102, AS6500

• Lean/Six sigma Black Belt certification

• PFMEA/APQP/PPAP experience

• Familiarity with SAP including Quality transactions

• Experience working with DCMA/NASA

• Familiarity with DoD and/ or Aerospace quality requirements

• Familiarity with CostPoint: MRP/ ERP system experience/SAP

• Ability to strengthen workforce skills in LEAN/Continuous Improvement experience and root cause problem solving.

• Aerospace or defense product experience

• Strong business and financial acumen, including capital and talent budgeting and estimate-at-completion (EAC) and Operations Review process understanding.

As a leader with integrity, you ensure ethical conduct, balanced results, and partner satisfaction. You respect and nurture growth, fostering a culture of excellence. Skilled in building collaborative teams and customer trust, you communicate well, foster strong teams, and embrace change.  

Curious about all the exciting developments with the Northrop Grumman Space Sector? Click the link below:

https://www.northropgrumman.com/space

Working at Northrop Grumman is more than just a paycheck. We offer a comprehensive Total Rewards and benefits package designed to help you thrive at work and in life. For more information on our Total Rewards package, please visit our Total Rewards site.

Northrop Grumman Total Rewards 

Primary Level Salary Range: $139,800.00 - $209,800.00

The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidates experience, education, skills and current spanet conditions.

Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.

Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO and pay transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.