Senior Director - New Glenn Upper Stage Fluids System (R40929)

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 diverse team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight!  

This role supports the development and operations of New Glenn, 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 direct and lead the Glenn Stage 2 fluids system in support of the New Glenn Stage II and Payload Accommodations (“GS2PA”) program. The candidate must have experience in the design, manufacturing and production of cryogenic and gaseous oxygen, cryogenic and gaseous hydrogen, helium, and hydrazine in-space systems. GS2PA must support affordable, reusable, low-cost access to space, and a rapid stage production capability is necessary to maintain the flight manifest.  

 

As Senior Director for the New Glenn Stage 2 Fluids System, you will report to the Vice President of GS2PA. You will be held accountable for on-time delivery of the fluids system design, development, testing, and production. The Senior Director will fully encompass every facet of program management, including cost, schedule, technical design, risk management, and working with Blue Origin internal organizations and external suppliers to deliver a verified fluids system. You will set the team's technical direction, requiring a broad application of advanced engineering principles, theories, and concepts and knowledge of other related disciplines. You will lead and develop the team by impacting all aspects of launch vehicle fluids system engineering. This position will directly affect the history of space exploration and requires your dedication and attention toward safe and reliable spaceflight.

 

Responsibilities: 

• Deliver the flight GS2 fluids system on time, within budget and meet system requirements.
• Meet and exceed aggressive schedule, cost and performance requirements.
• Plan and coordinate the resources necessary to successfully design, build, test, and certify the upper stage fluids system. 
• Lead the team in source selection for all fluid systems procured commodities, supplier selection and management.
• Manage the upper stage fluid system design and development through the entire lifecycle to include production.
• Establish, maintain and routinely report performance to plan on schedule, resources, cost, and technical performance metrics. 
• Identify, track, and mitigate risks to technical performance, cost and schedule.
• Lead the team to develop and document fluid system design to support operations, integration, manufacturing, and quality.
• Lead and develop the team through hiring, training, and mentoring while providing technical leadership.
• Meet recurring cost target and manage risk and opportunities to per flight cost requirement.
• Support commercial and government launch customer requests for information, proposals and alternate use cases.
• Establish, maintain, and report on team safety products, fault trees, reliability, component level failure mode assessments, and operational hazards.
• Develop project summary presentations and memos for executive review, internal team meetings, and support to the Blue Origin communications team.

 

 

Minimum Qualifications: 

• Passion for the Blue Origin mission and vision.
• B.S. in an aerospace, mechanical, or systems engineering-related field, with 15+ years of complex fluids system development experience.
• Highly organized leader with excellent technical written and verbal communication skills, demonstrated track record of resourcefulness, strong business and technical judgment, and bias for action.
• Successful experience in hiring and developing diverse, effective teams, resolving conflicts, and motivating personnel.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and have the ability to travel for program, customer, and supplier activities.
• Experience managing cross-functional teams during the design, procurement, and build cycles of aerospace vehicles.
• Program and technical leadership experience in aerospace development, with full lifecycle development expertise including design, manufacturing, integration, and testing.
• Project planning and successful execution to cost and schedule targets.
• Ability to earn trust, maintain positive and profes