Portfolio Director, Missile Defense Agency Programs

Overview

Portfolio Director, Missile Defense Agency Programs

LOCATION: Huntsville, AL

JOB STATUS: Full-time

CLEARANCE: Active Top Secret + SCI Eligibility

CERTIFICATION: N/A

TRAVEL: Up to 25% (regular travel to customer, partner, and program locations)

Astrion has an exciting opportunity for a Portfolio Director . The Portfolio Director provides senior-level leadership and business growth for a portfolio of technical programs supporting the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and associated government customers. The position is accountable for the integrated technical, schedule, cost, staffing, quality, risk, customer, and growth performance of major programs or multiple related programs. Working within contract requirements, company policies, and applicable government regulations, the Portfolio Director leads program and project managers, aligns technical and business execution, and maintains a clear line of sight from customer outcomes to delivery performance and sustainable growth.

The role serves as a senior interface with government stakeholders, contract representatives, teammates, subcontractors, industry partners, and internal leadership. The Portfolio Director develops and executes the portfolio growth strategy, maintains trusted customer relationships, shapes demand and acquisition opportunities, supports capture and proposal activities, and makes informed recommendations on priorities, resources, investments, and corrective actions. This is a leadership position with responsibility for developing personnel and applying entrepreneurial judgment to complex matters that may affect the directorate, customer mission, and company operations.

The Portfolio Director is expected to operate with initiative and an enterprise mindset, identify opportunities before solicitations are fully formed, and bring forward clear recommendations supported by customer evidence, mission relevance, competitive assessment, solution maturity, and business case. Pursuit decisions, pricing, resource commitments, and other corporate approvals remain subject to applicable Astrion governance and the Bid Approval Process.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS / SKILLS

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, science, business, program management, or a related discipline and 12 or more years of relevant experience; or a Master's degree and 10 or more years of relevant experience.
• At least 6 years of experience in management capacity, including responsibility for experienced professional staff and/or subordinate program or project managers.
• Demonstrated experience leading major technical programs or multiple related programs in a government contracting environment, with accountability for performance across technical, schedule, cost, staffing, risk, and customer dimensions.
• Demonstrated experience developing or executing a growth strategy, building senior customer relationships, and converting customer insight into qualified opportunities, capture plans, proposals, or follow-on work.
• Experience interpreting and executing contract requirements, managing customer commitments, preparing program performance reports, and supporting contract reviews or equivalent governance activities.
• Experience developing staffing plans, budgets or financial forecasts, integrated schedules, risk and issue plans, and corrective-action strategies for complex programs.
• Strong written, verbal, briefing, negotiation, and executive-level communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex program information to government and company leadership.
• Working knowledge of federal acquisition and business-development practices, including FAR and DFARS environments, contract vehicles, task orders, recompetes, proposal development, pricing coordination, and capture governance.
• Ability to work collaboratively across technical and business functions, exercise sound judgment, protect sensitive information, and make timely decisions in an environment with competing priorities.
• Ability to obtain and maintain any security clearance, access authorization, or customer-specific eligibility required by the assigned contract, if applicable.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS / SKILLS

• Experience supporting MDA, Department of Defense acquisition, integrated air and missile defense, missile defense systems, command and control, testing, modeling and simulation, or related mission areas.
• Experience managing a portfolio with multiple contracts, task orders, subcontractors, geographically distributed teams, or matrixed technical organizations.
• Advanced degree in engineering, science, business, systems engineering, or a related field.
• Program management certification such as PMP, DAWIA, or an equivalent credential, when relevant to the assigned work and contract requirements.
• Experience with earned value management, program management reviews, technical interchange meetings, integrated baseline reviews, milestone reviews, or similar government program-control practices.
• Experience leading proposal, capture, recompete, or customer-growth activities in the federal government market, preferably within missile defense or another complex national security mission area.
• Established customer or industry relationships across MDA, Department of Defense acquisition organizations, prime contractors, OEMs, and mission partners.
• Experience developing reusable, solution-led offerings and moving a business toward outcome-based work, repeatable delivery, and scalable growth.
• Experience working with classified or otherwise controlled program information in accordance with applicable security and information-protection requirements.

RESPONSIBILITES

• Build and maintain senior customer relationships across MDA, relevant program executive offices and program management offices, Department of Defense stakeholders, mission partners, and other organizations relevant to missile defense operations.
• Own and execute the MDA portfolio growth strategy, setting priorities, target customers, market approaches, measurable objectives, and investment recommendations in coordination with Astrion leadership and the Growth organization.
• Lead the successful execution of a portfolio of MDA-related programs, ensuring technical, contractual, schedule, cost, staffing, quality, and customer objectives are understood, integrated, and achieved.
• Provide direction through subordinate program and project managers and technical leads; establish priorities, decision rights, staffing plans, labor mix, and performance expectations across the portfolio.
• Serve as a senior company representative to government customers and contract stakeholders; establish trusted working relationships, communicate status and risks, and ensure commitments are understood and met.
• Engage early with customers and partners to understand operational needs, acquisition plans, funding, decision makers, incumbent positions, mission priorities, and timing; shape requirements and acquisition strategies through ethical, compliant customer engagement.
• Make evidence-based recommendations on whether Astrion should prime, subcontract, form a team, invest, defer, or decline an opportunity; execute approved pursuit decisions through the applicable Bid Approval Process.
• Develop differentiated, executable, and scalable solutions that connect Astrion's technical, engineering, test, logistics, digital, training, and program-management capabilities to customer mission outcomes and measurable value.
• Develop strategic relationships with prime contractors, OEMs, nontraditional firms, universities, and specialist mission partners to close capability gaps, strengthen teaming positions, and expand access to relevant contract vehicles and opportunities.
• Coordinate with Growth, contracts, pricing, finance, recruiting, technical leaders, operations, and proposal teams to ensure pursuits are customer-centered, executable, properly resourced, compliant, and financially sound.
• Prioritize and maintain the pipeline using customer access, mission fit, funding and timing, solution maturity, competitive position, probability of win, expected value, and strategic relevance; provide leadership with candid, data-supported assessments.
• Represent Astrion in customer, industry, partner, and professional engagements and communicate the portfolio's mission value, differentiated capabilities, delivery record, and growth priorities.
• Translate contract requirements, statements of work, technical baselines, and customer priorities into executable portfolio plans, operating rhythms, and measurable performance outcomes.
• Monitor contract, subcontract, funding, and resource status; develop forecasts of program financial performance; review variances; and direct corrective actions when performance trends require intervention.
• Oversee integrated program planning, including schedules, milestones, dependencies, staffing, deliverables, technical reviews, and readiness for customer and internal decision points.
• Establish and maintain portfolio-level risk, issue, opportunity, and change-management processes; ensure timely escalation and disciplined resolution of matters affecting mission, cost, schedule, or technical performance.
• Ensure required program and financial reports, briefings, metrics, deliverables, and contract reviews are accurate, timely, and aligned with customer expectations and applicable contract terms.
• Lead quality assurance, mission assurance, and continuous improvement activities appropriate to the portfolio; promote repeatable processes, lessons learned, and compliance with approved organizational and program procedures.
• Coordinate with engineering, operations, contracts, finance, security, human resources, pricing, business development, and other functional organizations to resolve cross-functional issues and sustain execution.
• Support capture and new-business activities by shaping customer solutions, leading or supporting major proposals, identifying follow-on opportunities, and coordinating with pricing and contracts personnel as required.
• Partner with program and delivery leaders to protect customer trust, identify emerging needs, capture follow-on work, and translate successful performance, past performance, and customer outcomes into proof points and new opportunities.
• Identify gaps in capabilities, past performance, workforce, clearances, facilities, tools, partners, or contract access that constrain growth; recommend practical actions and investment cases to address them.
• Recruit, select, develop, mentor, and retain high-performing program and technical personnel; conduct performance and salary reviews in accordance with company policy and applicable employment requirements.
• Provide clear technical and programmatic direction while maintaining appropriate separation of duties, protection of controlled information, and compliance with government and company security requirements.
• Perform other duties consistent with the position's scope and business needs.