Vice President, Mission Assurance

Description

The Vice President of Mission Assurance is the senior-most executive accountable for the strategic and operational leadership of the Mission Assurance function across a $17B portfolio. This role owns the direction, execution, and continuous evolution of assurance practices that directly impact national security, multi‑billion dollar program performance, and the integrity of global corporate credentials.

Operating through a tiered leadership structure of Senior Directors and Directors, the VP sets the multi‑year strategy, resolves high‑consequence cross‑enterprise issues, and serves as the principal advocate to executive stakeholders for modern, risk‑based assurance models.

• Functional Ownership: Lead the strategic direction of the Mission Assurance function for the Leidos enterprise, ensuring absolute alignment between quality operations and long‑term corporate business objectives.
• Enterprise Strategy Translation: Convert corporate‑level growth and performance goals into executable assurance plans across diverse business sectors (e.g., Defense, Homeland, Intelligence).
• High‑Level Resource Optimization: Establish workforce strategies to ensure that the Leidos portfolio is supported by a technically elite and appropriately scaled assurance organization.
• Final Decision Authority: Serve as the executive authority for Mission Assurance matters affecting $1B+ programs, multi‑sector portfolios, and critical delivery milestones.
• High‑Consequence
  
  Risk Management:
  
  Lead initiatives with significant impact on corporate financial performance, delivery confidence, and the defensibility of corporate credentials.
• Strategic Trade Decisions: Address highly complex, ambiguous issues requiring expert judgment and enterprise‑level trade decisions between schedule, cost, and mission integrity.
• Enterprise Influence: Influence Sector Leadership, Growth Officers, and Program Management teams to adopt and fund modern assurance concepts and operating models.
• Strategic Stakeholder Engagement: Influence and manage the corporation's strategic interface with external certification bodies and government regulators ensuring that enterprise certifications (AS9100, CMMI, ISO) serve as a validated foundation for mission success.
• Executive Decision Forums: Lead briefings and forums involving the organization's most sensitive and high‑value program portfolios.
• Lifecycle Integrity: Ensure the assurance of critical engineering and program products that drive downstream cost and performance for the nation's most complex systems.
• Enterprise Governance: Oversee the governance of quality plans, global audit systems, and systematic corrective action frameworks.
• Systemic Resolution: Drive the resolution of difficult, multi‑year systemic issues that span multiple programs, global sites, or international customers.
• Global Credential Management: Maintain enterprise‑wide compliance and certification integrity for AS9100, ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 20000‑1, CMMI‑DEV, and CMMI‑SVC.
• Modernization of Compliance: Lead the digital transformation of compliance efficiency across the Leidos portfolio.
• Tiered Leadership Management: Direct an expansive Mission Assurance organization managed through a cadre of Senior Directors and Directorsli>
• Executive Talent Development: Exercise full hiring, promotion, and reward authority, focusing on building a pipeline of futureli>

• Tier‑1 Executive
  
  Experience:
  
  15+ years of experience in the Aerospace & Defense industry with a proven track record of managing a complex, global function within a $10B‑$20B+ environment.
• Proven Strategic Impact: Demonstrated success in leading strategy and operations with enterprise‑level impact on multi‑billion dollar programs.
• Influencing at the Highest Levels: Proven ability to influence Executive leadership and lead through extreme ambiguity and high‑stakes conflict.

• Large‑Scale Modernization: Experience modernizing legacy quality/assurance operating models within a Tier‑1 Defense Prime.
• Complex Program Support: Direct experience supporting "Program of Record" deliveries for major DOD or Intelligence Community customers.
• Se…