Application close date:
Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the requisition is closed.
This role is part of Blue Origin Operations, which is comprised of Integrated Supply Chain, Test Operations, Safety, Quality, and Mission Assurance. This includes Manufacturing and Supply Chain support across all Blue Origin facilities.
We are seeking a technically grounded business planning professional to support the planning, analysis, and execution management of lunar transportation and surface operations programs. This role sits at the intersection of systems engineering, program controls, and strategic business analysis - requiring equal fluency in vehicle hardware realities and financial/programmatic frameworks. The ideal candidate brings a mechanical engineering foundation, has operated within complex aerospace development programs, and can lead technical projects while translating scope into credible cost, schedule, and business cases - including long-range forecasting and performance metric analysis that inform annual and multi-year operational planning.
Key Responsibilities: Technical Project Leadership - Lead cross-functional technical projects from initiation through closeout, owning scope definition, schedule, resource planning, and delivery accountability
- Define and manage technical project baselines, including work breakdown structures (WBS), statement of work (SOW) boundaries, and acceptance criteria
- Drive technical decision-making by facilitating trade studies, design reviews, and engineering assessments - integrating cost and schedule implications into each decision
- Serve as the primary point of contact between engineering teams, program leadership, and customers for assigned technical project efforts
- Identify and resolve technical, programmatic, and resource conflicts that affect project execution, escalating to leadership with recommended solutions
- Lead development of technical project documentation including project plans, risk assessments, interface control documents, and closure reports
- Mentor junior team members on technical project execution practices and the integration of engineering rigor with program management discipline
Business Planning & Analysis - Develop and maintain bottoms-up cost estimates, basis of estimates (BOEs), and should-cost models for lunar vehicle production, NRE, and operations
- Translate engineering scope - including vehicle configurations, drawing counts, tooling requirements, and build flow assumptions - into structured cost and labor models
- Support proposal development, including assumption documentation, labor hour derivation, and cost narrative writing
- Conduct comparative analysis across program baselines, contract CLINs, and evolving vehicle configurations to identify cost drivers, gaps, and risks
- Build and maintain assumption sets and traceability matrices that link technical decisions to business impact
Cost & Schedule Metric Analysis - Develop, maintain, and analyze cost and schedule performance metrics - including Earned Value Management (EVM) indices (CPI, SPI, TCPI) - to assess program health and forecast completion
- Build and maintain annual and multi-year cost forecasts, integrating actuals, commitments, and estimate-at-completion (EAC) projections across lunar program workstreams
- Establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) for production throughput, labor efficiency, NRE burn rate, and schedule adherence across vehicle build campaigns
- Identify unfavorable cost or schedule trends early and develop variance analysis narratives that clearly communicate root cause and corrective action to program leadership
- Support integrated baseline reviews (IBRs), annual operating plan (AOP) cycles, and long-range planning (LRP) processes with data-driven inputs and scenario modeling
- Develop multi-year resource-loaded schedules that link workforce plans, production rates, and facility utilization to financial forecasts
- Maintain rolling forecast models that reflect changing vehicle configurations, contract modifications, and program priorities - ensuring planning assumptions remain current and defensible
Program Management Support - Track program status across hardware, NRE, and operational workstreams; maintain integrated schedules and identify critical path risks
- Support milestone planning, gate reviews, and customer reporting deliverables
- Manage action item tracking, risk registers, and issue resolution across cross-functional teams
- Coordinate between engineering, manufacturing, finance, and contracts to ensure alignment on scope, cost, and schedule baselines
- Support contract management activities including CLIN structure analysis, scope change documentation, and should-cost benchmarking
Technical Liaison & Systems Understanding - Apply mechanical engineering knowledge to assess feasibility and cost realism of production and assembly assumptions (e.g., tooling requirements, build flow constraints, structural test article scope)
- Engage directly with engineering teams to understand vehicle maturity, drawing release status, and configuration changes - and reflect these in planning models and forecasts
- Review and interpret engineering documentation, assembly flows, and design-to-cost trade studies to inform business planning inputs
- Support facility and production capacity planning, including assessment of assembly constraints (e.g., processing facility utilization, shift structures, tooling sets)
- Translate hardware technical progress and production metrics into financial performance indicators for leadership reporting
Required Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or closely related technical discipline
- 7+ years of experience in aerospace or defense programs spanning engineering, program management, or business operations roles
- Demonstrated experience leading technical projects end-to-end, including scope, schedule, resource, and stakeholder management in a cross-functional environment
- Demonstrated experience developing cost estimates or BOEs for complex hardware development or production programs
- Experience developing and analyzing cost and schedule performance metrics, including EVM, variance analysis, and multi-year forecasting
- Strong proficiency in Excel-based modeling; experience with program planning tools (e.g., MS Project, Deltek, or equivalent)
- Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, assembly documentation, and program schedules
- Experience supporting proposals, contract deliverables, annual operating plans, or customer-facing program reviews
Preferred Qualifications - Experience in space launch, lunar, or human spaceflight programs
- Familiarity with production learning curve methodology, touch labor modeling, and NRE estimation frameworks
- Experience supporting Integrated Baseline Reviews (IBRs) or formal EVM reporting on government contracts
- Exposure to contract types and structures common to NASA or civil space programs (e.g., CPFF, FFP, IDIQ)
- Experience developing long-range plans (LRPs) or multi-year resource-loaded forecasts in a production or development environment
- Experience leading technical teams or projects in a matrixed organization without direct line authority
- PMI PMP certification, INCOSE CSEP, or equivalent program management or systems engineering credential
- Experience working across engineering and finance organizations in a matrixed environment
What Sets This Role ApartThis is not a pure finance role, a pure engineering role, or a pure PM role. Success requires someone who can lead a technical project, walk a production floor, understand what it costs to build a piece of flight hardware, and then articulate that story clearly to program leadership and customers - both in the near term and across a multi-year horizon. The work directly supports planning, performance tracking, and forecasting for lunar surface access missions, one of the most technically and programmatically complex endeavors in the current aerospace landscape.
Benefits- Benefits include: Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability, 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%, and an Education Support Program.
- Stock Options for all regular employees (working at least 20 hours/week)
- Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.
- Dependent on role type and job level, employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on the company's intent to reward individual contributions and enable them to share in the company's results, or other factors at the company's sole discretion. Bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed and subject to change and cancellation. Please check with your recruiter for more details.
