Director, Contract Administration - Defense Programs

Job Title: Director, Contract Administration - Defense Programs Job ID: 6663 Job Location: Huntsville, AL Job Schedule: 9/80 – 9 hours Monday – Thursday, 8 hours every other Friday Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies Company, is seeking a Director of Contracts – Defense Programs, this role will manage the cross-functional contracts organization at the enterprise level in the development of overall strategies for defense proposal development, source selection, negotiations, terminations, contract closeout and extensions for the business to ensure proper acquisition and fulfillment of contracts in accordance with obligations, specifications and legal requirements.
With a focus on strengthening our best practices regarding contracts and business transactions to reduce exposure to poor contracts, provisions and arrangements, and overall more achievable and profitable contract baselines.
This position will be located at our growing Huntsville, Alabama facility.
Essential Functions Lead the assigned contracts team in supporting the company financial objectives concerning Bookings (awards and funding) and cash flow.
This goal includes providing leadership in proposal development, reviewing and negotiating terms and conditions to protect AR interests, negotiating favorable contract finance terms and pricing, and securing timely awards to support company Annual Operating Plan and Forecasts.
Provide oversight to the contract closeout processes in Defense contracting team to reduce of the backlog of contracts to close.
Establish a business rhythm of contract closeout such that for current active contracts the Contract Manager will close out the contract, when appropriate, before it goes into an overdue backlog condition.
Engage with other contract closeout stakeholders to drive closeout process efficiency, productivity and accountability.
Manage overhead budget performance to maximize Contract Administrator utilization and to meet annual budget and EAC targets.
Ensure standardization of contract baseline management, including uniform tracking of directed, constructive and absorbed contract changes.
Facilitate business velocity from point of change to contract funding.
Manage team performance in the Maestro ERP.
Ensure consistent data integrity and timely entry performance standards are met.
Understand and communicate the importance of Maestro data to AR financial reporting and SOX compliance.
Manage team’s annual inventory of Undefinitized Contract Actions (UCAs) to maintain population within management control limits.
Ensure UCAs are limited to mission critical situations and that UCAs are only accepted with terms consistent with the FAR and DFARS and which meet AR requirements.
Promote a leadership culture of both contracting compliance and continuous improvement.
Ensure that internal AR customer support and responsive contracting is balanced with compliance with AR Command Media, FAR and DFARS, and statutory requirements.
Provide resources to support and participate in a leadership role concerning at least 2 lean events to streamline contracting or other business processes.
This goal also includes support to other functions by reviewing processes and assisting the development of future states for implementation.
Lead team to support internal customers.
Align resources to meet customer requirements.
Focus on professional development of workforce to improve contracting competency.
Qualifications Requires a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration or a closely related field and fourteen (14) years of progressively responsible experience in contracts development and administration or a closely related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Master’s degree and professional contracting certification desired.
Additional Requirements: Ability to direct and control the overall organizational resources.
Demonstrated managerial level leadership.
Complete understanding of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and its agency supplements.