Description:

What is the mission?

Lockheed Space succeeds when every program hits its schedule, cost and critical path targets. To stay competitive and meet the urgent and evolving demands of our customers, we must tighten operational efficiency, adopt the most effective tools and processes and operate at speed. As a member of the Enterprise Process Optimization team, you will work shoulder-to-shoulder with cross-functional engineers, business partners and customers, applying innovative thinking to streamline work, eliminate waste and deliver mission-critical solutions on-time and on-budget. By doing so you will help sustain our momentum, grow our bottom line and create many more reasons for the organization, and you, to celebrate.

What does this role look like?

Enterprise Process Optimization (EPO) partners with the lines of business and multi-functional organizations to improve cost, schedule, quality and risk across the entire product lifecycle. Process Optimization Engineer is responsible for analyzing, optimizing and improving processes across the organization. This role requires a deep understanding of LM’s business, operations & technical processes, including impacts of customer requirements.

The ideal candidate has technical experience on project teams, project management & systems engineering fundamentals, a strong analytical mindset & excellent communication skills. Project engineer will act as an independent entity & collaborate with cross functional teams to drive measurable process improvements as a dedicated change agent. While primary focus area will be assigned during the first 6-12 months, the position is purpose built for flexibility; candidates must be comfortable rotating to other domains as business priorities shift & work closely with the other EPO team members.

In this role you will have the following daily key responsibilities:

1. Define scope & baseline: Establish the breadth of factors that impact rapid delivery, catalog existing initiatives, evaluate historical program metrics and create a minimum viable or zero-base execution model that serves as the foundation for improvement work

2. Assess tools & barriers: Examine current toolsets and process approaches, pinpoint performance bottlenecks and outline opportunities for standardization as well as tailored solutions where needed. Partner with Enterprise stakeholders for 1LMX/MBE toolset adoption and drive ‘right-sized’ solutions

3. Stakeholder alignment: Identify and engage key stakeholders across the Enterprise to gather requirements, secure buy in & maintain a common view of objectives

4. Evaluate existing Command Media: Review internal processes, policies, standards and handbooks to uncover opportunities to reduce scope, increase speed, tailor guidelines and adopt alternate compliance strategies

5. Customer requirements evaluation: Analyze customer technical, SOW and regulatory requirements; identify the strongest contributors to extra work or scope creep; and recommend realistic, risk based trade offs or push backs with the customer & internal program teams

6. Develop and maintain metrics: in partnership with the Enterprise Performance organization, establish schedule performance measures that reflect process health, work jointly to design, build, and publish the associated dashboards and source of truth repositories, and continuously validate and refine the metrics to keep pace with evolving business needs.

7. Prioritize opportunities: Highlight high‑impact “big rocks” and low‑hanging‑fruit quick wins; perform cost‑trade analyses to justify selected initiatives.

8. Plan, advocate, execute: Create detailed implementation plans, build advocacy and leadership support, engage support to prototype and implement proposed changes, drive socialization and formal approval, and execute changes.
Basic Qualifications:

To be effective, you will need to possess these basic qualifications:

➥ Bachelor's degree from an accredited college, or equivalent experience/combined education

➥ 10+ years of experience in a technical project role using process tools, contributing to product development, systems engineering, or project management supporting complex and cross-functional aerospace/defense programs.

➥ You will need to be a US Citizen, and be able to obtain and maintain a US TOP SECRET clearance, to support this government contract, as well as successfully pass a drug and background check, in order to meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.

Please note:

No clearance is required to apply, nor prior to start.
Desired Skills:

To be effective, ideally, you should also have:

We value breadth of experience; candidates who excel in several of the areas below will help us create a well‑rounded EPO team, even if they don’t possess every skill.

➥ Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, or other engineering field.

➥ Master’s degree in engineering or business.

➥ Project management foundations: demonstrated ability to develop detailed implementation plans, schedules, and risk‑mitigation strategies.

➥ Systems engineering fundamentals: experience with requirements management, technical baseline management, design and analysis cycles, test and verification, and lifecycle‑phase transitions (pre‑CDR to post‑CDR).

➥ Customer requirements experience: direct exposure to analyzing customer SOWs, technical specifications, and regulatory constraints; skill at identifying scope‑creep drivers and negotiating realistic trade‑offs.

➥ Change leadership capability: skilled at communicating vision, addressing resistance, and rallying cross-functional teams.

➥ Command Media implementation: experience applying command media or customer/industry standards to projects, including requirements and compliance strategies.

➥ Metrics & dashboard development: experience developing useful cost, schedule and risk metrics; comfortable presenting results to executive leadership.

➥ Influence & collaboration: demonstrated success building consensus across lines of business and technical disciplines.

➥ Technical acumen: familiarity with business tools (e.g., MS Project, Open Plan, SAP, Atlassian suite, Tableau), CAD tools (Creo, SolidWorks), systems engineering platforms (DOORS, Cameo, IBM Rhapsody), or modeling and simulation environments.

➥ Continuous‑improvement mindset: exposure to Agile Lean, Six‑Sigma, or other data‑driven improvement methodologies (formal certification not required) with an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses.

➥ AI/ML adoption experience: evaluating, piloting, and scaling AI‑driven solutions to accelerate process‑improvement initiatives.

➥ Technology‑adoption mindset: building business cases for emerging tools while managing risk and compliance.

➥ Ability to balance self-directed work with effective collaboration within the EPO team and with external stakeholders.

➥ Strong analytical mindset with the ability to collect, model, and interpret data to drive decisions.

➥ Familiarity with Lockheed Martin’s enterprise tools and processes.

➥ Proven ability to influence and lead teams without authority, influence senior leaders, and build relationships across organizational and stakeholder lines.

➥ Proactive root cause focus: demonstrated initiative to investigate and resolve the underlying causes of process slowness or inefficiency.

➥ Demonstrated exceptional strategic communication skills, including written, verbal, and presentation, to effectively communicate business cases to all levels of peers, suppliers, and stakeholders, as well as program executives, with an ability to persuade and motivate action.
Security Clearance Statement: This position requires a government security clearance, you must be a US Citizen for consideration.
Clearance Level: Top Secret
Other Important Information You Should Know
Expression of Interest: By applying to this job, you are expressing interest in this position and could be considered for other career opportunities where similar skills and requirements have been identified as a match. Should this match be identified you may be contacted for this and future openings.
Ability to Work Remotely: Onsite Full-time: The work associated with this position will be performed onsite at a designated Lockheed Martin facility.
Work Schedules: Lockheed Martin supports a variety of alternate work schedules that provide additional flexibility to our employees. Schedules range from standard 40 hours over a five day work week while others may be condensed. These condensed schedules provide employees with additional time away from the office and are in addition to our Paid Time off benefits.
Schedule for this Position: 9x80 every other Friday off
Pay Rate: The annual base salary range for this position in California, Massachusetts, and New York (excluding most major metropolitan areas), Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, Washington or Washington DC is $122,900 - $216,660. For states not referenced above, the salary range for this position will reflect the candidate’s final work location. Please note that the salary information is a general guideline only. Lockheed Martin considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/ training, key skills as well as market and business considerations when extending an offer.
Benefits offered: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, 401(k) match, Flexible Spending Accounts, EAP, Education Assistance, Parental Leave, Paid time off, and Holidays.
(Washington state applicants only) Non-represented full-time employees: accrue at least 10 hours per month of Paid Time Off (PTO) to be used for incidental absences and other reasons; receive at least 90 hours for holidays. Represented full time employees accrue 6.67 hours of Vacation per month; accrue up to 52 hours of sick leave annually; receive at least 96 hours for holidays. PTO, Vacation, sick leave, and holiday hours are prorated based on start date during the calendar year.
This position is incentive plan eligible.
Lockheed Martin is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified candidates will be considered without regard to legally protected characteristics.
The application window will close in 90 days; applicants are encouraged to apply within 5 - 30 days of the requisition posting date in order to receive optimal consideration.
At Lockheed Martin, we use our passion for purposeful innovation to help keep people safe and solve the world's most complex challenges. Our people are some of the greatest minds in the industry and truly make Lockheed Martin a great place to work.

With our employees as our priority, we provide diverse career opportunities designed to propel, develop, and boost agility. Our flexible schedules, competitive pay, and comprehensive benefits enable our employees to live a healthy, fulfilling life at and outside of work. We place an emphasis on empowering our employees by fostering an inclusive environment built upon integrity and corporate responsibility.

If this sounds like a culture you connect with, you’re invited to apply for this role. Or, if you are unsure whether your experience aligns with the requirements of this position, we encourage you to search on Lockheed Martin Jobs, and apply for roles that align with your qualifications.
Experience Level: Experienced Professional
Business Unit: SPACE
Relocation Available: Possible
Career Area: Systems Engineering: Other
Type: Full-Time
Shift: First