Conifer, Colorado, United States
Nathan is a strategic engineering leader, with over 2 decades of experience directing and transforming high-growth, mission-critical organizations within the aerospace and defense sectors. He is focused on the convergence of systems-thinking, first-principles engineering, and proven executive acumen to deliver user-focused systems and manage $100M+ program portfolios. Nathan is driven by the immense potential that modern avionics, advanced automation, and AI are unlocking for everything that flies, including spacecraft! He specializes in balancing guiding through the engineering challenges of designing, implementing, and operating mission-critical aerospace systems while still achieving critical P&L targets and customer milestones. Nathan excels at building healthy, high-performance organizations, shaping technical solutions, driving cultural change, and creating lean processes to maximize return. Key examples include: * Strategic Business Alignment: Bridged business and technical objectives, leveraging P&L and EVM expertise for $100M+ while aligning strategy across 12+ government and industry partners, reducing churn and increasing contract value by $30M. * Clear Direction & Lean Organizations: Scaled and reshaped engineering organizations with high-ownership cultures that value quality, continuous testing, and rapid delivery cycles (4x increase in 1 year). * Iterative Execution & Risk Mitigation: Navigated ambiguity using spiral development and extensive aerospace experience to reduce technical uncertainty, championing alignment on spacecraft definition and pulling in a major product release by 18 months. * Pragmatic Process Innovation: Engineered lean, high-velocity workflows that worked for the team, not against them and directed use of AI and automated build/test pipelines to reduce build/test cycles by over 60x. Nathan previously served as Director of Software at Blue Origin where he oversaw key embedded software products, including the New Glenn Reusable Upper Stage and the Blue Ring spacecraft. Prior to this, he spent over 20 years at Lockheed Martin, where he held increasing engineering and leadership roles driving Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C), Modeling and Simulation (M&S), and Flight Software product areas across the lifecycle (proposal to on-orbit ops) for Hypersonic Systems and Class A Spacecraft. Nathan is actively seeking a Senior Director or VP role where he can apply his expertise in organizational scaling and strategic vision to expand the human experience through mission-driven space and defense technology.
• Directed the strategic vision and execution for key embedded software products, including the Blue Ring spacecraft and New Glenn Reusable Second Stage, securing cross-functional alignment. • Compressed a major product development by 18 months by navigating technical uncertainty and championing iterative development and rapid integration. • Transformed the build/test pipelines through a pragmatic AI/automation strategy, reducing cycle times by over 60x and increasing delivery cadence 4x.
• Orchestrated the strategic development of GN&C, Flight Software, and Hardware in the Loop/Software in the Loop (HIL/SIL) testbeds across a 60+ person organization, overseeing $100M+ in project scope for Strategic Missile Defense. • Drove organizational scaling, team development, and a high-ownership culture to manage long-range planning (5+ years) and secure an additional $30M in contract value through strategic negotiations. • Directed comprehensive risk/opportunity management and cross-agency coordination with over a dozen government agencies and commercial partners to ensure mission success, resulting in contract updates clarifying roles and critical deliveries.
Built deep technical expertise in Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C), Modeling & Simulation (M&S), and Flight Software across the full lifecycle (proposal to on-orbit operations) for Class A spacecraft.