The Director, Business Development Operational Excellence serves as the operational deputy to the Corporate Vice President & Chief Global Business Development Officer (CVP), enabling execution of the organization’s strategic growth priorities through operational excellence, governance, and organizational effectiveness.
Working in close partnership with the CVP, this role translates strategy into execution by driving business operating rhythms, optimizing business development processes, strengthening cross-functional collaboration, and ensuring consistent execution across the Business Development organization. The Director serves as a trusted advisor, providing strategic insight, operational leadership, and executive-level coordination to support enterprise growth objectives.
This leader is responsible for fostering scalable, measurable, and data-driven business operations while promoting a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, and collaboration across a geographically dispersed organization. As the deputy to the CVP, the Director represents Business Development leadership in cross-functional forums, helps shape strategic priorities, and ensures alignment between enterprise initiatives and day-to-day execution.
Key Responsibilities
- Serve as the operational deputy and strategic thought partner to the Corporate Vice President & Chief Global Business Development Officer.
- Translate strategic priorities into executable operational plans and measurable business outcomes.
- Coordinate executive business rhythms, governance processes, and leadership operating cadence across the Business Development organization.
- Prepare executive-level analyses, recommendations, and briefing materials to support strategic decision-making.
- Act on behalf of the Corporate Vice President, as delegated, ensuring continuity of leadership, decision-making, and organizational execution.
- Represent the CVP in executive meetings and cross-functional initiatives, as appropriate.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives that simplify business development processes, improve execution, and eliminate operational inefficiencies utilizing Lean, Six Sigma, and other operational excellence methodologies.
- Establish and maintain standardized business development processes, governance models, and operating procedures that enable consistency and scalability.
- Drive adoption of automation, digital tools, and analytics to improve operational effectiveness and organizational performance.
- Develop and monitor performance metrics and dashboards to measure organizational effectiveness, capture health, business development productivity, and return on investment.
- Partner with Business Development leaders to strengthen opportunity management, capture execution, and Position-to-Win (PTW) processes throughout the Business Acquisition Process (BAP).
- Support competitive assessments, market analysis, customer engagement strategies, and resource prioritization to enable informed investment decisions.
- Oversee business development operational planning, resource allocation analyses, organizational reviews, and strategic planning activities.
- Ensure business development activities are executed in accordance with corporate policies, government regulations, and customer requirements.
- Partner across Global Supply Chain, Operations, Engineering, Program Management, Mission Assurance, Finance, Communications, and Risk Management to drive enterprise alignment and execution.
- Collaborate with sector and division Business Development teams to promote consistency, knowledge sharing, and enterprise best practices.
- Lead strategic initiatives that improve collaboration across the enterprise while supporting long-term growth objectives.
- Foster a high-performing, inclusive culture centered on collaboration, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Coach and develop leaders while strengthening organizational capability and operational maturity.
- Champion employee engagement and organizational effectiveness across geographically dispersed teams.
Expertise Needed
- Bachelor’s degree with at least 15 years of progressive leadership experience in Business Development, Business Operations, Strategy, or a related discipline within the Aerospace & Defense industry.
- Demonstrated experience supporting senior executives and leading enterprise-wide operational initiatives.
- Extensive knowledge of Department of Defense acquisition, government contracting, and the Aerospace & Defense market.
- Experience driving operational excellence through Lean, Six Sigma, or similar continuous improvement methodologies.
- Exceptional executive communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
- Proven ability to influence across highly matrixed organizations and build strong cross-functional partnerships.
- Experience leading large-scale strategic initiatives and organizational transformation efforts.
- Strong analytical and business acumen with the ability to translate data into executive recommendations.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret Security Clearance.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree with at least 15 years of progressive leadership experience in Business Development, Business Operations, Strategy, or related discipline within Aerospace & Defense.
- Demonstrated experience supporting senior executives and leading enterprise-wide operational initiatives.
- Extensive knowledge of Department of Defense acquisition, government contracting, and the Aerospace & Defense market.
- Experience driving operational excellence through Lean, Six Sigma, or similar continuous improvement methodologies.
- Exceptional executive communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
- Proven ability to influence across highly matrixed organizations and build strong cross-functional partnerships.
- Experience leading large-scale strategic initiatives and organizational transformation efforts.
- Strong analytical and business acumen with the ability to translate data into executive recommendations.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret Security Clearance; U.S. Citizenship required for positions with clearance.
- Willingness and ability to travel up to 25% of the time.
Northrop Grumman Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Northrop Grumman and has not been reviewed or approved by Northrop Grumman.
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Retirement Support — 401(k) matching is considered strong, with additional defined-benefit coverage for certain cohorts and options like catch-up contributions. Retirement programs are repeatedly highlighted as a core strength of the total rewards.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — PTO, company-paid holidays, and compressed work schedules (such as 9/80) provide meaningful time away and flexibility. These scheduling options are cited as a major quality-of-life benefit across many locations.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave alongside caregiver leave, adoption assistance, and back-up care supports a range of family needs. These programs have been expanded recently, signaling continued investment in family support.
Northrop Grumman Insights
What We Do
We are a close-knit community of big thinkers collaborating to keep the world safe. Our passion, creativity and expertise bring next-level technology solutions to life in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, strike, space, and logistics and modernization for our customers around the globe. On the Northrop Grumman team, you’ll join our pursuit of excellence immersed in a dynamic culture of innovation and respect. Your unique perspective will help achieve our shared vision for the future of global security. Every step of the way, you'll be supported by world-class training, employee resource groups and a comprehensive benefits package that enables greater health and happiness for you and your family. Worldwide and across disciplines, we’re challenging what’s possible for technology to protect people and places from undersea to outer space and into cyberspace. And we see the impact of our performance every day. We are Northrop Grumman, and we work on what matters—now, you too can make a difference. Explore opportunities in engineering, IT, manufacturing, business management, cybersecurity and more with us. Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.








