The Manager, Chemical & Propellent is a key technical leadership role within PacSci EMC. The manager provides leadership to a team of chemists, chemical operations technicians, and energetic materials machinists responsible for the safe processing of energetic materials required to support production deliverables and new product development efforts. These processes range from blending of materials to chemical synthesis of explosives. The manager is responsible for teaming with various departments in the development of proposals and execution of active deliverables for the organization. 

Essential Functions and Responsibilities: 

(this is not an all-inclusive list of duties, responsibilities, and tasks) 

Responsible for the overall safety for powder processing operations including Process Safety Management and Process Hazard Analyses. Maintain accurate BATF explosive inventory records and magazine storage and maintenance in accordance with DOD regulatory requirements. Ensure delivery systems for energetics meet the factory’s needs as well as comply with all DOT/DOD/BATF regulations. Develop and maintain quality documentation for all energetic products and their constituents, both produced and purchased.  Maintain on time delivery of energetic material to all the manufacturing assembly operations.  Create/maintain all necessary process documentation for the material produced in powder processing operations.  Ensure all required personnel training is up to date and training records updated.   Maintain and develop powder processing staff. Provide active involvement in direct reports performance reviews: establishing annual performance objectives in alignment with company business initiatives, as well as facilitating personnel development for necessary technical competencies and active involvement in their development plans for career growth.  Provide guidance and leadership for powder processing input into new business proposals in accordance with our company Bid and Proposal process. Ensure we have clear understanding of the customer requirements and provide guidance to ensure our technical approach properly responds to these requirements and appropriately documented.  Provide direction for powder processing resource allocation to support factory operations and growth programs (research and new product development efforts).  Drives process discipline, creativity, and strong cross-functional collaboration to assist in resolving issues with current production programs through active participation on production team reviews, failure analysis and technical meetings. In addition, participate in design-related tasks in support of cost reduction projects related to existing released production products (VAVE projects). Coaches’ behaviors and actions that promote the company’s continuous improvement culture. Personally, utilizes continuous improvement tools and provides visible leadership and support of our continuous improvement culture.  Proactively support establishment of KPI’s for the powder processing team that align with company level annual targets, associated business initiatives, and identified improvement initiatives. Build strong cadence with our operations through effective use of Daily Management and associated metrics.  Ensure personnel are kept informed of conditions, trends, and important activities affecting powder processing staff members.  Foster good working relationships within the powder processing group, across other functional disciplines and with our external customers.  Provide powder and propellant expertise to failure investigations. Key customer interface for powder and propellant discussions for failure investigations and proposal activity. Collaboration with IPT as SME for resolving powder constituent obsolescence issues.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: 

Possess sound engineering and problem-solving skills, excellent communication and strong interpersonal skills promoting effective interaction with customers, engineering staff, peers and senior leadership. Has a passion to lead by engaging and promoting input from others to resolve key issues and formulating key decisions.  Demonstrated proficiency in higher level of empirical (Design of Experiments, FMEA, MSA, etc.) and analytical approaches to quantitatively understand parameter effects on key response variables.   Ability to provide verbal and written communication in a clear and understandable manner. Experience developing plans for safe teardown and evaluation of energetic devices is a plus. Manage powder blending and production control associate's in support of production and NPD programs. Responsible for creating and maintaining procedures in support of safe execution of all department activities. Manage energetic/propellant machine shop in support of production and NPD programs. Responsible for creating and maintaining procedures in support of safe execution of all department activities. Manage chemists (analytical and R&D) in support of production and NPD programs. Responsible for succession planning of experienced associates to drive future success. Experience utilizing ERP systems. Experience interpreting results from SEM, FTIR, DSC, HPLC and other analytical process control lab data. Strong understanding of oxidation-reduction reactions

Education and Experience: 

BS in Chemical Engineering or Chemistry or other closely related discipline, MS preferred. Proficient in MS Office applications, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.  Strong working knowledge of Access, Visio and MS Project preferred. 5+ years chemical/energetics operations management experience 

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