Chief Operating Officer — Mission-Systems Portfolio

The mandate

The board has moved beyond diagnosis and is now committing resources to replacing fragmented delivery with one operating system in a listed aerospace, defence and mission-systems group. The immediate business arena is the mission-systems portfolio, where a multi-year order-book conversion has exposed choices that can no longer be deferred. The successful executive will inherit an organisation with real strengths, but also competing stakeholder expectations and investment cases that require firmer evidence.

The accountable perimeter is approximately USD 5,600 million across the aerospace & defence value chain. It includes several customer, product or delivery clusters and roughly 2,000 employees and material partners. These are deliberately rounded, composite ranges: they establish candidate scale without encoding a recognisable client footprint.

The board wants a Chief Operating Officer who can reduce a long list of activity to a small set of consequential choices. The seat must deliver a multi-year order-book conversion while protecting the capabilities that make the mission-systems portfolio valuable. Authority will cover resources, leadership appointments and operating standards within scope; enterprise trade-offs will go directly to the board sponsor.

The first year must finish with predictable service, productivity and end-to-end accountability. Success will require direct engagement with customers, employees, capital providers, regulators where relevant and critical partners across the United States. This is an operating mandate with board access, not a staff role that stops at recommendations.

Why this seat is open

This is a newly created Chief Operating Officer — Mission-Systems Portfolio seat approved as part of the next operating model; it is not an incumbent replacement. The board is running a planned 4–6 month search so the appointee can join ahead of the next capital and talent cycle. Current leaders retain their existing accountabilities until the mission-systems portfolio remit is formally activated. Confidentiality protects organisation design choices while the board compares external and adjacent-sector talent.

What you will own

• Set the value thesis for the mission-systems portfolio, translate it into no more than five priorities and stop activity that cannot support those priorities with evidence.
• Carry stewardship of approximately USD 5,600 million, including allocation, risk acceptance, forecast integrity and the quality of decisions taken at the operating review.
• Lead a perimeter of about 2,000 employees and partners, appointing a team with explicit decision rights and credible succession for every critical seat.
• Resolve a multi-year order-book conversion through named owners, dated milestones and escalation thresholds that make variance visible before a quarter or programme gate closes.
• Install one review linking commercial, customer, financial, people, technology and risk outcomes; eliminate reconciliations that disguise accountability.
• Sponsor the two or three capability investments that can materially change the trajectory, and close initiatives whose evidence does not justify continued funding.
• Build a three-year talent and succession plan for the mission-systems portfolio, reducing dependence on individual executives and creating mobility across the wider Aerospace & Defence group.

The first 12 months

• Days 1–90: Validate the baseline; meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to the mission-systems portfolio; assess the leadership team; stabilise immediate customer, people and control risks; and agree a board-owned scorecard.
• Months 4–9: Make the principal portfolio and organisation choices, fill critical leadership gaps, install the new cadence and deliver the first measurable release of cash, capacity, customer value or controlled risk.
• Months 10–12: Establish a repeatable performance trend, secure the following year’s capital and talent plan, prove that fixes are sustained and present a three-year value case with downside actions.

What the board will measure

• Delivery of the agreed first-year value case within a 10% tolerance, with variance surfaced before the relevant reporting period closes.
• A decision-useful forecast across three consecutive quarters that reconciles operating, cash, customer and people assumptions.
• Closure of the highest-priority issues behind a multi-year order-book conversion by their board-approved dates, with independent evidence that remediation is sustained.
• Retention of at least 90% of identified critical talent and ready-now successors for at least 70% of the Chief Operating Officer’s direct reports.
• A quantified improvement in the primary mission-systems portfolio constraint, supported by a clean baseline, named data owner and repeatable measurement method.
• No unresolved high-severity escalation older than 30 days and no material surprise withheld from the agreed governance forum.

The person

You are currently a COO, EVP Operations or Regional Operations President in a listed organisation. Your track record includes a transition where the original plan ceased to be sufficient and you can explain the choices you personally made, the evidence used and the numerical impact. Candidates from aerospace, defence, aviation, space systems, advanced engineering or government services will be considered where the operating model, customer stakes and governance intensity are comparable.

You bring 28+ years of progressive experience, consistent with the 28-plus band. At minimum, you have carried a P&L, book, budget or accountable portfolio of USD 3,250 million and led at least 1,350 employees. Advisory candidates must show equivalent client-value ownership and multi-disciplinary leadership rather than subject expertise alone.

The board expects two completed transitions: one involving a difficult portfolio or resource choice, and another requiring the leadership system to change during material pressure. You should be equally comfortable challenging an optimistic case and creating followership after the decision. References must distinguish your contribution from the institution around you.

An undergraduate degree or equivalent professional formation is required; a relevant postgraduate or regulated professional qualification is advantageous where the mandate warrants it. The role is based in Washington, DC, United States. Relocation is expected; a structured commute may be considered only during an agreed transition period. Regional and intercontinental travel is part of the appointment, but the seat is not remote.

Non-negotiables

• Current or recent accountability at the level of COO, EVP Operations or Regional Operations President, with direct exposure to a board, investment committee or equivalent enterprise-governance forum.
• Proven ownership of at least USD 3,250 million and leadership of no fewer than 1,350 employees in a comparable operating context.
• One completed example of replacing fragmented delivery with one operating system, with outcomes sustained for at least two reporting periods after the intervention.
• Sector credibility from aerospace, defence, aviation, space systems, advanced engineering or government services; purely functional experience without operating consequences will not meet the bar.
• Willingness to meet the Washington, DC location expectation, complete conflicts and background diligence, and protect the search’s confidentiality.

Compensation and terms

The anticipated package is USD 500,000–750,000 base + annual incentive and long-term participation, calibrated to final scope and the candidate’s current mix. Long-term participation follows the employer’s normal vesting and performance conditions. This is a full-time executive appointment with a standard five-day working week, additional availability appropriate to the office and material travel during diagnosis and implementation. A notice period of up to 6 months can be accommodated. No application, assessment, placement or onboarding fee is charged to candidates.

How to apply

The complete mandate is publicly readable on its canonical job page. Apply through /jobs/coo-mission-systems-portfolio-washington-dc-ad21/apply before 18 October 2026 at 23:59 UTC. The application route may require one account sign-in, so structured data must state directApply: false. Applicants submit their own profile; no payment is required. If the vacancy closes early, the page owner must close applications and remove or expire its JobPosting markup immediately.

Confidentiality

The employer is represented as confidential, which Google permits for anonymous recruitment. Identifying information will be shared only after mutual relevance is established and an undertaking is in place. Rounded scale, blended context and broad archetypes are intentional and must not be used to infer a company name.