Value Stream and AI Transformation Lead

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of relevant work experience is required, plus a minimum of 8 years of relevant experience; or Master's degree plus a minimum of 6 years of relevant experience.

Due to the nature of work performed within our facilities, U.S. citizenship is required.

Responsibilities for this Position

Ready to be a leader with the company that is committed to pushing the limits of truly advanced technologies? At General Dynamics Mission Systems, we create the products and services that help our service members, intelligence analysts and first responders keep our nation safe. The work we do is so advanced, it’s often classified. If you want to put your talent in the spotlight, it’s waiting for you right now, right here. We apply advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, AR/VR, Cloud Native and Quantum Physics to solve our customers’ missions in cyber, RF, undersea, interstellar and everything in between.

The Value Stream and AI Transformation Lead Specialist will guide the modernization of program execution processes while preserving compliance with Earned Value Management System (EVMS) requirements and applicable customer and regulatory expectations.

This role will map end-to-end value streams, identify process constraints and automation opportunities, and translate business needs into governed AI-enabled workflows. The successful candidate will bridge program management, EVMS, functional organizations, data, technology, and artificial intelligence.

This is not primarily a tool administration or software development position. It is a transformation role responsible for connecting process design, compliance, data, technology, and organizational adoption to produce measurable business value.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead value-stream mapping across program planning, scheduling, cost management, forecasting, risk management, change control, and performance reporting.
• Identify process delays, duplicate effort, manual handoffs, control weaknesses, and opportunities for simplification or automation.
• Distinguish regulatory and contractual requirements from legacy implementation practices that may be redesigned.
• Develop a prioritized transformation roadmap based on business value, compliance risk, technical feasibility, and workforce readiness.
• Design use cases for AI assistants and agents that improve program execution, decision support, data quality, and administrative efficiency.
• Define appropriate human oversight, decision rights, approval gates, audit evidence, data lineage, access controls, and exception handling for AI-enabled workflows.
• Partner with the Compliance/EVM Officer to ensure proposed changes remain consistent with the organization’s approved EVMS description, ANSI/EIA-748 guidelines, and applicable customer expectations.
• Partner with the Program Execution SME to ensure solutions address practical program needs and improve user workflows.
• Collaborate with IT, cybersecurity, data owners, and system administrators to define solution requirements and implementation approaches.
• Facilitate cross-functional workshops and convert findings into future-state processes, requirements, business cases, and implementation plans.
• Establish measures for adoption, cycle-time reduction, quality, compliance, productivity, and realized value.
• Support pilots, validation, change management, training, and scaled deployment.
• Monitor emerging AI capabilities and recommend responsible applications within the program execution environment.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, information systems, data science, program management, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Significant experience improving complex, cross-functional business processes.
• Demonstrated experience with value-stream mapping, Lean, systems thinking, business process architecture, or comparable process-improvement methods.
• Working knowledge of program controls, including planning, scheduling, cost management, forecasting, performance measurement, or integrated program management.
• Experience translating business processes into functional, data, automation, or system requirements.
• Practical understanding of generative AI, AI assistants, workflow automation, or agent-based solutions.
• Ability to assess AI opportunities, limitations, risks, and required human controls.
• Demonstrated ability to influence across organizational boundaries and communicate with technical specialists, functional SMEs, program teams, and senior leaders.
• Experience leading workshops and producing clear current-state assessments, future-state designs, roadmaps, and business cases.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting an ANSI/EIA-748-compliant EVMS or working in a DCMA-regulated environment.
• Experience in aerospace, defense, government contracting, or another highly regulated industry.
• Familiarity with integrated master scheduling, earned value analysis, estimate at completion processes, change control, and program performance reporting.
• Experience implementing AI or automation in controlled environments requiring traceability, cybersecurity, records retention, or auditability.
• Familiarity with responsible AI, model risk, data governance, prompt and agent evaluation, and human-in-the-loop controls.
• Lean Six Sigma, PMP, Agile, systems engineering, EVMS, or relevant AI/data certification.
• Experience developing adoption plans and leading organizational change.

Core Competencies

• Systems and value-stream thinking
• Program execution and controls acumen
• AI opportunity and risk assessment
• Process and requirements architecture
• Governance and compliance awareness
• Cross-functional facilitation
• Executive communication
• Change leadership
• Benefits realization

Initial Success Measures

Within the first 60 days, the successful candidate will:

• Establish working partnerships with the CoE, Compliance/EVM, Program Execution, IT, cybersecurity, and key program stakeholders.
• Document priority value streams and identify critical operational, compliance, and capability gaps.
• Develop evaluation criteria for AI and automation opportunities.
• Recommend a prioritized set of pilot opportunities and near-term improvements.

Within the first 4–6 months, the successful candidate will:

• Deliver an approved transformation roadmap with defined owners, dependencies, controls, investments, and measurable outcomes.
• Launch and evaluate priority pilots using documented compliance and human-oversight controls.
• Demonstrate measurable improvement in selected areas such as cycle time, data quality, forecast insight, reporting effort, or user productivity.
• Establish a repeatable governance and value-realization framework for scaling successful capabilities.

Role Boundaries and Partnerships

This position does not replace the authority of the Compliance/EVM Officer, the domain ownership of Program Execution SMEs, or the infrastructure and cybersecurity responsibilities of IT. The role integrates these perspectives into coherent process designs and transformation initiatives, with clearly defined accountability and decision rights.

Salary Note

Combined Salary Range

Company Overview

General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) engineers a diverse portfolio of high technology solutions, products and services that enable customers to successfully execute missions across all domains of operation. With a global team of 12,000+ top professionals, we partner with the best in industry to expand the bounds of innovation in the defense and scientific arenas. Given the nature of our work and who we are, we value trust, honesty, alignment and transparency. We offer highly competitive benefits and pride ourselves in being a great place to work with a shared sense of purpose. You will also enjoy a flexible work environment where contributions are recognized and rewarded. If who we are and what we do resonates with you, we invite you to join our high-performance team!

Equal Opportunity Employer / Individuals with Disabilities / Protected Veterans