Head of Platform Engineering Division

About the role

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)—home of the Hubble, James Webb, and Roman Space Telescopes—is seeking a Division Head for Platform Engineering to enable modern, scalable, secure, and mission‑aligned Engineering and Operations across the Institute. This leader will oversee a division composed of four branches spanning Agile Systems Engineering, Agile Integration and Test, Engineering Services and Standards, and Cloud, Kubernetes, and DevSecOps. As one of NASA’s science operations centers, STScI supports some of the most advanced scientific missions on the planet. The role provides vision, direction, and operational leadership for Platform Engineering as a core Institute capability for mission‑critical workloads serving the global astronomy community. The position is hybrid, requiring three days per week on‑site presence. Candidates must reside in or be willing to relocate to MD, VA, DC, PA, DE, or WV; relocation assistance is available. U.S. Citizenship or Permanent Residency is required due to ITAR constraints.

Responsibilities

• Provide the capabilities and support to enable modern, efficient software development, Engineering, and Operations across STScI.
• Lead the overall strategy, maturity, and execution of the Platform Engineering Division in support of Institute priorities, mission delivery, and engineering excellence.
• Foster an embedded, collaborative, knowledge‑sharing approach to supporting capability development teams in other divisions.
• Establish patterns and resources to support developer discovery and self‑service, including an internal developer portal with common libraries, IaC, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Lead the execution and adoption of Cloud‑first and Kubernetes‑first strategies across the Institute, partnering with the Cloud Center of Excellence and IT on the framework, governance, and containerizing existing on‑prem workloads.
• Drive integration of consistent DevSecOps practices and shared infrastructure across the Institute.
• Lead the modernization, automation, and incorporation of Agile concepts into Systems Engineering and Integration and Test disciplines.
• Evolve and support the infrastructure needed to diligently integrate AI into business processes, information systems, and operational workloads.
• Balance strategic transformation with practical execution, ensuring that divisional initiatives are realistic, measurable, and tied to operational outcomes.
• Champion organizational change management for new engineering methods, toolchains, and ways of working, with an emphasis on consistency, sustainable adoption, and measurable value.
• Partner with Institute leadership, program and project teams, science and mission stakeholders, and other engineering organizations to align platform capabilities and engineering operating models with mission and business needs.
• Develop and manage divisional goals, roadmaps, priorities, budgets, staffing plans, and operating metrics.
• Represent Platform Engineering as a senior leader across the Institute, helping shape policies, investment decisions, and long‑range engineering strategy.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, systems engineering, or a related technical field; advanced degree preferred.
• 7+ years leadership experience in software engineering, platform engineering, or a related technical discipline, including responsibility for managers and multi‑team organizations.
• Demonstrated experience leading large‑scale organizational, engineering, or digital transformation initiatives across multiple teams or departments.
• Experience establishing or scaling engineering platforms, toolchains, standards, and operating models that serve a broad internal engineering community.
• Strong understanding of Agile development methodologies, modern engineering collaboration models, and internal developer platforms.
• Familiarity with Digital Engineering and Model‑Based Systems Engineering concepts, practices, and standards such as SysML v2.
• Experience with engineering lifecycle traceability, testing and verification frameworks, and integration of Agile delivery practices with structured engineering controls.
• 5+ years experience with cloud‑native architectures on AWS, Kubernetes‑based platforms, CI/CD automation, and DevSecOps software delivery practices.
• Strong people leadership skills, including coaching leaders, developing organizations, setting direction, and aligning teams through change.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively with senior leadership, technical staff, and cross‑functional partners.

Skills

• Experience in scientific, aerospace, research, government, or mission‑driven technical environments.
• Experience supporting AI development teams.
• Experience assisting in the adoption of AI coding assist tools.
• Use of GitHub Actions and GitLab CI for CI/CD workflows.
• Experience supporting scalable on‑premises Kubernetes environments.
• Experience supporting science / research compute infrastructure.
• Experience integrating test management platforms like TestRail with software development workflows.
• Experience with modern authentication / authorization standards and services.
• Experience operating in regulated or high‑assurance environments (NIST 800‑53, FedRAMP, NASA, DoD).

Benefits

• Excellent and generous benefits package
• Tuition reimbursement
• Flexible work schedules
• Stimulating and diverse work environment

Pay

Salary range: $215,000 to $240,000. Final compensation is based on experience, skills, internal equity, and market conditions.

Schedule

Hybrid role requiring 3 days per week on‑site presence.