Obsolescence and Lifecycle Management Lead

What you'll do

• Own and maintain the V-BAT obsolescence management plan, lifecycle risk register, and associated mitigation roadmap.
• Identify, track, and prioritize end-of-life parts, supplier discontinuance notices, aging components, high-risk materials, unsupported components, and long-lead or difficult-to-source items.
• Assess obsolescence risk across parts, suppliers, components, assemblies, subsystems, ground equipment, support equipment, and fielded configurations.
• Determine potential impact to production, repair, spares, depot activity, field support, customer commitments, and long-term sustainment.
• Coordinate last-time-buy recommendations and decisions with Supply Chain, Engineering, Finance, Manufacturing, Operations, and Sustainment leadership.
• Work with Supply Chain to evaluate supplier risk, lead times, allocation constraints, discontinuance notices, minimum order quantities, and long-term availability.
• Partner with Engineering to identify alternate parts, form-fit-function replacements, redesign needs, qualification requirements, and technical mitigation options.
• Coordinate with Configuration Management and Change Control to determine which aircraft, builds, configurations, customers, spares, or fielded assets are affected by obsolescence risk.
• Support lifecycle planning for avionics, propulsion components, structures, payload interfaces, electrical components, ground equipment, support equipment, and other V-BAT subsystems.
• Create and drive mitigation plans for obsolete or at-risk components, including alternate sourcing, redesign, requalification, lifetime buys, repair strategy changes, or inventory positioning.
• Ensure mitigation plans include clear owners, timelines, decision points, cost considerations, technical dependencies, and fleet impact assessments.
• Maintain visibility into supplier health, supplier transitions, diminishing manufacturing sources, lead-time changes, material availability, and long-term supportability.
• Partner with Finance and Operations to evaluate cost, inventory, and readiness tradeoffs associated with lifetime buys, redesigns, alternate sourcing, and risk acceptance.
• Provide regular obsolescence and lifecycle status updates to engineering, supply chain, sustainment, and executive leadership.
• Escalate high-risk lifecycle issues before they impact V-BAT readiness, customer support, production continuity, or repair capability.
• Improve obsolescence management processes, reporting mechanisms, lifecycle dashboards, and risk review forums as the sustainment function scales.

Required qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in obsolescence management, lifecycle management, supply chain, sustainment engineering, product support, manufacturing operations, technical program management, or complex hardware sustainment.
• Demonstrated experience managing part, supplier, component, or subsystem lifecycle risk in a complex hardware, aerospace, defense, electronics, aviation, robotics, or advanced manufacturing environment.
• Experience identifying and managing end-of-life parts, supplier discontinuance notices, diminishing manufacturing sources, long-lead components, alternate sourcing strategies, and last-time-buy decisions.
• Strong understanding of how obsolescence risk impacts production, repair capability, spares planning, field support, fleet readiness, customer commitments, and long-term sustainment.
• Experience working across Supply Chain, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Configuration Management, Finance, Operations, and Fleet Support to drive mitigation plans.
• Technical fluency with bills of material, approved supplier lists, part qualification, engineering changes, configuration management, material planning, supplier transitions, or component redesign activity.
• Ability to partner with engineering teams to evaluate alternate parts, redesign needs, qualification plans, and technical risk associated with component substitutions.
• Proven ability to build and manage lifecycle risk registers, mitigation plans, decision logs, escalation mechanisms, and leadership-level status reporting.
• Strong planning and risk management skills, including the ability to prioritize lifecycle risks based on fleet impact, availability, cost, technical complexity, and urgency.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate supplier, part, and lifecycle risks into clear business impact, technical actions, and leadership decisions.
• Ability to operate independently in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and drive cross-functional accountability without direct authority.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with UAS, aviation sustainment, aerospace manufacturing, defense programs, electronics lifecycle management, fielded hardware systems, or deployed technical products.
• Familiarity with DMSMS, BOM management, AVL/AML management, PLM or ERP systems, ECO/ECR processes, configuration control, FRACAS, RCCA, MRB, or service action planning.
• Experience managing obsolescence risk for avionics, electrical components, propulsion systems, payload interfaces, batteries, ground equipment, support equipment, or complex electromechanical systems.
• Experience coordinating lifetime buys, alternate sourcing, supplier transitions, redesign efforts, qualification plans, or field retrofit strategies.
• Experience supporting military, defense, aviation, or high-reliability customer environments.
• Experience working in a startup, high-growth, defense technology, aerospace, robotics, or advanced manufacturing environment.
• APICS, PMP, Lean Six Sigma, supply chain, lifecycle management, aviation maintenance, or related certification preferred but not required.