The Starlab Certification Manager is responsible for ensuring that all systems and subsystems of the Starlab System meet the necessary standards and certifications required by relevant regulatory bodies, including NASA. This role involves close collaboration with the Engineering Manager, Integration Manager, and other stakeholders to ensure compliance and certification readiness. The Starlab Certification Manager plays a crucial role in ensuring the commercial Starlab System of Systems solution for NASA CLD, including the Station and all segments (Ground Systems, Mission Execution, Launch Service, Cargo/Crew Resupply Service) meets all certification requirements. This role reports to the Starlab Program Manager and works alongside the Engineering Manager and System Integration Manager. Crucial to the role in maintaining comprehensive documentation, managing supplier compliance, ensuring 51% US content and enabling the company to successfully bid on and secure NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destination (CLD) certification and services contract. This role also leads the AI&T Effort for the program. |
Certification - Oversight of Certification Process: Ensures compliance with regulatory requirements and standards and manages the certification process. Stay up to date with changes in regulations and ensure the product adheres to them throughout the certification process.
- Certification Strategy: Develop a strategic approach to certification, considering the product’s complexity, risk tolerance, and market needs. Decide where Starlab is able to comply explicitly with certification requirements or must use alternative means. Ensure only tasks needed for certification are performed and limit scope creep.
- Certification Planning: Develop a certification plan, outlining the steps required for approval. This includes defining the scope and identifying critical milestones.
- Risk Assessment and Mitigation: Identify and record potential risks during the certification process related to design, testing, and compliance, and document strategies to mitigate them.
- Verification: Ensures verification activities, including ground and flight tests validate the product’s performance and safety, in compliance with regulations.
- Compliance Testing: Monitor compliance testing, including environmental, electromagnetic, and structural tests. Ensure the product meets safety and performance requirements.
- Audit and Inspection: Prepare for, and participate in, certification audits and inspections conducted by regulatory authorities. Addresses any findings and ensures corrective actions are implemented.
- Change Management: Monitor product changes throughout the product lifecycle in relation to maintaining certification integrity.
- Continued Airworthiness: After certification, monitor the product’s ongoing airworthiness, addressing modifications, and safety issues.
- Documentation Management: Oversees the planning, creation and maintenance of certification-related documents, including compliance reports, test plans, and technical data.
- Lifecycle Management:
- Creation and Approval: Documents are created based on specific needs (e.g., certification plans, test procedures). They go through an approval process to ensure accuracy and compliance.
- Schedule: Document timelines are established allowing for adequate time for review and approval of drafts and final versions.
- Distribution and Access: Once approved, documents are distributed to relevant teams. Access control ensures that only authorized personnel can view or modify them.
- Review and Updates: Regular reviews and updates are essential. Changes due to design modifications, regulatory updates, or lessons learned during testing are incorporated into the documents.
- Control Procedures:
- Standardization: Establishing guidelines for consistent document appearance, notation, and formatting. This ensures that all documents follow a uniform structure and are easily recognizable.
- Version Control: Managing different versions of documents to prevent confusion. This includes tracking changes, maintaining revision histories, and ensuring that the latest version is accessible to relevant stakeholders.
- Standards and Integrity:
- Document Control System: Implementing a robust system to manage documents. This includes defining roles (e.g., document owners, reviewers), access permissions, and workflows.
- Auditing and Compliance: Regular audits verify compliance with standards. Integrity checks ensure that documents remain accurate and reliable.
- Configuration Management: Ensuring that documents align with the product’s configuration (e.g., hardware, software, systems). Changes must be controlled and documented.
- Supplier Management
- Supply Chain: Work with supply chain to manage supplier products ensuring they meet Starlab quality and objectives and are compliant with Starlab control procedures (ie. Quality inspection etc). Includes coordinating/managing the engineering products that go into RFPs to ensure nothing is missed in the request.
- Procurement Strategy: Assistance in development of the procurement strategy (Industrial Manager), supported by engineering, procurement, and the program management office. It is approved in the Program Control Board (PCB) and by the Starlab Program Manager.
The procurement strategy includes but is not limited to: - Identification of all major procurements (such as hardware, software, engineering, and other services, etc.), and their nature (built-to-print, built-to-spec, etc.) in relation to the program WBS.
- Definition of deliverable items.
- Type of procurement (competition, restriction competition, direct negotiation).
- Working closely with engineers, project managers, and other team members, ensure supplier products meet safety, quality, delivery and performance standards.
- US Content: Tracking procurement spending to ensure that at least 51% of all costs are US based transactions.
For AI&T Programmatic/Resourcing - Create, maintain and communicate detailed test and assembly schedules, ensuring the team/program is aware of tasks and deadlines, including resource identification and acquisition.
- Ensure all program AI&T milestones are accomplished
- Responsible of main AI&T work packages including cost
- Identify organizational staffing and capital requirements,
- Drive affordability and cost control across the AI&T process
- Develop metrics and performance calculations using schedule metrics and inputs
- Develop technical/cost proposals
- Support program reviews (PDR, CDR, FMCR,…) and organize AI&T reviews.
- Identify gaps, forecast potential issues to Station integration plans and schedules.
Technical aspects of the AIT program - For Partner Supplier programs
- Review and approve (if required) test plans, execution plans and results in collaboration with subsystem leads.
- Review and Monitor spacecraft mechanical, electrical, and software, integration and test operations
- Standardize, where appropriate, test plans, procedures and processes across all testing/partner sites (inc. Starlab), including tools, and training/skill development.
- Monitor and ensure facility developments to support Starlab readiness and execution.
- Review and approve (if required) the design, manufacture and integration of Ground Support Equipment (GSE) including Mechanical GSE (MGSE), Electrical GSE (EGSE) (hardware and software), and Tanking GSE (TGSE) of partner/suppliers’ sites.
- Coordinate and execute site-level initiatives with other members of the Operation and Senior Leadership Team
- Work closely with peers in engineering, supply chain, and other departments to implement processes to improve the quality and speed of integration and test
- Evaluate and monitor logistics related to external facilities (inc. environmental) and launch preparation
- Participate to the system risk analysis
- Collaborate on the transfer of supplier product to the next phase in the project (including availability of documents and necessary tools)
- Collaborate with engineering teams to evaluate proposed designs for manufacturability and integration
- Review non-conformances and work with engineers to determine root cause and propose corrective actions
- For Starlab Final Assembly and Test
- Supervise and conduct day-to-day station/system level mechanical, electrical, and software integration and test operations
- Recruitment and development of staff.
- Develop and execute assembly/test plans, in collaboration with design engineers and subsystem leads, of Starlab’s main structural, electronic, and propulsion components, as an integrated system.
- Ensure that the station is assembled correctly, all components work together seamlessly, and the entire system functions as expected, including payloads.
- Work closely with the design team to identify and reduce risks associated with assembly, integration, and testing. Ensure that the station can be assembled and tested efficiently.
- Ensure facility development to support Starlab readiness and execution.
- Plan, design, manufacture, procurement and integration of Ground Support Equipment (GSE) including Mechanical GSE (MGSE), Electrical GSE (EGSE) (hardware and software), and Tanking GSE (TGSE).
- Manage logistics related to external facilities (inc. environmental) and launch preparation
- Participate to the system risk analysis and collaborate with engineering teams to evaluate proposed designs for manufacturability and integration
- Organize the transfer of end product to the next phase in the project (including availability of documents and necessary tools)
- Capture lessons learnt and lead review meetings
- Identify non-conformances and work with engineers to determine root cause and propose corrective actions
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