Serve as the senior relationship owner for strategic nuclear customer accounts, with a focus on ramp periods, first-of-a-kind builds, and critical program milestones. Build trust with director-level and above customer stakeholders and maintain continuity from award through execution and follow-on opportunity development. Own executive-level customer relationships for assigned strategic programs and act as the primary escalation point for customer-facing issues, leading customer reviews, milestone communications, recovery discussions, and strategic planning touchpoints. Ensure the customer’s view of scope, status, risks, and commitments aligns with internal operating realities while providing single-threaded ownership for complex programs that require durable institutional knowledge.
Build and lead the Customer Programs function as a structured capability, including hiring, coaching, and defining clear interfaces with Sales, Manufacturing, Engineering, and Quality. Establish operating cadence, role clarity, and governance for the Customer Programs team, and create standard playbooks, reporting tools, dashboards, and communication templates to support customer-facing program management. Clarify handoff points between Sales origination, program award, execution support, and long-term account stewardship, and establish leadership rhythms that keep teams informed on customer status, risks, opportunities, and escalations. Translate strong customer relationships into measurable business outcomes, such as follow-on awards, program growth, and improved internal readiness, including development of annual customer program plans that identify follow-on opportunities, relationship risks, and internal readiness needs.
Partner with Sales on expansion opportunities within existing accounts and adjacent platforms, and support strategic planning and capital-readiness discussions using customer-program forecasts and relationship insight. Track and report customer-facing performance indicators, including relationship health, follow-on award velocity, and voice-of-customer trends. Support cross-functional decision-making to ensure customer commitments are met with urgency, transparency, and operational discipline, and use customer feedback to strengthen execution, improve recovery discipline, and raise the standard across future programs. Requirements include 15+ years of progressive customer-facing leadership and program or account leadership experience in complex industrial and energy, defense, or nuclear environments; demonstrated success managing executive-level customer relationships; experience leading teams and influencing across key functions without direct authority; strong executive communication skills; and the ability to operate with judgment and credibility in multi-program, high-accountability settings. A bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, Operations, or a related field is required, along with nuclear industry experience and familiarity with regulated quality and compliance environments such as ASME Section III, NQA-1, and 10 CFR 50 Appendix B; preferred experience includes first-of-a-kind and complex fabrication programs, exposure to major nuclear or similarly sophisticated industrial customers, experience standing up a new function or operating model in a growth or transition environment, and advanced credentials relevant to program or customer leadership.