Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Timeline
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Caroline Lancaster

San Diego

Summary

Dynamic Engineering Department Manager and Program Lead with over 15 years of experience in the aerospace and defense sectors, specializing in strategic planning, cross-functional engineering management, and program leadership. Expertise includes leading teams of over 200 engineers to achieve $10 million in portfolio growth through innovative program development and customer-centric initiatives. Proficient in creating comprehensive roadmaps, planning customer engagement strategies, and delivering impactful briefings to senior leaders and stakeholders. Recognized for a proactive approach to learning and an exceptional ability to adapt to new challenges while fostering collaboration across diverse teams and mentoring engineering professionals.

Overview

18
18
years of professional experience

Work History

Department Manager, Strategic Networks

Northrop Grumman Corp
02.2023 - Current
  • Independently developed and executed long-term strategic roadmap plans, aligning capture and objective production and sustainment opportunities that expanded programs by $10M organically.
  • Partnered with program and capture management to help shape enterprise strategies, proactively ensuring alignment with BU Long Range Strategic Plans and sector priorities.
  • Coordinated and prepared leadership briefings, ensuring leadership had decision-ready data.
  • Represented the enterprise in C101s and SAARR reviews, influencing decisions that shaped new opportunities in Tactical Battle Networks and Scalable Strategic Networks.
  • Directed RFP strategy and pipeline management, securing multiple contract wins while ensuring opportunities were aligned in corporate reporting and Salesforce tracking.
  • Directed salary planning, promotions, and employee development, aligning career growth with organizational objectives.
  • Conducted performance feedback sessions and provided coaching to support individual career progression.
  • Monitored and reported on key performance indicators (KPIs) to track engineering productivity and program health.
  • Fostered a culture of mentorship, continuous learning, and collaboration to strengthen technical expertise across disciplines.
  • Supported hiring and onboarding of new engineers to scale department capabilities.
  • Collaborated with other departments to ensure seamless coordination in achieving company-wide objectives.
  • Established clear performance expectations for staff members which led to increased accountability.

MGR, CYBER SYSTEMS ENGINEER: PROGRAM LEAD

Northrop Grumman Corp
03.2020 - 01.2023
  • Responsible for personnel development, performance management, salary planning, and technical training.
  • Deputy Department Manager leading the Strategic Network team for multiple programs, generating revenue in excess of 26 million.
  • Coach and lead for over 35 engineers from multiple disciplines: Cyber, System Administration, Network, System Engineering.
  • Manage over 45 million and over 200 engineers for cost accounts for multiple cross-functional teams.
  • Stabilized retention at 95% while concurrently leading project schedules, resource allocation, performance feedback, and career development.
  • Supported over 7 new and renewed RFPs in 2022, secured millions for each project.
  • Boosted efficiency of development by 15% during first year as an IPT and 5% in second year by implementing engineering performance metrics in line with company strategies.
  • Mentored Cyber, Network and System Engineers on Risk Management Framework, Cyber Survivability Attributes, Cyber Maturity Model Certification, Operating System security settings, and vulnerability analysis.
  • Provide technical oversight for senior engineering leads and program leadership to the assigned integrated program team (IPT).
  • Set engineering work direction for technical leads, technicians, and administrative personnel, aligning tasks with project objectives.
  • Introduced Agile methodologies which increased team accountability and motivation with much-needed efficiencies.
  • Analyzed business performance data and forecasted business results for upper management.
  • Collaborated with functional managers to develop program resource plans and assign program resources.

LINUX SYSTEMS ENGINEER

Northrop Grumman Corp
12.2018 - 03.2020
  • Planned and implemented continuous automated development efficiency.
  • Created automated project builds with Git/Ansible deployed in VMware, RHVH, Windows and RHEL.
  • Configured and integrated servers in different environments, provisioned machines using configuration management / provisioning tools.
  • Used Git for version control for Battlefield Airborne Communications Node program.
  • Tracking over 100 bugs and discrepancies using JIRA.
  • Motivated and encouraged team members to communicate more openly and constructively with each other.

COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS ENGINEER

Northrop Grumman Corp
10.2016 - 12.2018
  • Performed high-level designs, implementations, and recommendations for Air Force’s Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS).
  • Led the DoD mandated migration from Window XP to Windows Secure Host Baseline (SHB) for all SBIRS sites, resulted in 100% migration of all systems meeting 95% of the required secure configuration.
  • Led and conducted briefs to Air Force customer to ensure proper posture of SBIRS environment during project life cycle, creating 100% customer satisfaction.
  • Developed and implemented procedures for operational processes including deployment, upgrade, migration and maintenance of LogRhythm.
  • Maintained cybersecurity posture through configurations and development on RHEL and Windows systems.
  • Deployed and administered SQL servers in a standalone and clustered environment.
  • Troubleshot and engineered solutions for critical schedule-blocking discrepancy reports related to stoppages of operations on-time without interruption.
  • Provided technical solutions and investigated alternative problem-solving methods using out-of-the-box thinking.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS LEAD

United States Navy
06.2007 - 05.2018
  • Led a team of six sailors, managed a budget of 30 million.
  • Trained 100+ personnel on cybersecurity best practices.
  • Maintained telecommunication systems, multiple operating systems, and enterprise domain accounts used ashore and across the fleet.
  • Administered dissemination and routing of large messages for unclassified and classified networks.
  • Served in multiple operating environments on land, at sea and in a joint setting: USS New Orleans, Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Ten, Expeditionary Communications Detachment Five, Joint Maritime Support Team Pacific.

Education

Masters of Advanced Studies - Architecture-Based Enterprise Systems Engineering

University of California
San Diego, CA
01.2021

Bachelor of Science - Computer Science and Information Technology

California State University
Monterey Bay, CA
01.2016

Skills

  • Program/Project Management
  • Inter-Department Collaboration
  • Customer Relationship and Satisfaction
  • Strategic Planning, Analyst, Alignment
  • Budget Management
  • Influencing and Negotiation with Stakeholders
  • Risk Management
  • Program and Personnel Conflict Resolution
  • Developing Staff
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Team leadership

Timeline

Department Manager, Strategic Networks

Northrop Grumman Corp
02.2023 - Current

MGR, CYBER SYSTEMS ENGINEER: PROGRAM LEAD

Northrop Grumman Corp
03.2020 - 01.2023

LINUX SYSTEMS ENGINEER

Northrop Grumman Corp
12.2018 - 03.2020

COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS ENGINEER

Northrop Grumman Corp
10.2016 - 12.2018

INFORMATION SYSTEMS LEAD

United States Navy
06.2007 - 05.2018

Bachelor of Science - Computer Science and Information Technology

California State University

Masters of Advanced Studies - Architecture-Based Enterprise Systems Engineering

University of California

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