Scott Klempner
San Pedro,CA
Summary
Successful space portfolio executive with over 20 years of demonstrated ability in delivering mission-critical results. Offering outstanding communication and cross-functional team management skills. Entrepreneurial attitude breaking traditional processes to accelerate time to field. Ambitious team leader adept at creating strategic alliances with organizational leaders and effectively aligning with and supporting key business initiatives.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Deputy Program Executive Officer
Space Systems Command
01.2023 - Current
- Guides a 1,400 person, $17+ billion Space Combat Power portfolio of over 30 highly-classified space, ground, and cyber programs
- Developed innovative Golden Dome Space-Based Interceptor strategy leveraging commercial and non-traditional vendors to rapidly demonstrate first-of-kind $50B+ missile defense system in under 3 years
- Authored Space Force Integrated Orbital Warfare Architecture and a strategy to prioritize, integrate, and scale eight combat effects to negate 100% of China target set
- Identified critical warfighting gaps and drove vision for a transformative satellite control concept requiring 240%-600% more contact time, automated mission planning, and operational flexibility, enabling tactical battle space control at massive scale
Senior Material Leader for Survivability Assurance
National Reconnaissance Office
01.2020 - 01.2023
- Oversaw development of technically complex highly-classified $500M+ DARPA-partnership game-changer system - successfully deployed U.S. Indo-Pacific Command's #1 priority program to counter Chinese threats
- Righted development of a rapid Low-Earth Orbit defense pathfinder addressing validated gaps after uncovering design flaws, delivering a <$100M solution inside 24 months that materially countered Russian anti-satellite threats and established an accelerated acquisition model for future space defense programs
- Directed and negotiated first-ever cross-organization National Security Space command-and-control agreements, producing initial data specifications that became the foundation for a federated space C2 architecture
- Led end-to-end adversary ASAT threat analysis against Chinese kill chains, closing timeline gaps and enabling executive approval to field a GEO escort capability aligned to a 2027 operational fight timeline
- Recovered a failing ground battle management system by managing 530+ requirements through milestone execution, maintaining launch schedule and delivering an operational system to national decision-makers while restoring program credibility and leadership confidence
Division Chief, Space Control and Remote Sensing Programs
Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition
01.2019 - 01.2020
- Served as a certified Acquisition Manager directing a 16-person elite HQ team and overseeing a $10B+ portfolio of highly classified space programs, with enterprise responsibility spanning requirements, PPBE advocacy, acquisition strategy, and operational integration
- Briefed Congress and professional staff 26 times on 30+ programs, securing sustained program support and enabling $800M+ in funding gains across weather, space domain awareness, command and control, and missile warning portfolios through disciplined acquisition and budget execution
- Led Office of the Secretary of Defense issue analysis for the first-ever U.S. Space Force budget, restoring a $1.2B counterspace weapons program and championing a $75M survivability gap-filler elevated to the Department of the Air Force Unfunded Priority List, improving space operations center awareness by 25%
- Authored a “clean sheet” space acquisition reform proposal adopted as Department of the Air Force policy, institutionalizing faster, more flexible U.S. Space Force acquisition processes and shaping enterprise execution across multiple program classes
Policy Advisor, Office of Missile, Biological, and Chemical Nonproliferation
U.S. State Department
01.2017 - 01.2019
- Served as Political–Military advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, deciding 1,500+ missile technology export license applications and 140+ foreign military sales cases worth $25B
- Chaired an NSC-chartered interagency Missile Technology Export Control group (DoD, DOE, State, Commerce, NASA), providing authoritative ITAR/EAR export licensing guidance for all U.S. missile and space technology transfers worldwide
- Led Department of State efforts to modernize export licensing policy, cutting license processing timelines by 66% while maintaining strict nonproliferation and technology protection standards
- Directed policy and technical reviews of six high-risk WMD delivery system transfers, enabling $4.8B+ in approved exports to allies while blocking sensitive propulsion, navigation, and drone engine technologies from transfer to China, materially degrading adversary missile and unmanned system development
Air Force Fellow
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
01.2016 - 01.2017
- One of 42 senior developmental education officers competitively chosen for the 2017 Air Force Fellows program
- Served as a visiting researcher at the U.S.' largest think tank dedicated to the study of the Middle East
Materiel Leader, GEOINT Processing
National Reconnaissance Office
01.2015 - 01.2016
- Hand-selected division chief to lead a 45-person team and manage the NRO Ground Enterprise Directorate’s multi-billion-dollar acquisition portfolio, developing and sustaining 24/7 satellite image processing and intelligence production systems delivering mission-critical geospatial intelligence to the DoD, Intelligence Community, Department of Homeland Security, and Combatant Commanders worldwide
- Delivered 99.8%+ operational readiness across four mission-critical national systems, achieving a rare 100% data capture rate through resilient system architecture while increasing processing capacity by 50% and distributing 12,000+ imagery products directly to global warfighters
- Developed next-generation processing ground architecture, transitioning a 40+ year legacy system to a modern cloud-based, agile software platform, enabling 6–12 month faster capability delivery and rapidly fielding classified “game-changer” capabilities supporting clandestine special operations
Education
Ph.D. - Imaging Science
Rochester Institute of Technology
09.2008
M.Eng. - Space Operations
University of Colorado
05.1999
Bachelor of Science - Astronautical Engineering (Math Minor)
USAF Academy
05.1998
Skills
- Organizational leadership
- Portfolio strategy
- Federal acquisition and contracting
- Proposal evaluation and negotiation
- Department of War space priorities and architectures
- Program operations, assessment, and execution
- Enterprise financial planning, tracking, and reporting
- Space technology subject matter expert
- ITAR/EAR export licensing
- Foreign Military Sales
Certification
- Certified Space Professional Level III, 2012
- Defense Acquisition Program Management Advanced Certification, 2011
- Defense Acquisition Engineering & Technical Management Practitioner Certification, 2010
Timeline
Deputy Program Executive Officer
Space Systems Command
01.2023 - Current
Senior Material Leader for Survivability Assurance
National Reconnaissance Office
01.2020 - 01.2023
Division Chief, Space Control and Remote Sensing Programs
Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition
01.2019 - 01.2020
Policy Advisor, Office of Missile, Biological, and Chemical Nonproliferation
U.S. State Department
01.2017 - 01.2019
Air Force Fellow
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
01.2016 - 01.2017
Materiel Leader, GEOINT Processing
National Reconnaissance Office
01.2015 - 01.2016
Ph.D. - Imaging Science
Rochester Institute of Technology
M.Eng. - Space Operations
University of Colorado
Bachelor of Science - Astronautical Engineering (Math Minor)
USAF Academy