Howard D. Carstens

**** ***** *** **

Andover, MN 55304

acxs5a@r.postjobfree.com

763-***-**** (H) 612-***-**** (C)

EXPERIENCE

SUMMARY

A Senior Division Engineering Manager practiced in Program Management and Product Development in Design Assurance with expertise in Product Safety and Reliability supporting companies such as Lockheed, Honeywell, and BAE. A strong track record in:

• Building and managing cohesive, and motivated management teams

• Risk identification and mitigation of complex business and technical problems

• Implementing timely cost-effective measures that generate on-time under budget results without compromising quality or product capability

• Supporting multi-site operations and multi-company coordination Extensive experience in corporate engineering departments:

• Generating then managing execution of project and program management plans

• Planning annual department budgets and multiple year capital budgets exceeding

$10,000,000

• Managing departments with staffing levels of 40+ technical and non-technical personnel and subordinate managers

• Performing human resource functions – annual performance appraisals, career development planning, personal mentoring, and team leadership. Involved with the generation and implementation of corporate and divisional policies, processes, and procedures with working knowledge of Best Practices, Continuous Improvement, ISO 9001 & 14001, and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). PERSONAL TRAITS Upper management, peers, and customers have referred to me as resourceful, creative and innovative; excellent at managing crises situations; and a thorough professional dedicated to excellence and achievement of corporate and program objectives. International business colleagues have noted their appreciation for my openness and honest pragmatic approach when addressing complex issues that cross cultural barriers. EMPLOYMENT

EXPERIENCE

BAE Systems – Land &

Armament

Minneapolis, MN

March 1996 - Present

Senior Project Systems Engineer – Held the positions of Division System Safety Manager, Division Manager of Specialty Engineering, Acting Systems Engineering Manager, and Product Safety Compliance Authority (multi-site).

• Managed departments of 5 to 40 people (briefly 100+) within a matrix organization orchestrating technical, non-technical, and subordinate managers work assignments to match individual strengths. Ensured customers received requested resources then supported Program Manager’s efforts in forecasting future workloads.

• Hired talent potential individuals then created development progression path to broadening their knowledge base and increasing their skills. Prepared staff performance appraisals, salary and promotion planning, along with capital and budget planning and initiated

• Restructured department’s processes, procedures, and standardized the tool sets utilized. Immediately experienced program cost savings due to flexibility in assigning human resources. Processes were shared at the corporate work group and were adopted by many other sites within the United States and several overseas locations.

• Identified weaknesses in company’s static logistics sparing model and preceded to co-develop a dynamic modeling approach to replace it. New modeling approach provided designers with greater understanding of design trade-offs early that affect millions of dollars in yearly operating & support costs. Submitted a paper on the process that was selected and presented at the International Systems Engineering Symposium (INCOSE).

• Noted a potential liability and performed a document research to confirm my suspensions. Presented my findings to the Legal department that resulted in a new training class for program managers on recent changes in the Contractor Defense Law. Lockheed Martin -

Astro Space

Valley Forge, PA

February 1990 February

1996

Staff Engineer Systems/System Safety Engineer (Program and Project Manager) – Led System Safety activities on multiple space platforms. Coordinated development activities with multiple government agencies and major subcontractors including foreign suppliers of instrument packages.

• Headed the project team to develop a safe solution for a hazardous materials issue to comply with OSHA and EPA requirements related to the development and production of the EOS

(Earth Observing Satellite) program. Identified the hazards, designed the solution, and presented the mitigation approach to the Lockheed Martin Environmental Health and Safety Department for their implementation. Effort prevented a 2-month schedule delay by purchasing required support equipment before assembly began. Additional Experience Honeywell, Inc. (Underseas Systems Division) Hopkins, MN Principal Systems Engineer/Safety and Reliability - Originally hired as a Safety and Reliability Engineer to support the development of a highly advanced torpedo system and support other programs. Placed on management development track with a final promotion to Principal Systems Engineer/Safety and Reliability before division was sold.

• Designed and implemented a multi-site multi-company failure reporting and corrective action system that eliminated an information backlog and lost data resulting in a

$1,000,000 client award fee.

• Functioned as lead safety engineer on the $3.1 billion U.S. Navy’s Lightweight Torpedo Program. Analyzed, identified, and implemented a design solution to a major signal safety issue prior to production resulting in savings of millions of dollars in manufacturing costs.

• Developed requirements and bid estimate for the 18-month development contract and managed the engineering staff against it. Complete all tasks on time and $5000 under the

$2,500,000 budget.

U.S. Army - DARCOM (Electronic Research and Development Command) Adelphi, MD Safety Engineer - Initially support facility safety activities performing monthly inspections of labs and test facilities that include nuclear materials, high voltage, munitions, and other potentially dangerous operations. Move into the role as System Safety evaluating all new electronic equipment being procured by US Army.

EDUCATION BS Electrical Engineering

Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN

MS Industrial Engineering - Safety Engineering & Safety Management US Army Intern Training Center, Texarkana, TX

(Master’s program canceled with one quarter remaining: received a Certificate of Completion for the course work completed)

Ongoing Education: Has included numerous classes, seminars, and workshops focusing on Reliability Engineering, Systems Engineering, Software Safety, Creative Leadership, Management, Logistics, Process and Procedure Development, Security, CMMI, and ISO. CLEARANCE Various DoD security clearances - Active KEY WORDS Engineering Management / Product Development / Process Development / Safety Risk Assessment / Cross-Functional Matrix Organizations / Systems engineering / System Safety / Reliability / Failure Analysis / Design Assurance / Customer Interface / ISO / CMMI / Customer Issue Resolution / Common Processes

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