Jane Edwards
Candace Givens, a more than 20-year defense industry leader and spaceflight engineering executive, has joined Virgin Orbit as vice president of engineering.
She will work closely with Kevin Sagis, chief engineer and senior vice president of technology at Virgin Orbit, as the company continues to scale up its space launch operations to meet the increasing demand from NASA, national security, intelligence community and commercial clients, Virgin Orbit said Friday.
Givens most recently served as VP of remote sensing programs at Northrop Grumman’s space systems sector. Prior to joining Northrop, she held leadership positions at Boeing and TRW’s space and defense business.
She is a proponent of STEM education and sits on the regional advisory board of nonprofit organization NPower Baltimore.
“As we continue to scale, Candace’s experience spanning more than 25 years of managing complex, technical and mission critical programs across the commercial, government and defense sectors will be a vital asset across our organization,” said Tony Gingiss, chief operating officer at Virgin Orbit.
In December, Virgin Orbit went public following its merger with blank check company NextGen Acquisition Corp. II. During its first year of operations, the publicly listed satellite launch services provider fielded 26 satellites into orbit via its LauncherOne rockets that can be air-launched from a customized 747-400 carrier aircraft.
