Zelickson previously served as vice president of ground-based midcourse defense (GMD) programs, one of the company's major missile-defense contracts.

In her new role, Zelickson will lead the sector's efforts to apply mission-assurance and Six Sigma processes and principles for improved quality, greater productivity and predictable program performance.

Zelickson succeeds Linda A. Mills, who was named by the company's Information Technology sector as its new vice president of operations and processes reporting to James O'Neill, president of Northrop Grumman Information Technology.

"Kelley solidly demonstrated her capabilities, competence and caliber with her leadership of the GMD program," said Agee. "As mission assurance increasingly becomes a key differentiator, Kelley's expertise and leadership will be a tremendous asset in helping our business achieve record success."

Mission assurance is a disciplined application of systems engineering, cost and risk-estimation modeling, quality management, lessons learned and program-management principles to achieve 100 percent mission success. It is a proactive application of risk management which ensures that technical capabilities being delivered on programs meet customer expectations.

Zelickson's mission-assurance responsibilities will include strategy, planning and execution for process-improvement initiatives such as Six Sigma and Lean; business processes to increase customer satisfaction through streamlined operations and improved quality through the use of metrics; and quality-management systems to include those of the entire supply chain. She will lead the sector's engineering process and quantitative analysis efforts, including the Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model(r) Integration assessments, and will have responsibility for the office of cost estimation and risk analysis, all of which are integral components to successful implementation of mission assurance.

As vice president of GMD programs, Zelickson was responsible for a $1 billion GMD business, managing 750 employees in locations nationwide. Prior to this assignment, Zelickson served in various program-management and engineering-analysis roles since starting with TRW in 1980. Northrop Grumman acquired TRW in 2002.

Zelickson earned a master's degree in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Alabama-Huntsville and a bachelor's degree in engineering science and math from Vanderbilt University.

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