Portfolio

Founder and Principal Consultant Eric Roberts has led projects spanning a wide range of scope, scale, and risk posture. This portfolio highlights select examples of his work helping teams solve complex challenges and deliver results.

Learn more about Eric’s background and approach on the About page.

Program Recovery & Risk Management

18-Month Recovery of a Flagship Space Robotics Program

This project involved the development of a flagship robotic subsystem for one of NASA’s most visible and technically demanding planetary missions. With a fixed launch window and no margin for delay, the program carried immense technical, schedule, and organizational pressure.

  • When I joined the program, the subsystem was already months behind schedule with risk margin consumed. I quickly identified structural issues in how the team was organized, but leadership resisted change due to politics, inertia, and fear of disruption. Despite my early warnings, no action was taken — until the first prototype build failed, providing stark evidence that the status quo would lead to mission failure.

  • Using the failed prototype as proof, I built consensus by clearly communicating risks and consequences, repeatedly socializing the need for change across stakeholders. Once I gained traction, I led the restructuring of the team into cross-functional units, introduced disciplined risk management practices, and improved communication between engineering, QA, and leadership.

  • The program stabilized, critical blockers were resolved, and the subsystem was delivered on time for the immovable launch window. Beyond ensuring mission success, the recovery effort demonstrated the importance of persistence, evidence-based communication, and structural realignment in overcoming organizational resistance.

Rescuing the Primary Payload of a Critical Mission

This project involved rescuing the primary payload of a NASA mission build developed by a Fortune 100 contractor. The subsystem was months behind schedule, all risk margin consumed, and its complexity amplified by precision-cleaning and contamination-control requirements. With only eight months left until delivery, the mission’s success depended entirely on getting this system back on track.

  • The design was technically sound, but mismanaged integration and test planning left the subsystem behind schedule and at risk of derailing the entire mission. The workflow was complicated by contamination-control protocols, multiple stakeholders with competing priorities, and a poorly scoped plan. As a result, the program was in crisis with no viable path forward.

  • Initially brought in to support testing, I quickly demonstrated my I&T expertise from prior missions and was asked to lead the recovery effort. I realigned the capable but unfocused team, restructured workflows, and provided the discipline needed to manage precision-clean and contamination-sensitive hardware. I also navigated extensive stakeholder management across project leadership, science teams, and subsystem engineers, ensuring alignment under an accelerated plan.

  • The subsystem was delivered on time for integration, preserving the mission schedule. It performed flawlessly in space, enabling the mission not only to succeed but to exceed expectations by collecting more than double the required sample and returning it safely to Earth. The recovery also marked the start of my reputation as a “chief problem solver,” trusted to step into the most challenging situations and deliver results.

Operations Improvement & Execution

High Stakes Cross-Functional Leadership

This assignment involved leading the integration and test of a mission-critical robotic subsystem for a flagship space program. I managed a 75-person team of engineers, technicians, and QA specialists working across two shifts, coordinating efforts under the immovable deadline of a planetary launch window.

  • The subsystem was months behind schedule and facing technical hurdles that threatened to push testing and verification beyond the fixed launch window. The large team in place was siloed and poorly coordinated, slowing execution.

  • As Integration & Test Manager, I relentlessly planned, re-planned, and adapted to challenges daily—often hourly. I restructured workflows into cross-functional units, implemented detailed scheduling and look-ahead planning, and streamlined communication across all functions. This relentless focus kept the team aligned on critical-path activities.

  • The subsystem was delivered on time and integrated successfully, enabling the program to meet its launch deadline. In the final months, the team operated so effectively that my detailed planning was no longer needed; my role shifted to oversight as the system essentially ran itself. Far from a loss, this was my proudest outcome: I had worked myself out of a job, proving that a good engineer builds teams and processes that make themselves obsolete. Most importantly, the subsystem has since performed flawlessly in operation and is regarded globally as a technical achievement of the highest order.

Resource-Constrained Team Leadership

This assignment involved leading development of a innovative robotic system under a $20M program. The effort was competing for long-term funding to become a flight project, and success hinged on delivering prototypes and testbeds that could prove technical feasibility. With key personnel tied up on other flagship missions, I had to build and lead a ~50-person team working at roughly 50% full-time capacity, supplemented through subcontracts, interns, and university design teams.

  • The program faced severe workforce shortages and resource constraints. Key personnel were unavailable, and the team I was given was fragmented, with changing availability and significant skill gaps. Subsystem development required expertise in robotics, cryogenics, and surface simulation, but limited resources and competing priorities constantly drained talent away. Without results, the project risked losing its case for long-term funding.

  • I provided vision and structure to stabilize the effort. I created robust onboarding tools (a relational database platform to capture and manage workflows), established focused design sprints and efficient stand-ups, and carefully piloted remote communication tools during the early COVID transition. I secured subcontracts for specialized design and subsystem development, leveraged interns and university teams creatively, and relentlessly reassessed plans to adapt to shifting resources.

  • My team delivered robotic prototypes, testbeds chambers, and innovative materials that culminated in a successful Mission Definition Review, strengthening the case for long-term funding. The work earned me NASA’s Voyager Award for leadership excellence and a congressional commendation recognizing the project’s strategic significance.

Securing a $50M Critical Path Contract

This project involved establishing and managing a $50M contract with a Fortune 100 partner for a critical mission subsystem — a first-of-its-kind vehicle designed to return material from another planet. The contract had just been reassigned to my organization, immediately becoming a critical-path challenge with mission success at risk if not executed on time.

  • The program faced a paradox: it needed to contract for a mission-enabling subsystem even though the exact technical requirements were not yet defined. The technology was unprecedented, subject to demanding safety considerations, and carried enormous risk for both NASA and the contractor. Delays in establishing the subcontract would have jeopardized mission success.

  • Although I was not a technical expert in the subsystem, I was selected based on my strong industry relationships and my track record for delivering in high-pressure situations. I worked closely with NASA leadership, general counsel, four partner centers, and the contractor to shape the subcontract as a collaborative framework rather than a rigid set of fixed requirements. I kept stakeholders aligned, relied on technical experts for depth, and ensured legal and executive approvals moved forward without delay.

  • The subcontract was executed on schedule, keeping the subsystem on track and enabling it to pass Preliminary Design Review as one of the earliest deliveries for the mission. The success of this approach established a model for subsequent contracts, and I was later asked to develop training materials for other Contract Technical Managers to share best practices in structuring and managing high-risk, high-complexity contracts.

Independent Audit & Compliance

Independent Audit of a High-Profile Technology Program

I was engaged to conduct an independent audit of a high-profile technology development program that was facing cancellation and had been given a three-month lifeline to prove its viability. In addition to assessing technical readiness, risk posture, and compliance, I was responsible for pulling together the necessary products to demonstrate viability in a critical customer pre-delivery review.

  • The program’s technical readiness and governance were unclear, eroding stakeholder confidence and leaving it at risk of termination.

  • I conducted a comprehensive audit covering requirements traceability, risk registers, and management practices, while also assembling the technical and programmatic products needed for a customer pre-delivery review. These were presented in a clear, executive-level roadmap that enabled objective decision-making.

  • The audit clarified feasibility, strengthened compliance, and secured stakeholder alignment, enabling the program to move forward with confidence rather than face cancellation.

Audit & Stabilization of Systems Engineering

This program faced challenges from an underperforming systems engineering function, which led to delays and uncertainty across subsystems. Gaps in requirements, interfaces, and risk tracking slowed progress, and coordination across multiple NASA centers made alignment more complex. I was brought on to reinforce the systems engineering team and help stabilize the program.

  • Incomplete systems engineering products—spanning requirements, interface definitions, and risk management—were hindering subsystem progress and raising concerns about meeting upcoming milestones. Limited cohesion across centers added to the challenge.

  • Drawing on my experience across multiple full lifecycle projects, I quantified and escalated gaps to project and institutional leadership, advocating for additional resources and corrective action. At the same time, I worked directly with subsystem teams to audit requirements, ICDs, and deliverables, helping them identify risks, resolve mismatches, and move designs forward with greater confidence.

  • The project ultimately met its Preliminary Design Review milestone despite the challenges, supported in part by the mitigations I led at the subsystem level. My efforts built credibility as someone able to identify systemic gaps and maintain momentum under pressure, and when the project was advanced, I was asked to step into a systems engineering lead role.

Digital Engineering & Transformation

Digital Thread in a Complex Program

This effort supported a complex and cutting-edge technology development program involving a highly diverse, multi-functional team. My role as team lead expanded beyond technical leadership when I recognized an opportunity to improve collaboration and traceability.

  • Traditional tools and document-based processes were slowing progress, creating rework, and making it difficult to maintain traceability across design, analysis, and test.

  • While leading the team, I identified the opportunity to implement a model-based approach that would connect requirements, verification, and operations in a unified digital thread. I took the initiative to design, pilot, and roll out this solution—refining it based on feedback, securing adoption through training and onboarding, and influencing wider organizational practices.

  • The new framework reduced onboarding time, improved cross-discipline collaboration, and gave leadership greater confidence in data-driven decisions. Its success led to broader adoption across other programs, creating a scalable model for future initiatives.

Modernizing Workforce Training

This initiative sought to modernize workforce training and career development for a division of ~250 people. The existing system relied on manual spreadsheets and inconsistent tracking, which limited transparency for learners and managers alike.

  • As both a learner and a leader, I experienced firsthand the inefficiencies of the manual training system. Employees had little visibility into their progress or career paths, and managers lacked tools to quickly verify compliance or identify skill gaps.

  • Taking the initiative, I designed and built a relational database from scratch in Airtable, embedding customized dashboards into the company intranet. The system provided learners with progress tracking and career roadmaps while giving managers clear oversight into readiness, compliance, and development gaps. I ran demos and pilot programs to refine the tool and demonstrate its value to leadership.

  • The platform showcased how training management could be transformed from a manual, opaque process into a digital-first system with real-time insights. The system offered scalability, transparency, and long-term workforce development benefits, proving the power of pragmatic digital transformation at the organizational level.