Kim Howard

Vice President, F-35 Production Operations
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics

Kim Howard is the vice president of F-35 Production Operations for Lockheed Martin Corporation. In this capacity, she leads all manufacturing for the F-35 Lightning II program. This includes all aspects of planning and execution of production for the three F-35 variants for nine partner countries and three foreign military customers.

Previously, Ms. Howard was director of Production Operations for Integrated Air and Missile Defense for Lockheed Martin Corporation’s Missiles and Fire Control. In that role, she was responsible for all aspects of the build and delivery of upper tier, lower tier, and evolutionary development for air and missile defense systems.

She previously served as director of Operations Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for Lockheed Martin Corporation’s Missiles and Fire Control. In that role, she was responsible for all aspects of functional responsibility for Enterprise Operations Engineering and Planning, including Manufacturing Engineering for Dallas and Orlando, Industrial Engineering, Productivity Initiatives, Performance Management Teams, and the Advanced Manufacturing Technology group.

Prior to joining Missiles and Fire Control, she was the Director of Production Operations for the Integrated Fighter Group at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. In this role, Ms. Howard had responsibility for all aspects of cost, schedule and quality leading to the successful build, delivery and flight testing of F-16 aircraft, F-22 aircraft, and F-2 components. She oversaw execution, strategy development and coordination for both programs across the Aeronautics enterprise.  She had worked on the F-16, F-22, and F-2 programs for over 25 years and held several leadership positions in sustainment, engineering, and production.

Ms. Howard graduated from Texas Tech University with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. She is a graduate of the Executive Assessment & Development program and has completed several Lockheed Martin leadership development programs.