Todd M. Nygren is the vice president of Defense Space Acquisition (DSA) in the Defense Systems Group at The Aerospace Corporation. In this role, Nygren leads the corporation’s efforts in space and ground acquisition support to Space Systems Command to outpace the threat in the design, development, and operations of game-changing warfighting capabilities. He further looks to strengthen the corporation’s ability to integrate across the many customer organizations to enable our nation’s preeminent space enterprise. Nygren was elected to this position on October 1, 2023.
Prior to this, Nygren was the senior vice president of the Engineering and Technology Group (ETG) at Aerospace, responsible for leading the group which comprises nearly half of the corporation’s technical staff and provides support to all national security space programs in the areas of space and launch vehicles, electronics and sensors, computers and software, communications and networking, and systems engineering and architecting. ETG also includes the corporate physical sciences laboratories and the corporate research portfolio.
Previously, Nygren was general manager of the Corporate Chief Engineer’s Office (CCEO) and corporate chief engineer at Aerospace. In this role, he was responsible for leading efforts within the corporation and externally to advance mission assurance practices, identify improvements in engineering developments and practices, engage with industry and senior customers, and accelerate the growth of new architectures and capabilities in the national security space enterprise with a special focus on integrating the space enterprise. In addition to his role as the corporate chief engineer, Nygren established the corporation’s inaugural support to the portfolio architect as part of the Space and Missile Systems Center 2.0 initiative, with key goals of establishing integrated architectures that can outpace the threat.
Nygren joined Aerospace as a summer hire in 1985 and then again, as a member of the technical staff, in 1987. He held positions of varying responsibility in the MILSATCOM Division, culminating in 2002 as principal director, EHF Systems, where he oversaw the program definition and eventual development of the AEHF space, ground control, and mission planning elements; the Enhanced Polar Systems; and sustainment of the legacy Milstar system. Nygren then served as general manager in the Systems Engineering Division and the Development Planning and Architecture Division.
Education
Nygren received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Bethel College and master’s degree in system architecting and engineering from the University of Southern California.