Roger Baird has been appointed as associate director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA said Tuesday Baird will oversee the center’s business operations ensuring execution and integration of mission support enterprise functions and budget management. He will also be a senior adviser focused on advancing the center’s future direction.
In his new leadership role, Baird will be responsible for leading around 7,000 civil service and contract employees while also managing Marshall’s $5 billion annual budget. He will also offer his guidance and expertise to the center’s mission support areas and various human spaceflight, science and technology programs, which are vital to NASA’s missions.
Joseph Pelfrey, director of Marshall Space Flight Center, described Baird as an “excellent addition” to the center’s executive team.
“His dedication to NASA’s missions has helped shape Marshall into a powerful technical solutions provider for the agency and our industry partners. Roger’s leadership will be invaluable in this new era of space exploration,” Pelfrey said.
Prior to his appointment, Baird served as the associate director for operations at Marshall’s Directorate from 2020 to 2024, having been detailed to the position since 2019. In this role, Baird managed a team of 2,500 people and a yearly budget of $550 million. They were responsible for the planning and execution of engineering project management and integration activities for the center’s programs, including evaluating spacecraft, payloads and launch vehicle systems.
The Birmingham, Alabama native first joined NASA in 1990 and has been with the agency for 34 years now. He started out with Marshall’s Astrionics Laboratory as an avionics engineer before serving in various leadership roles in different departments. He eventually became the manager of the Engineering Resource Management Office in 2018.
Baird graduated from the University of Alabama in Birmingham with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
