Frank J. Groen

Dr. Frank J. Groen is currently serving as the Acting Director for the Mission Support Integration Office within NASA’s Mission Support Directorate. This office supports the reduction of institutional risks by improving business processes, increasing efficiency, and providing consistency and uniformity across institutional capabilities and services.

Prior to being appointed to this detail position in August 2024, Groen was the deputy chief of NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA), which provides policy direction, assessment and support for agency Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) activities.

Previously, Frank was the director of the Safety and Assurance Requirements Division within OSMA, responsible for the development and maintenance of NASA’s SMA directives and standards, and related methods, tools and guidance.

He started his career at NASA in 2007 as OSMA’s manager for Reliability and Maintainability. In this position, he also served as manager for NASA’s Human Rating and Orbital Debris mitigation directives. He was NASA’s representative to the Committee of Space Research’s Panel on Planetary Protection and a member of the International Space Station Advisory Committee.

Before joining NASA, Frank was active in academia and industry, where he focused on method and tool development in the field of reliability and risk assessment, with a focus on Bayesian data analysis, accident scenario modeling and Monte Carlo simulation.

He received his Doctor of Philosophy in reliability engineering from the University of Maryland and a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from the Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.