Christopher J. Williams

Christopher J. Williams is the deputy director of Aeronautics at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. In this capacity, he is responsible for the project management, workforce planning, budget oversight, and executive leadership of Glenn’s aeronautics research and development activities in support of the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. Immediately prior to his appointment, he served as the acting deputy director of Aeronautics at NASA Glenn.

Prior to this appointment, Williams served as the directorate’s integration manager, and before that, he served on a detail with the NASA Headquarters Office of Strategic Infrastructure (OSI). While serving with the OSI, he was the deputy project manager on the Mission Support Future Architecture Program where he worked to outline OSI’s new Enterprise Operating Model responsible for delivery of the agency’s facilities, logistics, aircraft, and environmental services.

Before his assignment in aeronautics leadership at Glenn, Williams served as the chief of the Facilities Management and Integration Division in 2015. In this role, he managed Glenn’s institutional and test facilities programs and oversaw budget, planning, and execution processes for the facilities, fabrication, logistics, environmental, and aircraft services at the center.

He began his career at Glenn in 1999 as a contractor supporting the Facilities Division. After becoming a civil servant in 2009, he served as a project civil engineer, project manager, team lead, and Construction of Facilities Program manager.

Williams is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal. He studied civil engineering at Case Western Reserve University and earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from Cleveland State University.