Ms. Candace Wright, is the SBIR/STTR Program Lead within the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). Her office provides government funding opportunities, including technological innovations by small businesses focusing on DoD major weapons systems acquisitions.
Ms. Wright has served over twelve years within MDA as an acquisition professional, managing cost, schedule, and performance, within several major weapon system program offices to include serving as the Acquisition Lead for the Homeland Defense Radar- Guam and for the multi-billion dollar Ground-
Based Missile Defense System (GMD) Next Generation Interceptor (NGI).
Ms. Wright also completed a competitive rotational assignment as the Executive Officer to the MDA Executive Director in which she supported Agency Senior Leaders with day-to-day mission planning and execution of the Missile Defense System in support of the warfighter.
Prior to her current role, Ms. Wright served as the Division Lead for Program Baseline Support where she successfully led in the coordination, synchronization, standards, policies, and processes of the six Missile Defense Baselines (Contracts, Test, Schedule, Resources, Technical, and Operational Capability). In addition, her organization executed program planning, analysis, execution of Director’s Reviews, and MDA Change Management Processes.
Ms. Wright holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Data Analytics and Statistics from Auburn University. She is Scrum Master Certified and DAWIA Certified in Program Management.