Nicholas Sieja
Oahu, HI | (256) 690-6356 | nsieja@gmail.com | linkedin.com/in/nicholas-sieja
Summary
Transitioning submarine officer with 6 years experience leading teams in stressful and high-impact environments. Well practiced in operations and program management, business strategy, and problem solving in resource-constrained environments. Passionate about process improvement and team building. Active U.S. TS/SCI security clearance.
Skills and Abilities
Leadership Skills
- Organizational Decision Making
- Team Building
- Persuasive Communication
- Process Improvement
Managerial Skills
- Program Management
- Project Management
- Quality Management
- Maintenance Management
- Configuration Management
Technical Skills
- Plant Operations
- Quality Assurance
- System Integration
- Acquisitions
- Python Programming
- Data Analysis
Experience
Undersea Mobility Program Manager | Naval Special Warfare Group Eight | May 2023 - Present
- Provided solutions to 5 major undersea capability gaps, resulting in the acquisition or incorporation of 13 updated pieces of technology for a primary swimmer delivery platform.
- Hand-picked by the Executive Director to lead the high visibility command-wide 3-year planning effort to operationalize our most valuable submersible platform with fixed manning and limited budget.
Quality Assurance Officer & Engineering Manager (Concurrent) | USS Hawaii (SSN 776) | Mar 2022 - May 2023
- Ensured over 50 submarine maintenance items and repairs met stringent US Navy standards and trained maintainers using lessons from major quality control disasters.
- Identified 30 quality work deficiencies in my 15 months responsible and developed corrective action plans to perform corrective inspections and rework as necessary.
- Mentored a team of 5 technical managers, resulting in a 100% pass rate on the Nuclear Engineer Officer Exam. My mentorship ensured continuous added value to the morale and operations of the submarine crew.
- Increased accomplishment ratings for a 70-person department by 60% after 25,000 man-hours of work during a multiyear maintenance period by improving maintenance practices and scheduling methods.
- Planned and executed the departmental training program, resulting in over 16,000 man-hours of intentional nuclear training in the 14 months I was responsible.
- Coordinated the incident-free shifting of nuclear plant operations methods to ensure critical electric plant equipment upgrades were completed on schedule.
Operations Manager - Division Officer | USS Hawaii (SSN 776) | Oct 2020 - Mar 2022
- As Main Propulsion Assistant (MPA) and Damage Control Assistant (DCA), managed the operation and maintenance of the submarine’s nuclear propulsion plant and auxiliary systems.
- Planned and directed 1 critical emergent repair while deployed to restore submarine to operational service and complete 2 missions vital to national security.
- Improved a fire response process and conducted multiple 150-person training exercises. My improved plan was used in a 3-hour, 1000-person, $3M federal drill from which an audit found 0 major comments and 1 minor comment.
Education
- Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering | Duke University | Dec 2018
Training and Certifications*
- Project Management Professional (PMP)* | Project Management Institute (PMI)
- Python 360 | eCornell - Computing
- IT Automation with Python | Google
- Understanding and Solving Complex Business Problems | MIT Sloan Executive Education
- Business Ethics | eCornell - Law