John Contardi has been selected as the Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS) senior director of Mission Assurance, comprised of Counterintelligence; Environmental, Safety & Health; Quality Services & Support; Security & Emergency Services; Nuclear Assurance; Operations Assurance; and Field Intelligence Element. MSTS is the management and operating contractor for the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS).
Since 2017, John has served in the role of director of Nuclear Assurance for MSTS, reporting directly to the Mission Assurance senior director. In this role, he has been integrated into all the functional areas within Mission Assurance and interfaces daily at a leadership level with the Nevada Field Office, the national laboratories, and MSTS executives and managers.
John brings 23 years of experience at U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration facilities, national laboratories and federal agencies, serving in progressively responsible roles across multiple functional areas involving nuclear facility safety and security, design and operations. He has a broad knowledge of nuclear operations, management, oversight and technical areas of expertise, such as contractor assurance, quality and safety, conduct of engineering and operations, radiological operations and nuclear facility startup/restart activities. His military experience brings familiarity with applications related to safeguards and security as well as counterintelligence. As a result, he has built strong relationships and lines of communications and has a firm understanding of the responsibilities, challenges and long-term goals that are fundamental to successful leadership of all Mission Assurance functional areas at the NNSS.
John’s educational background includes a B.S. in chemical engineering (with high honors) from Georgia Institute of Technology, an M.S. in health physics from Georgia Institute of Technology, and an M.S. in environmental systems engineering from Clemson University.