Northrop Grumman [NOC] announced several senior staffing changes as part of an organizational realignment on Wednesday.

The realignment is meant to improve the performance and drive profitable growth across the company’s aerospace systems portfolio, the company said in a statement.

northropgrummanlogoChris Hernandez was appointed vice president of the newly formed research, technology and advanced design organization. Hernandez will integrate resources to drive basic and advanced research; technology development; and advanced design to continue delivering solutions to customers. This includes the rapid prototyping expertise of the company’s business unit, Scaled Composites, Northrop Grumman said.

Mary Petryszyn was appointed vice president of the newly formed global business development organization. Previously, Petryszyn led the international organization. In this role she is set to integrate the sector’s business development and strategy organizations to align with the company’s growing global business areas.

“This alignment underscores the company’s single worldwide strategy,” the company said.

Hernandez and Petryszyn will report to Tom Vice, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

Tom Pieronek was appointed vice president of basic research, a position reporting to Hernandez. In this position Pieronek will lead collaborative research groups to identify, develop and align core science capabilities to enable key markets and new business areas, Northrop Grumman said.

“Optimizing our resources and operations keeps us at the forefront of our industry. We are nimble in our ability to align teams and resources to anticipate and respond to current and projected requirements of our customers. Bringing our highly collaborative teams together is the right move,” Vice said in a statement.