Bill Hill is the director of the Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) Directorate at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Named to the position in January 2021, he is primarily responsible for planning and directing all safety, Reliability, and Quality Engineering and Assurance operations for Marshall and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. Under his leadership, the organization works to protect all team members, processes, facilities and hardware and to develop and oversee safety planning, procedures and response across Marshall partner facilities, laboratories, test stands and proving grounds.
A career NASA civil servant since 1994, Hill joined Marshall in 2019 as director for advanced technology in the Science and Technology Office, then became deputy director of the SMA Directorate in 2020.
From 2014-2019, he was deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., providing executive leadership and program direction for development of the Space Launch System, Orion crew vehicle, Exploration Ground Systems programs and overall systems integration.
From 2005-2016, Hill was assistant associate administrator for the space shuttle in the Space Operations Mission Directorate, where he safely executed the last 21 flight missions of the Space Shuttle Program through final assembly of the International Space Station and the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
He was appointed in 2006 to the Senior Executive Service, the personnel system covering top managerial positions in federal agencies.
Hill joined the Space Shuttle Office at NASA Headquarters in 2002 as a senior integration manager. He led Return-to-Flight activities following the 2003 loss of space shuttle Columbia, including directing response and recovery activities and leading the preparation of NASA's response to the findings and recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He also was the lead safety manager for space shuttle operations in Headquarters’ Office of Safety and Mission Assurance.
Hill earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1979 from West Virginia University Institute of Technology, then located in Montgomery, West Virginia, and a master’s degree in business administration and management in 1996 from Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland. He is a recipient of the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service, a NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the Space Flight Awareness Silver Snoopy award and numerous other agency awards.
