Huntington Ingalls Industries announced that Brandi Smith has been named program director of the Columbia-class submarine program at the company’s Newport News Shipbuilding division. In this new role, Smith will be responsible for leading the company’s construction activities for the U.S. Navy’s new class of ballistic-missile submarines, as well as maintaining strong relationships with General Dynamics Electric Boat and Navy customers. Smith began her career at Newport News in 2002 as an engineer in the carrier overhaul program. She has held positions of increasing responsibility throughout her career, including interim director of construction engineering for the Ford-class, engineering lead for Integrated Digital Shipbuilding (iDS), and most recently director of quality control responsible for all nuclear, non-nuclear, and non-destructive testing (NDT) inspectors.