Karen Mourikas is an NG Fellow at Northrop Grumman, specializing in Cost Engineering, a sub-discipline of Systems Engineering, with close to 30 years of experience. She started her aerospace career as a software engineer at The Boeing Company before finding her passion in Systems Engineering as an Affordability Analyst. In that role, she developed Life Cycle Cost models, analyzed Cost Risk and Uncertainty, and performed Affordability and Cost-Effectiveness Trade Studies, laying the foundation for a career in Cost Engineering.
Throughout her career, Ms. Mourikas has promoted the paradigm shift from Cost Engineering as a siloed analytical after-thought to being fully integrated into the design cycle, specifically, into Multi-disciplinary Design, Analysis, and Optimization (MDAO) and Model-based Engineering (MBE) environments, enabling cost-performance trade studies early in a product’s life cycle and identification of affordability issues prior to build.
Ms. Mourikas is heavily involved in the International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association (ICEAA), as a founding member of the OEM COG (Original Equipment Manufacturers’ Cooperative Opportunities Group) which received the Service Achievement of the Year award in 2024; co-founder of the Machine Learning Special Interest Group; past-president of the Southern California chapter; and the recipient of the Technical Achievement of the Year award.
She has authored and presented numerous publications at various professional societies such as ICEAA, MORSS (Military Operations Research Society Symposium), and SCAF (Society for Cost Analysts and Forecasting). She received two MS degrees from USC: in Applied Math and in Operations Research Engineering.