Lori Zipes has dedicated her career to serving the United States Navy as an engineer in the research and development-focused Naval Warfare Centers. Zipes is currently the command chief engineer at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division – the first woman at any of the 10 warfare centers to serve in this role. In this position, she is responsible for ensuring the quality and rigor of the execution of technical work, leading a technical career competency program, and guiding the center’s transformation to a fully digital engineering organization.

She is also serving in a rotational assignment as the acting NSWC headquarters chief engineer, with oversight of all 10 of the Navy warfare centers.

Zipes began her career at NSWC Panama City Division (PCD) in 1991. Over the next 20 years, she rotated through all three major technical departments, working on projects including diver tools for ship husbandry; shipboard firefighting systems; amphibious craft mission planning systems; joint command and control systems; land mine clearing systems; and modeling and simulation for helicopter signature emulation. During this time, she progressed from engineering roles to engineering leadership and project management roles.

Zipes was selected to serve as the senior systems engineer for the Mine Warfare Sustainment Division in 2010. In this position, she strived to ensure technical excellence and led the division toward the use of best system engineering practices. In her next role as the NSWC PCD systems engineering competency lead, she led significant improvements in the skills and capabilities of the engineering workforce. She was instrumental in developing and implementing a competency-based career development program across the organization. Zipes then served as the chief engineer for the Science and Technology Department at NSWC PCD, where she focused on applying appropriate levels of technical rigor while still preserving an innovative culture in a research environment.

Zipes transferred to NSWC Crane in August 2019 to serve as the chief engineer for cybersecurity in the Expeditionary Electromagnetic Warfare Division. While in this role, she also assisted with command-level efforts related to digital engineering and internal investment planning.

Zipes gained significant professional experience and achievements through her involvement with the International Council on Systems Engineering, known as INCOSE, notably publishing the INCOSE Systems Engineering Competency Framework (2018) and the related Systems Engineering Competency Assessment Guide, published by Wiley in 2023. INCOSE recognized both publications with its Product of the Year award.

Zipes attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a B.S. in ocean engineering, followed by an M.S. in ocean engineering specializing in underwater acoustics. She later completed a second M.S. in systems engineering through the Naval Postgraduate School, graduating with distinction.

Zipes and her husband of 29 years, Paul, are proud of their two adult children, and enjoy family outdoor activities, traveling, and cooking. She also enjoys reading, sewing, and singing.