He’s a numbers cruncher for NASA responsible for $1.4 billion annually

Back before preteens aspired to be influencers, lots of kids thought about space exploration. Joshua Green ’02 sure did.

“I always wanted to be an astronaut,” he says. “However, that did not seem to pan out, especially knowing my strengths.”

Math was his superpower, he explains. And, ultimately, it did land him at NASA.

Back in 2000, without his knowledge, FIU’s career services office forwarded the accounting major’s resume. He got a phone interview and an offer: the chance to intern at Dryden Flight Research Center on the edge of the Mojave Desert in California.

“I had already lined up a job doing tax preparation services,” Green recalls. “So I had to back out of that, because I figured, hey, this NASA thing is a little more prestigious, and who knows where it'll take me?”

Talk about an understatement.

Aside from pursing a degree from a nationally ranked accounting program, Green says, “What they saw, honestly, I'm not entirely sure of.” He had a history of what he calls “hard work” to his credit. “My jobs to that point had been gritty,” he says of maintenance and janitorial roles for a school and a church. “I did everything from working on the grounds to cleaning up kids' puke.”

In support of rocket science

Whether any of that impressed his potential employer, one thing is certain: NASA got the right guy. A quarter-century later, Green supervises 20 people and manages a $1.4 billion annual budget supporting the Low Earth Orbit Program, the Moon Base Program and the Commercial Access to Space Program. (NASA’s total annual budget exceeds $24 billion.) And, yes, he is the one who “Venmos” SpaceX and Blue Origin when the private companies send payloads into space for the agency.

In addition to his initial stint out west – where he thrilled to a landscape with proximity to desert, ocean and mountains with snow skiing – Green spent time at NASA Headquarters in D.C. before making Kennedy Space Center his permanent base. He likens the latter to a small city when explaining what he does.

“Anything that you need in a regular city, you need at Kennedy Space Center,” he says, “which includes accountants.”

And while some might consider his work a bit pedestrian – it involves following budgetary guidelines set by Congress, getting “very creative to maximize dollars” and trying to “squeeze out every single penny” – the environment is anything but.

He and fellow administrative staff under the CFO serve as part of an integrated team that includes the engineers and other technical people who together work toward shared goals.

“All their successes are our successes,” Green says in a plug for those who handle the money side of the multi-million-dollar missions. “We ensure that they have the funds available to do the technical aspects and get the payloads or the astronauts off the ground.”

Leaning on faith, family and a business degree

Meeting the astronauts, watching launches from the control center and familiarizing themselves with various aspects of the missions they serve – like touring a lab that preps agriculture experiments destined for space – keeps non-tech team members engaged and promotes a sense of collective ownership, Green says.

And helping him as a leader charged with ensuring that everyone reaches their potential: lessons gained during his days on campus. Green mentions specifically the group projects assigned in his business courses, which could risk failure if not everyone pulled their weight.

“I try to incorporate what I learned from those experiences into day-to-day life,” says Green, who also relies on his Christian faith as a grounding force. “I just try to build those relationships with everybody. As a supervisor, I try to give people flexibility to come up with creative solutions, give them the encouragement and the ability to be successful.”

And while that approach has kept him steadily rising through the ranks, at least one group appears indifferent to his professional accomplishments: his kids.

Green has seven children, four of whom were adopted from abroad and have special needs. He credits his high school-sweetheart wife with encouraging a large family. Ranging in ages from 12 to 22, they have seen enough liftoffs that the excitement has waned, he says. Even so, he relishes the busy role of dad and will walk a daughter down the aisle in January. Life is full.

But still, one wonders: NASA has made a big deal of launching teachers into space. Are there any plans to send up an accountant?

“Not yet,” Green says, “but if they open that up, I will be the first one volunteering.”

Joshua Green with his wife, alumna Katie Hutchinson Green ’02, and their children