As executive officer of the National Academy of Engineering, Alton D. Romig, Jr. is the chief operating officer responsible for the program, financial, and membership operations of the academy, reporting to the NAE president.

He was previously vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company Advanced Development Programs, better known as the Skunk Works®. He spent the majority of his career at Sandia National Laboratories, operated by the Lockheed Martin Corporation, having joined Sandia as a member of the technical staff in 1979 and moved through a succession of R&D management positions leading to his appointment as executive vice president in 2005. He served as deputy laboratories director and chief operating officer until 2010, when he transferred to the Skunk Works.

He is active on a number of advisory committees including those at the University of Washington, MIT, Ohio State, Purdue, the Colorado School of Mines, and Sandia. He is also visiting associate of applied physics and materials science at Caltech.

Dr. Romig is a fellow of ASM International, TMS, IEEE, AIAA, and AAAS. He was elected to the NAE in 2003 and the Council on Foreign Relations in 2008, and was awarded the ASM Silver Medal for Materials Research in 1988. He received his BS (1975), MS (1977), and PhD (1979) in materials science and engineering from Lehigh University.