Director, Engineering Excellence & Enablement

Shieldai; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Bonus

Benefits

Job summary

Shield AI seeks a Director of Engineering Excellence & Enablement in Washington, DC area to lead strategic initiatives that heighten engineering effectiveness and execution maturity. You will translate product strategy into scalable capabilities, drive an engineering operating system, and partner with cross-functional leaders to enable predictable delivery.

The role emphasizes strategy, organizational design, and operational excellence to improve developer productivity, quality, and performance

Qualifications

• 10+ years of engineering leadership, technical program management, or engineering operations.
• Experience leading large cross-functional initiatives in complex tech environments.
• Experience establishing operating models, governance, planning processes, and execution frameworks.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering, Agile, DevOps, and engineering metrics in aerospace/defense.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders without direct authority.
• Exceptional communication, facilitation, and executive presentation skills.
• Strong analytical mindset with data-driven improvement experience.
• Experience partnering with VP/C-level technology executives.
• Experience scaling engineering teams during rapid growth or transformation.
• Familiarity with developer productivity and organizational effectiveness measurement.

Responsibilities

• Partner with VP of Engineering to translate strategy into engineering capabilities, operating models, and execution plans.
• Develop and evolve the engineering operating system with planning processes, governance, decision frameworks, and rhythms.
• Identify capability gaps and recommend investments in people, processes, tooling, and structure.
• Define and drive engineering excellence initiatives focused on productivity, quality, reliability, and maturity.
• Establish dashboards to monitor organizational health, delivery performance, and productivity.
• Drive cross-functional programs spanning multiple teams and organizations.
• Coordinate executive communications, status reporting, risk management, and stakeholder engagement.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Cross-functional leadership

Program management

Agile/DevOps

Executive communication

Data-driven decision making

Stakeholder management

Scaling engineering orgs

Job description

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BATaircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.

Job Description

The Director of Engineering Excellence & Enablement is a strategic leader responsible for improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and execution maturity of the engineering organization. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, this leader partners closely with Engineering, Product, Program Management, and other cross-functional leaders to translate company and product strategy into scalable engineering capabilities, operational rhythms, and enterprise-wide initiatives.

This role is equal parts strategy, execution, organizational design, and operational excellence. Success is measured by enabling engineering teams to deliver predictably, operate efficiently, and continuously improve while maintaining alignment across the broader organization.

Engineering Strategy & Organizational Enablement

• Partner with the VP of Engineering to translate business and product strategy into engineering capabilities, operating models, and execution plans.
• Develop and evolve the engineering operating system, including planning processes, governance, decision-making frameworks, and organizational rhythms.
• Identify capability gaps and recommend investments in people, processes, tooling, and organizational structure.

Engineering Excellence

• Define and drive engineering excellence initiatives focused on developer productivity, quality, reliability, operational maturity, and continuous improvement.
• Establish engineering effectiveness metrics and dashboards that provide visibility into organizational health, delivery performance, and engineering productivity.
• Champion adoption of modern engineering practices, standards, and continuous improvement methodologies.

Operational Cadence & Execution

• Establish and facilitate consistent engineering operating cadences including strategic planning, quarterly planning, roadmap reviews, engineering leadership meetings, business reviews, and operational retrospectives/after-action reviews.
• Drive accountability for execution across engineering leadership while identifying and resolving organizational bottlenecks.
• Improve planning accuracy, prioritization, dependency management, and execution predictability.

Enterprise Engineering Initiatives

• Lead complex, cross-functional engineering initiatives that span multiple teams and organizations.
• Drive strategic programs such as AI enablement, developer experience improvements, technical governance, and organizational scaling initiatives.
• Coordinate executive communications, status reporting, risk management, and stakeholder engagement for enterprise programs.

Organizational Effectiveness

• Partner with engineering leaders to improve organizational health, team effectiveness, and leadership maturity.
• Standardize engineering processes where appropriate while preserving team autonomy.
• Foster a culture of operational excellence, continuous learning, and data-informed decision making.

• 10+ years of engineering leadership, technical program management, engineering operations, or related experience.
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale cross-functional initiatives in complex technology organizations.
• Experience establishing engineering operating models, governance, planning processes, and execution frameworks.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering organizations, Agile development, DevOps, and engineering metrics in the Aerospace & Defense industry.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders without relying on direct authority.
• Exceptional communication, facilitation, organizational, and executive presentation skills.
• Strong analytical mindset with experience using data to drive organizational improvements.
• Experience partnering directly with VP or C-level technology executives.
• Experience scaling engineering organizations through periods of rapid growth or transformation.
• Familiarity with developer productivity and organizational effectiveness measurement.

Full-time regular employee offer package:

Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity

Temporary employee offer package:

Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)

Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed toequal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.