Director Engineering - Site Lead

Elbit America, Inc.; Merrimack (NH); On-site; USD 170,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

9/80 schedule

Competitive compensation

401(k) program

Medical/dental/vision coverage

Life insurance

Paid parental leave

Employee referral program

Tricare supplement

Job summary

Twenty-Six Defense in Merrimack, NH seeks a Director of Engineering to provide strategic and operational leadership for product delivery and technology solutions. The Site Lead role advocates for the engineering organization, driving engagement and cross-functional collaboration across the site.

The role focuses on workforce planning, budget development, and a culture of continuous learning and innovation, with responsibility for safety, business continuity, and performance across engineering

Qualifications

• Direct a business unit with for-profit focus and measure profitability.
• Translate strategic goals into departmental plans and track progress.
• Provide accurate information to meet commitments and deadlines.
• Identify customer needs and propose appropriate solutions.
• Understand lean manufacturing and supply chain concepts.
• Demonstrate advanced knowledge of quality systems and compliance.
• Communicate clearly with stakeholders and leadership.
• Lead a team and mentor staff to achieve results.
• Commit to continuous learning and improvement.
• Demonstrate confidentiality and integrity in operations.
• Experience in defense/military domain is preferred.
• Understand cost and price calculations and P&L basics.

Responsibilities

• Anticipates resource needs and secures staffing, training, equipment, and budget resources.
• Serve as site leader, driving engagement and operational excellence.
• Optimize resources, control costs, and improve efficiency while preserving quality.
• Prepare cost estimates and defend budget proposals with data-driven justifications.
• Foster collaboration and resolve conflicts to align with enterprise objectives.
• Build trust and teamwork through proactive communication and coaching.
• Delegate effectively to maximize leadership impact and productivity.
• Communicate duties and priorities to engineering managers and teams.
• Align individual roles with organizational goals and adjust as needed.
• Solicit feedback to improve performance and outputs.
• Encourage staff training and participation in relevant workshops.
• Other duties as assigned by Senior Management.
• Travel up to 25% of the time.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Budgeting

Lean manufacturing

Quality systems

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Mentorship

Talent development

Staff management

Safety compliance

Cost analysis

Accounting basics

Strategic leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics or relevant technical discipline

Tools

ERP systems

Job description

Job Summary: The Director of Engineering provides strategic and operational leadership to ensure the successful delivery of products, services, and technology solutions that meet customer and business objectives. This role is responsible for establishing and executing the engineering vision, organizational structure, and strategic roadmap while driving excellence in quality, innovation, process improvement, talent development, and financial performance. The Director fosters a high-performing engineering culture, enables effective cross-functional collaboration, and ensures teams are aligned to organizational priorities and business goals.

As the Engineering Site Lead, the role also serves as the primary advocate and representative for the local engineering organization, promoting employee engagement, technical collaboration, and a culture of continuous learning and innovation across all engineering functions. The Site Lead drives site-wide initiatives, supports workforce planning and talent attraction efforts, coordinates executive and customer visits, and partners with functional leaders to address operational, facility, safety, and business continuity needs. Additionally, the Site Lead provides leadership and mentorship beyond direct reporting relationships, helping to strengthen organizational effectiveness, technical excellence, and employee experience across the engineering community.

Responsibilities and Tasks:

• Anticipates current and future resource requirements and actively partners across the organization to secure staffing, training, infrastructure, equipment, and budget resources that enable successful execution of engineering initiatives.
• Serve as the site leader for the engineering organization, driving a culture of engagement, collaboration, and operational excellence while aligning local talent, workforce, and business initiatives with enterprise strategic objectives.
• Drive a culture of fiscal accountability and operational excellence by optimizing resources, controlling costs, and improving efficiency while maintaining product quality and business outcomes, fostering a culture that values and rewards responsible resource management.
• Directs the preparation of highly accurate and precise estimates of costs, obtaining the most recent cost estimates from vendors, catalogs or internal allocations.
• Develop and defend departmental and site budget proposals, ensuring accurate, data-driven justifications that align with organizational priorities and secure timely management approval.
• Foster a collaborative, high-performing culture by constructively managing conflict, facilitating resolution, and building alignment around mutually beneficial solutions.
• Encourages and builds mutual trust, respect and cooperation among team members by seizing opportunities and utilizing creative methods to build team cooperation and cohesion.
• Effectively delegates responsibilities to ensure organizational goals are achieved on schedule, assigning tasks that are not core to the director's role to optimize leadership focus and overall team productivity.
• Communicates clear duties, responsibilities, and priorities to engineering managers, ensuring they fully understand their roles and can set specific, attainable performance goals aligned with organizational objectives.
• Explains relationship between individual work tasks and overall organizational objectives, continually rethinks job duties and responsibilities as organizational objectives shift and communicates new roles and responsibilities to employees as appropriate.
• Solicits feedback from multiple sources during and following task completion related to the assigned product or project to ensure employee tasks are performed correctly and to learn how employee and team performance can be improved.
• Encourages departmental staff to attend relevant training and workshops to broaden skills explaining why training is relevant to employee's career and improves the performance of the company.
• Other related duties as assigned by Senior Management.

Skills Abilities:

• Successful experience in directing a business unit with a for-profit company.
• Ability to implement departmental strategic goals and monitor their progress.
• Provide thorough, accurate information to answer customers' questions and to meet commitment times or performance guarantees.
• Actively look for ways to help customers by identifying and proposing appropriate solutions and/or services, adjusting services based on customer feedback.
• An understanding of how to direct programs & projects through lean manufacturing and good supply chain management.
• Have an advanced understanding of quality systems that result in quality work.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Advanced computer skills that include using electronic information for timely decisions.
• Ability to lead and inspire department staff to accomplish successful business results by working effectively in teams while solving technical problems.
• Recognized leadership abilities and willingness to take initiative.
• Willingness to learn and improve.
• Maintain confidentiality as appropriate about matters encountered in the workplace.
• Treat managers and peers with respect.
• Practice honesty with regard to company time and property.
• Accept help from managers & supervisors and peers.
• Have a desire to learn about all the products or services of the organization
• Ability to communicate to senior management with suggestions and critical feedback.
• Advanced knowledge of the defense and military industry with specific knowledge about the customer base for the assigned product.
• Ability to determine cost and price of products
• Fundamentals of Accounting with Profit and loss calculations.
• Choose behaviors and/or actions that best support the team and lead toward the accomplishment of work tasks
• Effectively change plans, goals, actions or priorities to deal with changing situations, changing gears in response to unpredictable or unexpected events.
• Be able to develop and generate a number of different approaches to problems.
• Observe and evaluate the outcomes of implementing the solution to assess the need for alternative approaches and to identify lessons learned.

Education, Experience, License, or Certification:

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics or relevant technical discipline
• 10+ years of relevant experience; 4+ years of formal management experience required
• Training Pre-requisites (Within One Year of Taking Position):
  • ESD
  • Safety Training, as dictated by Safety Department

Travel/Physical Requirements:

• Up to 25% travel expected.

Here Are Some of the Great Benefits We Offer:

• Most locations offer a 9/80 schedule, providing every other Friday off
• Competitive compensation & 401(k) program to plan for your future
• Robust medical, dental, vision, & disability coverage with qualified wellness discounts
• Basic Life Insurance and Additional Life & AD&D Insurances are available
• Flexible Vacation & PTO
• Paid Parental Leave
• Generous Employee Referral Program
• Voluntary Benefits Available: Long-Term Care, Legal, Identity Theft, Pet Insurance, and more
• Voluntary Tricare Supplement available for military retirees

This job description does not list all the duties of the job. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. The job description is not an employment contract. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position.

Twenty-Six Defense is an equal opportunity employer as to all protected groups, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

*For Virginia-based positions only* In accordance with Virginia DOL requirements, the listed salary range reflects the anticipated base pay range for this role. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including skills, experience, education, certifications, business needs, internal equity, and geographic location. Compensation may vary in different locations based on market conditions and cost-of-labor considerations.