Engineering Excellence & Enablement Director

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 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