Engineering Excellence Strategy Leader

Shield AI; Washington; On-site; USD 210,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Equity

Benefits

Job summary

Shield AI seeks a Director of Engineering Excellence & Enablement to translate business goals into scalable engineering capabilities and execution plans. You will partner with the VP of Engineering to design the operating system, governance, and rhythms that drive developer productivity and enterprise alignment.

The role emphasizes engineering excellence, metrics-driven decisions, and cross-functional collaboration across engineering, product, and program management.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of engineering leadership or related experience.
• Experience leading large-scale cross-functional initiatives.
• Experience establishing operating models, governance, planning processes, and execution frameworks.
• Strong understanding of Agile, DevOps, and engineering metrics in Aerospace & Defense.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders without direct authority.
• Exceptional communication, facilitation, organizational, and executive presentation skills.
• Strong analytical mindset with data-driven improvements.

Responsibilities

• Translate business and product strategy into engineering capabilities, operating models, and execution plans.
• Develop and evolve the engineering operating system with planning processes, governance, and rhythms.
• Identify capability gaps and invest in people, processes, tooling, and structure.
• Define and drive engineering excellence initiatives focusing on productivity, quality, reliability, and maturation.
• Establish metrics and dashboards to monitor health, delivery, and productivity.
• Set up and facilitate cadence – strategic planning, quarterly reviews, roadmaps, executive meetings, retrospectives.
• Lead cross-functional enterprise initiatives spanning multiple teams and organizations.
• Coordinate executive communications, risk management, and stakeholder engagement.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Cross-functional leadership

Technical program management

Engineering operations

Agile methodologies

DevOps

Data-driven decision making

Executive communication

Tools

Governance frameworks

Job description

Shield AI seeks a Director of Engineering Excellence & Enablement to translate business goals into scalable engineering capabilities and execution plans. You will partner with the VP of Engineering to design the operating system, governance, and rhythms that drive developer productivity and enterprise alignment.

The role emphasizes engineering excellence, metrics-driven decisions, and cross-functional collaboration across engineering, product, and program management.