Engineering Operations Execution Lead

maxar; Westminster (CO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Vantor is seeking an Engineering Operations Execution Lead to drive cross-domain engineering initiatives, establish clear ownership and milestones, and deliver measurable outcomes. You will implement AI-enabled, agentic project management to streamline coordination and reduce manual overhead.

You will scale execution through human-in-the-loop decisions, manage portfolio cadences, and collaborate with Product Operations to align roadmaps with engineering priorities, ensuring high-quality

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading complex technical programs across multiple engineering teams or domains.
• Strong technical fluency and credibility with engineering teams and leaders.
• Demonstrated ability to create clarity, accountability, and momentum in ambiguous environments.
• Strong understanding of engineering planning, dependency/risk management, and technical delivery.
• Experience applying AI, automation, or agentic workflows to operational problems, with judgment on human involvement.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-domain engineering initiatives from definition through delivery.
• Establish outcomes, ownership, milestones, dependencies, risks, and decisions.
• Drive resolution of execution gaps and critical issues requiring leadership input.
• Run cadences that focus leaders on decisions and tradeoffs, not just status.
• Scale execution with AI-enabled agentic project management for lower-complexity work.
• Partner with Product Operations and Engineering leaders on roadmap alignment and execution.
• Create concise portfolio views showing initiative health and delivery risks.
• Improve execution data quality in Engineering's systems of record.

Skills

Complex programs

Technical fluency

Ambiguity handling

Planning & risk mgmt

AI workflows

Data-driven visibility

Executive communication

Job description

Vantor is forging the new frontier of spatial intelligence, helping decision makers and operators navigate what's happening now and shape what's coming next. Vantor is a place for problem solvers, changemakers, and go-getters-where people are working together to help our customers see the world differently, and in doing so, be seen differently. Come be part of a mission, not just a job, where you can: Shape your own future, build the next big thing, and change the world.

To be eligible for this position, you must be a U.S. Person, defined as a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, Asylee, or Refugee.

Export Control/ITAR: Certain roles may be subject to U.S. export control laws, requiring U.S. person status as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

Please review the job details below.

The Role

Engineering Operations is building a common operating system for how Engineering plans, executes, measures, and continuously improves its work.

We are looking for an Engineering Operations Execution Lead to drive execution across our engineering portfolio. You will lead complex, cross-domain initiatives, run key planning and portfolio mechanisms, and create clear visibility into dependencies, risks, decisions, and outcomes.

A key part of the role is scaling execution through AI-enabled and agentic project management-using agents to manage routine coordination and lower-complexity initiatives so human program leadership can focus on ambiguity, critical decisions, and high-consequence work.

What You'll Do

Drive Engineering Execution

• Lead complex, cross-domain engineering initiatives from definition through delivery.
• Establish clear outcomes, ownership, milestones, dependencies, risks, and decision points.
• Drive resolution of execution gaps and escape issues requiring leadership decisions.
• Run operating cadences that focus leaders on decisions, exceptions, and tradeoffs-not status collection.
• Apply the appropriate level of rigor based on technical complexity, risk, and mission consequence.

Scale Execution with AI

• Establish and operate an agentic project-management model for lower-complexity engineering initiatives.
• Determine which work requires human program leadership and which can be effectively managed through agents.
• Use agents to automate routine coordination, status synthesis, milestone tracking, evidence collecting, and risk identification.
• Define escalation paths and human-in-the-loop controls for ambiguity, exceptions, and consequential decisions.
• Partner with the Agentic Engineering Lead to improve agent capabilities, context, and integration with Engineering systems of record.
• Measure whether agentic project management is increasing execution coverage while reducing administrative burden.

Operate the Engineering Portfolio

• Run quarterly engineering planning and portfolio operating cadences.
• Maintain visibility into initiative health, cross-team dependencies, resource conflicts, and delivery risks.
• Partner with Product Operations and Engineering leaders on roadmap alignment and execution.
• Create concise, trustworthy portfolio views that allow leaders to quickly identify where intervention is needed.
• Improve the quality of execution data in Engineering's authoritative systems of record.

Continuously Improve

• Identify recurring execution friction and translate it into improvements to the Engineering operating model.
• Reduce manual coordination, reporting, and unnecessary ceremony.
• Partner with the Engineering Operations Principal on standards, governance, and operating-model improvements.
• Drive adoption and feedback loops across Engineering.

What We're Looking For

• Significant experience leading complex technical programs across multiple engineering teams or domains.
• Strong technical fluency and credibility with engineering teams and leaders.
• Demonstrated ability to create clarity, accountability, and momentum in ambiguous environments.
• Strong understanding of engineering planning, dependency and risk management, and technical delivery.
• Experience applying AI, automation, or agentic workflows to operational problems, with strong judgment about where human involvement remains necessary.
• Ability to use data and systems of record to create trustworthy execution visibility.
• Excellent communication, influence, and leadership skills across technical teams and senior leadership.
• A systems mindset with a bias toward simplification, measurable outcomes, and continuous improvement.

What Success Looks Like

• Engineering has clear, trustworthy visibility into portfolio health and execution risk.
• Complex and high-consequence initiatives receive focused human program leadership.
• A growing long tail of lower-complexity initiatives is effectively managed through agentic workflows.
• Leaders spend less time reconciling status and more time making decisions.
• Engineering teams spend less time on manual coordination and reporting.
• Execution becomes more predictable without addin