Head of Engineering Excellence & Enablement

Shield AI; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 210,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Benefits

Equity

Job summary

Shield AI in Washington, DC is seeking a Director of Engineering Excellence & Enablement to translate strategy into scalable engineering capabilities and enterprise-wide initiatives. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, this leader partners with cross-functional leaders to improve productivity, governance, and execution maturity across the engineering organization.

This role blends strategy, execution, organizational design, and operational excellence to enable predictable delivery, efficient

Qualifications

• 10+ years of engineering leadership or related experience.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives in large technology organizations.
• 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.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, organizational, and executive presentation skills.
• Analytical mindset with data-driven decision making.

Responsibilities

• 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 rhythms.
• Identify capability gaps and recommend investments in people, processes, tooling, and organizational structure.
• Define and drive engineering excellence initiatives focused on developer productivity, quality, reliability, and continuous improvement.
• Establish metrics and dashboards that provide visibility into health, delivery, and productivity.
• Champion adoption of modern engineering practices, standards, and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Establish and facilitate consistent engineering cadences: planning, reviews, leadership meetings, and retrospectives.
• Drive accountability for execution and resolve organizational bottlenecks across teams.
• Lead enterprise initiatives such as AI enablement, developer experience improvements, and governance.
• Coordinate executive communications, risk management, and stakeholder engagement for enterprise programs.
• Foster a culture of operational excellence and data-informed decision making.

Job description

Shield AI in Washington, DC is seeking a Director of Engineering Excellence & Enablement to translate strategy into scalable engineering capabilities and enterprise-wide initiatives. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, this leader partners with cross-functional leaders to improve productivity, governance, and execution maturity across the engineering organization.

This role blends strategy, execution, organizational design, and operational excellence to enable predictable delivery, efficient