{"id":118849,"url":"https://alion.io/job/shield-ai-director-engineering-excellence-enablement","title":"Director, Engineering Excellence & Enablement","company":{"id":50,"name":"Shield AI","domain":"shield.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/shield-ai","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":61,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.803,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":76,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Washington, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":210000,"max":320000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":320000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-22T03:46:57Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-22","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T22:34:06Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":87,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":87},"description":"Job Description:\nThe Director of Engineering Excellence & Enablement is a strategic leader responsible for improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and execution maturity of the engineering organization. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, this leader partners closely with Engineering, Product, Program Management, and other cross-functional leaders to translate company and product strategy into scalable engineering capabilities, operational rhythms, and enterprise-wide initiatives.\nThis role is equal parts strategy, execution, organizational design, and operational excellence. Success is measured by enabling engineering teams to deliver predictably, operate efficiently, and continuously improve while maintaining alignment across the broader organization.\nWhat you'll do:\nEngineering Strategy & Organizational Enablement\n Partner with the VP of Engineering to translate business and product strategy into engineering capabilities, operating models, and execution plans. \nDevelop and evolve the engineering operating system, including planning processes, governance, decision-making frameworks, and organizational rhythms. \nIdentify capability gaps and recommend investments in people, processes, tooling, and organizational structure. \nEngineering Excellence\nDefine and drive engineering excellence initiatives focused on developer productivity, quality, reliability, operational maturity, and continuous improvement. \nEstablish engineering effectiveness metrics and dashboards that provide visibility into organizational health, delivery performance, and engineering productivity. \nChampion adoption of modern engineering practices, standards, and continuous improvement methodologies. \nOperational Cadence & Execution\nEstablish and facilitate consistent engineering operating cadences including strategic planning, quarterly planning, roadmap reviews, engineering leadership meetings, business reviews, and operational retrospectives/after-action reviews. \nDrive accountability for execution across engineering leadership while identifying and resolving organizational bottlenecks. \nImprove planning accuracy, prioritization, dependency management, and execution predictability. \nEnterprise Engineering Initiatives\nLead complex, cross-functional engineering initiatives that span multiple teams and organizations. \nDrive strategic programs such as AI enablement, developer experience improvements, technical governance, and organizational scaling initiatives. \nCoordinate executive communications, status reporting, risk management, and stakeholder engagement for enterprise programs. \nOrganizational Effectiveness\nPartner with engineering leaders to improve organizational health, team effectiveness, and leadership maturity. \nStandardize engineering processes where appropriate while preserving team autonomy. \nFoster a culture of operational excellence, continuous learning, and data-informed decision making. \nRequired qualifications:\n10+ years of engineering leadership, technical program management, engineering operations, or related experience. \nDemonstrated success leading large-scale cross-functional initiatives in complex technology organizations. \nExperience establishing engineering operating models, governance, planning processes, and execution frameworks. \nStrong understanding of modern software engineering organizations, Agile development, DevOps, and engineering metrics in the Aerospace & Defense industry. \nProven ability to influence senior leaders without relying on direct authority. \nExceptional communication, facilitation, organizational, and executive presentation skills. \nStrong analytical mindset with experience using data to drive organizational improvements. \nPreferred qualifications:\nExperience partnering directly with VP or C-level technology executives. \nExperience scaling engineering organizations through periods of rapid growth or transformation.\nFamiliarity with developer productivity and organizational effectiveness measurement.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3989,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Continuous learning"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Military Drones","Defense Manufacturing","Defense AI","Drone 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