Director of Services Engineering

Director of Service Engineering

Reports to: VP of Engineering

Location: North Sioux City, SD

The Sterling Director of Services Engineering will lead and develop a team of highly skilled delivery engineers dedicated to planning, implementing, and optimizing complex technical solutions for enterprise and U.S. federal government customers, including the Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), and other global federal segments. This is a senior, visible role at Sterling that requires cross-functional collaboration to ensure the successful delivery of transformative IT services and infrastructure projects.

The Director of Services Engineering will attract, recruit, and retain engineers with diverse technical expertise and align them to key federal and enterprise customer segments. As the leader of this team, you will serve as the primary point of escalation, guiding engineers through complex engagements and ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction. You will develop and refine technical delivery strategies that articulate the value of Sterling's offerings and sustain profitable, long-term customer relationships.

We seek a strategic, hands-on leader with deep experience in areas such as servers, storage, cloud, cybersecurity, AI/ML, and compute infrastructuresomeone who can inspire engineers to perform at their best while driving continuous improvement and growth in Sterling's federal and enterprise services portfolio.

Job Experience Requirements: Must have Federal (Civilian or DoD) experience. The ideal candidate will possess a broad understanding of information technology services, including diverse product ecosystems, tools, and solutions. Deep, expert-level experience in infrastructure solutions from vendors such as Dell, Cisco, HPE, VMware, Microsoft, and Red Hat is essential. The Services Engineering Director must combine tactical delivery know-how with strategic visioning, understanding the nuances of technical solution delivery in a federal contracting environment.

Management Responsibilities:

Strategic Services Delivery Leadership:

• Sterling has ambitious growth goals, and we can achieve them only by winning together as a team. We expect our engineers to bring a winning mindset, celebrate successful outcomes, grow their influence, and increase their impact across the business.
• Develop, execute, and measure departmental strategies to successfully deliver complex, mission-critical services to federal customers.
• Translate organizational objectives into actionable service delivery plans that align with corporate-level strategies.
• Ensure engineering capabilities and resources are matched effectively to customer demand and project requirements.
• Maintain strong relationships with key customers and vendor stakeholders to ensure service excellence and profitable growth.
• Partner with internal resources to develop and execute programs that support the department's strategy.
• Align departmental strategies with corporate-level priorities and growth objectives.
• Ensure technical strategies are practical, differentiated, and profitable for the company.

Working Internally as a Team (cross-functional leadership):

• Sterling's selling motions are built on utilizing cross-functional teams to maximize success. Our engineers must work well with peers, vendors, and other segments within our business.
• Work with cross-functional departments to advance initiatives and advocate for customer needs.
• Work with the executive staff to present your strategies and articulate the success of your team.
• Participate in account planning and QBRs with sales and sales leadership.
• Balance customer advocacy with Sterling's business priorities, and clearly communicate organizational goals to team members and customers.

Recruiting:

• Forecast staffing needs, plan staffing levels, and maintain a talent pipeline to meet Sterling's federal and enterprise service delivery goals.
• Work with HR staff to recruit, interview, select, hire, and employ an appropriate number of employees.

Employee Performance Management:

• Lead employees through a clear performance management and development process.
• Clearly communicate job expectations; plan, monitor, and appraise job results against those expectations.
• Provide effective performance feedback through employee recognition, rewards, coaching, counseling, and disciplinary action, with HR support when necessary.
• Develop, coordinate, and enforce systems, policies, procedures, and productivity standards.
• Lead employees to meet Sterling's expectations for productivity, quality, and goal accomplishment.

Employee Development & Coaching:

• Technology is always changing, and we would never expect our SEs to know everything. We do, however, expect our SEs to learn from the experience of our extended engineering group and leadership. We work to minimize mistakes and losses, while recognizing that learning from them is vital.
• We expect our engineers and leaders to continually evolve their knowledge, processes, and influence within the company and with customers. What works today may not work tomorrow, and we need engineering leaders who can prepare for Sterling's future.
• Coach, mentor, and develop team members; provide career development planning and opportunities.
• Successfully onboard new employees and train them to become fully productive team members.
• Empower employees to take responsibility for their jobs and goals.
• Delegate responsibility and expect accountability and regular feedback.

Productive Culture:

• Sterling operates with the speed and accountability of an entrepreneurial business. Our engineers are expected to maximize their time, support team success, exceed sales goals, and build deeper relationships and trust with our customers.
• Consciously create a workplace culture that is consistent with Sterling's overall mission and core values.
• Understand employee morale and create an environment that supports engagement, retention, and high performance.
• Foster teamwork, support, and unity among team members while encouraging healthy disagreement, timely conflict resolution, and appreciation of diverse perspectives.
• Provide oversight and direction to employees to ensure compliance with the company's policies and procedures.

Communication:

• Maintain transparent communication within and between teams.
• Communicate organizational information through department meetings, one-on-one meetings, written updates, and regular interpersonal communication.
• Proactively solicit and listen to employee feedback, and convey it to other leaders or individuals as appropriate.
• Resolve conflicts between individuals and teams.

Core Technical Skillset Requirements (deep experience with one or more in each group)

• Platform Systems : must have a strong understanding of virtualization technologies, including hypervisors such as VMware, Hyper-V, KVM, and Citrix.
• AI/ML Infrastructure & Solutions : should have familiarity with AI/ML solution architectures, including GPU-accelerated compute, model training and inference environments, data pipelines, and scalable infrastructure required to support federal and enterprise AI workloads.
• Data Storage: must have knowledge of storage architecture, including storage area networks (SANs), network-attached storage (NAS), and software-defined storage technologies such as vSAN, Dell, HPE, Pure Storage, NetApp, Qumulo, and Nasuni.
• Network Architecture: should have in-depth knowledge of network architecture, including software-defined networking (SDN) and network virtualization, with familiarity across vendors such as Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto, Juniper, Extreme, Ruckus, VMware, and HPE/Aruba.

Additional Technical Fundamentals (high level familiarity with each group)

• Application & Automation : should have experience with automation tools such as Ansible, Puppet, and Chef to automate the deployment and management of infrastructure, along with high-level familiarity with F5, NGINX, AVI/NSX, Citrix ADC, and A10 Networks.
• Security : should have a strong understanding of security principles, including authentication, authorization, encryption, zero trust, and secure infrastructure design, with familiarity across vendors such as Fortinet, Cisco, Palo Alto, Darktrace, Check Point, Zscaler, Nessus, Mimecast, and Proofpoint.
• Cloud : should be familiar with cloud computing technologies, including public, private, hybrid, and government cloud environments, and be able to recommend the best cloud solution based on customer requirements. Must be familiar with AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and government cloud offerings.
• Cost Optimization : must have a strong understanding of cost optimization techniques, including open-source solutions, right-sizing, capacity planning, and scaling infrastructure based on demand to provide cost-effective solutions to customers.
• DevOps : should be familiar with DevOps practices and tools, including continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, source control, testing frameworks, infrastructure as code, and AI-enabled automation or AIOps concepts.
• AI Governance & Security: should