PRINCIPAL, TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING

Job Description Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Job Description: The 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.
This 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.
What you'll do: Engineering Strategy & Organizational Enablement

• 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 organizational rhythms.
• Identify capability gaps and recommend investments in people, processes, tooling, and organizational structure.

Engineering Excellence
Define and drive engineering excellence initiatives focused on developer productivity, quality, reliability, operational maturity, and continuous improvement.
Establish engineering effectiveness metrics and dashboards that provide visibility into organizational health, delivery performance, and engineering productivity.
Champion adoption of modern engineering practices, standards, and continuous improvement methodologies.
Establish and facilitate consistent engineering operating cadences including strategic planning, quarterly planning, roadmap reviews, engineering leadership meetings, business reviews, and operational retrospectives/after -action reviews.
Drive accountability for execution across engineering leadership while identifying and resolving organizational bottlenecks.
Enterprise Engineering Initiatives
Lead complex, cross-functional engineering initiatives that span multiple teams and organizations.
Coordinate executive communications, status reporting, risk management, and stakeholder engagement for enterprise programs.
Partner with engineering leaders to improve organizational health, team effectiveness, and leadership maturity.
Standardize engineering processes where appropriate while preserving team autonomy.
Foster a culture of operational excellence, continuous learning, and data-informed decision making.
10+ years of engineering leadership, technical program management, engineering operations, or related experience.

• Experience establishing engineering operating models, governance, planning processes, and execution frameworks.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering organizations, Agile development, DevOps, and engineering metrics in the Aerospace & Defense industry.
• Strong analytical mindset with experience using data to drive organizational improvements.

Experience scaling engineering organizations through periods of rapid growth or transformation.
Full-time regular employee offer package:
Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity

Temporary employee offer package:
Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)

Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.