Director of Engineering

The Director of Engineering is the senior technical execution leader responsible for ensuring that engineering across all VES programs is delivered with technical integrity architectural coherence and operational excellence.

This role serves as the primary technical execution authority across programs and acts as the first point of technical escalation for complex cross-domain engineering challenges. The Director partners closely with the CTO to translate technical vision into executable reality while independently resolving the majority of day-to-day technical and integration challenges that arise across the portfolio.

The Director of Engineering is a deeply technical systems-level leader capable of understanding and reasoning about complex software systems infrastructure and security concerns and of guiding teams through difficult technical decisions under delivery pressure.

This role is located in Aberdeen Proving Ground MD and may require travel about 25%.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Execution

• Lead and oversee engineering execution across multiple concurrent programs ensuring solutions meet cost schedule performance quality and architectural expectations.
• Serve as the primary technical execution lead across the organization with authority to make technical decisions necessary to unblock delivery and resolve engineering challenges.
• Act as the first escalation point for complex technical problems integration failures and cross-program dependencies independently driving solutions for the majority of issues before CTO involvement is .
• Apply deep systems-level technical judgment to diagnose frame and resolve difficult engineering problems spanning software systems infrastructure deployment and security.
• Ensure engineering decisions made under delivery pressure preserve long-term system maintainability reliability and scalability.

Architecture Standards and Technical Coherence

• Develop and maintain a deep understanding of VES engineering processes standards and technical expectations and ensure they are applied consistently across programs.
• Partner with Principal Engineers to review and approve system architectures technical approaches and major design decisions.
• Ensure architectural consistency and technical coherence across programs while allowing appropriate flexibility to meet mission and customer needs.
• Identify systemic technical issues recurring failure modes and architectural debt across the portfolio and drive corrective action.

Principal Engineer Collaboration

• Work closely with Principal Engineers (Mission Command Land Systems Emerging Technologies Cyber Security Systems Engineering) as domain technical authorities.
• Leverage Principal Engineers as deep subject matter experts while integrating their input into cohesive executable cross-domain solutions.
• Challenge and validate technical recommendations through informed technical discussion and systems-level analysis.
• Drive alignment and prioritization of Principal Engineer efforts in support of engineering execution and organizational objectives.

Program & Delivery Integration

• Collaborate with Program Managers to align technical execution with program plans staffing and delivery commitments.
• Own engineering execution risk across programs including technical feasibility integration complexity and delivery sustainability.
• Intervene directly in programs when technical execution system integrity or delivery outcomes are at risk.
• Monitor engineering health across programs and drive corrective actions as needed.

Business Development & Growth Support

• Support business development and capture activities by contributing to technical solutioning estimates and proposal development.
• Ensure proposed technical solutions are realistic executable and aligned with VES technical capabilities and standards.
• Identify opportunities for technical reuse internal R&D and capability development to support long-term growth.

Leadership & Mentorship

• Provide functional leadership and technical mentorship to engineering managers technical leads and senior engineers.
• Develop engineering leadership depth by modeling strong technical judgment disciplined execution and systems-level thinking.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence accountability and continuous improvement.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Engineering Computer Science or a related technical field (Masters degree preferred).
• 15 years of engineering experience including significant hands-on technical responsibility for complex systems.
• 7 years in senior technical leadership roles such as Principal Engineer Chief Engineer Lead Architect or equivalent.
• Demonstrated ability to independently solve complex cross-domain technical problems involving software systems infrastructure and security.
• Strong understanding of software engineering systems engineering integration practices and modern deployment environments.
• Experience implementing and enforcing SDLC configuration management and quality standards.
• Experience working in a government contracting or regulated environment including DoD or Federal programs.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to engineers program leadership executives and customers.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with respect to the above requirements.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance.

Desired Qualifications

• Active U.S. Government security clearance.
• Experience in a small-to-mid-size government contracting organization.
• Hands-on experience with Linux-based systems containerized environments CI/CD pipelines and enterprise deployments.
• Familiarity with NIST 800-171 CMMC and related compliance frameworks.
• Experience supporting software-intensive or mission-critical systems in defense aerospace or national security domains.
• Proposal and capture experience including technical volume authorship.

VES offers a rich benefits package that includes:

• 401(k) match
• Highly Competitive Salary
• Up to 15 Paid Vacation days / year
• 11 Paid Holidays
• Flexible work/life balance culture

VES is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race color religion sex national origin disability status protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Required Experience:

Director