Director, Engineering Excellence & Enablement

Shield AI · Washington

Apply on Shield AI ↗

Level: Director+
Team: Lean / CI
Experience asked: 10+ years
Industry: Aerospace & defense
Posted: 30+ days ago

The role in 30 seconds

A director-level continuous improvement role at Shield AI (aerospace & defense) in Washington.

They ask for: 10+ years
Tools it names: Tooling

Read from the posting. The full description is below.

From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026

Continuous Improvement roles in the US: typical posted base $105k–$151k.

Median of the low and high ends of 126 live postings that list pay, out of 314 continuous improvement openings in the US, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.

Washington plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →

How this role compares

Against 313 other live lean / ci postings in the US.

Base pay: Not listed in this posting
Experience asked: More than usual (10+ vs 5+)

Skills these teams ask for most

Lean 85%
Six Sigma 55%
Kaizen 53%
Value stream mapping 51%
Root cause 46%
5S 33%

✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.

Stands out: this posting asks for Tooling, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.

It asks for 10+ years. If you're close, apply anyway: requirements are a wish list. Talk to someone doing this work there first.

At a glance

Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.

How to get in at this plant

Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.

1
Pick 2–3 people on the Lean / CI team at Shield AI
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. Use the team search on this page to find them.
2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Is CI run from the plant floor or from a corporate OpEx group?
- Which metrics does leadership actually watch: OEE, scrap, cost per unit?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.

Full description from Shield AIAs posted on their careers site.Show

Required qualifications

✓10+ years of engineering leadership, technical program management, engineering operations, or related experience.
✓Demonstrated success leading large-scale cross-functional initiatives in complex technology organizations.
✓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.
✓Proven ability to influence senior leaders without relying on direct authority.
✓Exceptional communication, facilitation, organizational, and executive presentation skills.
✓Strong analytical mindset with experience using data to drive organizational improvements.

Preferred qualifications

✓Experience partnering directly with VP or C-level technology executives.
✓Experience scaling engineering organizations through periods of rapid growth or transformation.
✓Familiarity with developer productivity and organizational effectiveness measurement.

Show full 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.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. 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.

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.

Operational Cadence & Execution

•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.
•Improve planning accuracy, prioritization, dependency management, and execution predictability.

Enterprise Engineering Initiatives

•Lead complex, cross-functional engineering initiatives that span multiple teams and organizations.
•Drive strategic programs such as AI enablement, developer experience improvements, technical governance, and organizational scaling initiatives.
•Coordinate executive communications, status reporting, risk management, and stakeholder engagement for enterprise programs.

Organizational Effectiveness

•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.