Software Engineering Director

What You Will Get to Do

Lead the strategy, design, delivery, and operational excellence of a unified engineering organization responsible for both high performance data processing pipelines and low level computing platforms. The role blends deep technical leadership with people management to drive a culture of rapid iteration, modern engineering practices, and scalable architecture across distributed, real time, and high throughput systems.

Strategic Leadership – Define and champion the long term technology and talent roadmap for secure embedded processing, including investment prioritization, capability gap analysis, and alignment with mission critical programs. Guide contract and internal projects in the use of and investment in shared software building blocks and enabling technologies to achieve rapid, cost‑efficient delivery of capability. Promote awareness through organizational engagement such as sponsoring tech talks and publishing whitepapers and blogs.

Define & Enforce Engineering Processes – Establish and continuously improve engineering processes, best practice guidelines, and engineering metrics; audit adherence and drive corrective actions. Promote best practices such as CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, static analysis, Dev Sec Ops , observability (metrics, tracing, logging), and performance benchmarking. Build cross discipline alignment (hardware, firmware, software, test, and verification) to achieve speed and quality in software capability delivery.

Proposal & Program Oversight – Review and sign off on proposal and program plans; verify that resources, technical rigor, decision rationale, realistic estimates, and prudent risk taking are embedded. Review execution throughout programs, ensure quality of work products and independent technical reviews, and proactively identify and address risks.

Team Management & Growth – Lead a team of 6–7 section managers and oversee an organization of 300–500 engineers across software, data platforms, firmware, QA and Dev Ops. Recruit, onboard, and develop top talent; champion diversity, equity, and inclusion; conduct performance reviews, career path planning, and mentorship programs. Facilitate conflict‑resolution and promote workforce engagement.

This position is contingent on the successful transfer of an active DoD Secret clearance, the ability to obtain or successfully transfer an active DoD Top Secret Clearance and the ability to obtain Special Program Access.

• Bachelor’s Degree with 10 years of experience, a master’s degree with 8 years of experience, or a PhD with 6 years of experience in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics or related technical fields.
• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• An active DoD Secret Clearance.
• Ability to obtain/maintain an active DoD Top Secret Clearance.
• Ability to obtain Special Program Access (SAP).
• Minimum of 5 years demonstrated success leading multiple large, distributed engineering teams focused on software engineering, preferably for secure, embedded, resource (SWaPc)-constrained, tactical processing.
• Experienced in software engineering processes and tailoring.
• High proficiency in technical problem‑solving, including root cause analysis and solution development.
• Experience translating complex concepts for executive audiences.
• Experience with program execution, staffing, engineering metrics and training resources, processes, and tools.

• Advanced degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics or related technical fields.
• Active Top Secret Clearance or higher.
• 8+ years of professional experience in defense or aerospace industries
• Experience delivering complex embedded hardware software solutions on time and within budget.
• Demonstrated track record of software reuse initiatives that produced shared solutions adopted across multiple contracts, with measurable ROI.
• Hands on expertise with core secure embedded technologies such as C/C++, Rust, assembly, Linux/Yocto, secure boot (UEFI/Barebox), hypervisor or separation kernel concepts, and high assurance cryptographic subsystems.
• Familiarity with DoD/IC program protection guidance, export…