Engineering Director

For over 20 years Trident Research has been at the forefront of custom solutions for the Department of Defense (DOD) in the areas of testing, evaluation, and training. We design, build, manufacture, field, and sustain unique instrumentation used around the world to help train our military and evaluate our nation’s leading weapon systems. Trident Research is a fast moving and dynamic environment, committed to making a difference for our Nation and the men and women who defend her. Trident Research is searching for a Director of Engineering to further our pursuit for excellence and impact.

Job Description: Trident Research is seeking a highly experienced and dynamic Director of Engineering. The Director of Engineering (DOE) is responsible for overseeing, planning, staffing, and executing, the engineering work efforts across Trident Research to ensure engineering products and services are delivered on time, on budget, and meet or exceed customer quality and performance expectations consistent with our values of Profound Integrity, Selfless Humility, and Furious Resolve. This role emphasizes rapid prototyping of minimum viable products (MVPs), utilization of enabling technologies, and advancement of AI, machine learning (ML), and data analytics to deliver highly reliable and cost-effective military testing and training instrumentation, including remote sensors for unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and distributed land-based sensors to military customers worldwide.

The greatest resource at Trident Research is our engineering talent, and the DOE must therefore mentor and coach our engineering managers across multiple disciplines, including Mechanical, Electrical, Software, and Systems , as well as aerospace and materials engineering where applicable. The DOE works closely with the Deputy Director’s of Engineering (DDOE’s) to manage the engineering tasking for the department to ensure on-time and on-budget completion, recognizing that our work in many cases is R&D in nature, where delivering high-quality, practical solutions quickly is prioritized over pursuing perfection. Engagement with the engineers to facilitate a healthy, trusting, and growth-oriented environment is key. Trust is the cornerstone of building healthy teams.

The DOE will participate in the full cycle of engineering development, from identifying, recruiting, and training talent through overseeing and engaging on engineering design reviews, to representing Trident Research in presenting developed solutions and product results to our customers. A principal goal of the DOE is the management and administration of the systems engineering process (SEP) for the company. Sound engineering principles are required of all engineers if the team is to be successful, and the DOE's greatest influence in this regard is the company SEP. This includes ensuring engineering processes utilize industry best practices, such as agile development spirals, to demonstrate incremental capabilities in the rapid build-up of minimum viable product (MVP).

The DOE works in concert with the Program Management Office (PMO) Director—who is responsible for supervising the project, program, and product managers who are directly accountable to our customers. The DOE and the PMO Director work together to ensure that Trident develops winning proposals and delivers exceptional engineering products and services that meet or exceed customer expectations and contractual requirements. This includes engaging with military customers, government agencies, and corporate mission partners to understand needs, gather feedback, and ensure solutions meet operational requirements. It is expected that the DOE will expend approximately half of their time directly engaged on contracted efforts to help ensure technical excellence across all our work. The DOE Is a hands-on leader at Trident Research.

The DOE works with the Head of Technology and Research (HTR) and DDOE’s to identify and resolve technically challenging aspects of the work, including methods to test and verify our products achieve technical design goals. The DOE also works with the HTR to identify engineering technology investments for the company. This includes reviewing or developing recommended business cases for procurement equipment, software, or services that facilitate excellence in our work. This includes driving cost-saving initiatives through efficient design, manufacturing processes, and technology utilization, such as IoT, edge computing, and advanced materials.

Success in this position requires a thorough understanding of engineering design and development principles, along with a strong track record of building and guiding teams that leverage enabling technologies to address new and challenging problems. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience in overseeing the successful design, manufacturing, and delivery of advanced technical capabilities and products, as well as strong leadership and interpersonal skills to coach, mentor, and lead cross-disciplinary engineering teams in the pursuit of excellence. The DOE is responsible for defining and holding accountable the engineering department to Key Responsibility Areas (KRAs) via Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are approved by the President.

As a member of the Executive Team, the DOE must be a strategic thinker and problem solver, possess outstanding technical engineering skills (particularly with regards to risk management), demonstrate excellent written and oral communication skills when representing the company, and be self-motivated to engage and lead not only across engineering but across the entire company when needed. This includes fostering a culture of accountability, innovation, and excellence in engineering practices.

And all other duties as assigned.

Key Responsibilities:

Managing the Work (50%)

• Provide effective day-to-day programmatic and technical leadership, guidance, mentoring, coaching, and direction to the DDOE’s and the engineering department as a whole
• Coordinate with the PMO to foresee and resolve programmatic conflicts in executing the work; resolving challenges with the DDOE’s and PMs, adjusting resource allocation or work schedules, securing outside support, or otherwise managing the work to ensure contract compliance and customer satisfaction.
• Partner with the HTR to plan for technically challenging tasking, develop concepts for testing and verification of incremental work products, and ensure the department is properly exploiting enabling technologies in the design and development of new products and capabilities.
• Lead weekly or bi-weekly engineering meetings with the DDOE’s to identify and resolve issues across the department, manage progress against large scale quarterly department goals, and recognize and reward work progress and success.
• Review completed tasking at each milestone, as reported by the DDOE’s, to ensure your team's efforts are completed on time and on budget. Draw lessons learned and adjust follow-on tasking accordingly.
• Manage the company’s systems engineering process and drive the adoption of agile development methodologies to support rapid prototyping and iterative development of MVPs.
• Define, communicate, and manage KRAs and KPIs for the department to align them with evolving project requirements and business objectives.
• Monitor KPIs for engineering projects, including reliability, cost, and performance metrics, to ensure alignment with customer requirements.

Growing Technical Capabilities (20%)

• Coordinate with the PMO and HTR to identify long-range technical skills and capabilities required to perform future work. Plan and manage the growth or acquisition of said capabilities to ensure the company is ready to execute.
• Lead initiatives to integrate AI, ML, and data analytics into sensor systems for real-time data processing, predictive maintenance, and autonomous decision-making, ensuring models are robust, secure, and optimized for edge deployment.
• Oversee the exploration of new technologies and methodologies for military applications, ensuring systems are modular, scalable, and adaptable to evolving threats. Identify new core technologies important to our company's future success and develop plans and actions to invest in, train, or acquire the capability.
• Direct the development of data analytics platforms, skills, and capabilities to strive for real-time data products and actionable intelligence in our military training and testing products.
• Manage the relationship with outside or third-party Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Ensure adequate support from the PMO and manage the engagement between the DDOE’s and the SME to ensure effective use to 'bootstrap' or expand our technical capabilities.

Leading the Department (15%)

• Represent the engineering department in weekly Executive Team meetings to ensure issues impacting technical competence or engineering capabilities are put forward for the department, advocate for technical needs, assess corporate risk, and propose actionable solutions
• Serve the corporate vision by advancing corporate objectives, communicating the vision to direct reports, and representing the company effectively to customers, corporate mission partners, and internal and external stakeholders.
• Provide an annual budget to the Director of Finance (DOF) and President for recommended equipment, resources, and facilities improvements needed to advance the engineering department.
• Support continuous improvement of engineering processes, procedures, and operations to optimize departmental performance.
• Maintain accountability for all work performed by the department. Intervene proactively to address issues and ensure excellence in all facets of engineering work.

Leading the People (15%)

• Conduct one-on-one meetings with the DDOE’s and select engineers weekly or bi-weekly to gauge progress, identify issues, and proactively address long-range concerns of a technical, staffing, resource, or personal nature.
• Manage and prioritize staffing needs across the engineering department and coordinate with HR and DDOE’s to execute staffing acquisitions, training, counseling, or terminations to create a stellar team. Address performance and interpersonal issues promptly to maintain team harmony and effectiveness.
• Manage and update career development plans for the DDOE’s and ensure the DDOE’s do the same for each team member in the Engineering Department.
• Lead in semi-annual and annual reviews, working with the DDOE’s to recognize excellence and submit reviews and recommendations for promotion and merit increases.
• Monitor and update job descriptions semi-annually for the DDOE’s and ensure they do the same for the remainder of the department. Updated job descriptions are critical to recognizing the duties and responsibilities each team member are performing and should be done in advance of mid-year and end-of-year performance reviews.
• Promote continuous learning and professional development to keep the team updated on emerging technologies and industry trends.

Core Values:

Profound Integrity

• Demonstrate devout honesty in all interactions by honoring commitments and promises and communicating truthfully and completely (no 'lies by omission').
• Demonstrate accountability for assigned tasks and areas of responsibility by "taking ownership," holding to commitments, and assuming responsibility for outcomes, good or bad.
• Demonstrate strong moral character by honoring Trident's Civility Code and engaging with everyone inside and outside the organization with the utmost respect. Actively listen, respect others by being on time to meetings or returning phone calls within a reasonable timeframe, and allow others to share thoughts and ideas without criticism.
• Demonstrate integrity in our work and working relationships requires respectful transparency with team members. We must foster purposeful engagement that acknowledges strengths and successes in ourselves and others but does not avoid giving and receiving constructive feedback. Timely, truthful feedback allows for recognition, correction, and preserves unity in the team.

Furious Resolve

• Demonstrate intentional engagement in the work and a commitment to the customer, by diligently seeking the most effective and efficient solution to the task at hand; seeking to clearly understand requirements and expectations before expending significant effort.
• Demonstrate commitment to the company by not wasting time or resources and offering support and suggestions wherever possible to improve team performance.
• Demonstrate a willingness to learn and grow by investing time to improve our skills, knowledge, experience, and capabilities. Invest in relationships inside and outside of the organization to be the very best team member we can be.
• "How you do the little things is how you do everything." Demonstrate a willingness to pay attention to the details of our work, making accuracy and completeness a priority.
• Drive cost-saving initiatives through efficient design and manufacturing processes to deliver reliable and cost-effective solutions.

Selfless Humility

• Demonstrate humility in interpersonal communication by allowing others to speak and share thoughts and ideas without speaking over them or dismissing their views or perspectives.
• Demonstrate a selfless attitude that is proactively aware of our teammates, our company, and our customers. Offer support and encouragement to teammates, placing the importance of team achievement above individual success.
• Demonstrate awareness and sound judgment, understanding how our position and actions impact our co-workers, the customer, and our company mission and values.
• "Successful people never reach their goals alone." Demonstrate a heart of service and compassion to others by mentoring those around us, in both work and life, thereby building bonds of friendship. Team members demonstrate an ability to support and motivate others to succeed.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, and excellence in engineering practices to support team and organizational success.

Requirements:

Educational and Experience Requirements:

• Master of Science (MS) degree in mechanical, electrical, systems, or software engineering required.
• 10+ years of experience in the design, manufacturing, testing, and enhancement of instrumentation systems or products , with specific experience in military instrumentation, military sensor systems, and unmanned vehicles requiring secure global command and control preferred.
• 5+ years supervising a multi-disciplined team(s) of engineers in the design, development, manufacturing, testing, and sustainment of instrumentation systems or products, with specific experience in military instrumentation, military sensor systems, and unmanned vehicles requiring secure global command and control preferred.
• Demonstrated experience in utilizing spiral development tools and methods that effectively produced viable engineering products on time and on budget, with specific experience demonstrating success with such systems for military instrumentation and products preferred.
• Command leadership skills demonstrating sound judgment and personal accountability, with a commitment to excellence, commitment to mission, and commitment to the team.
• Excellence in Microsoft Office, Project, and SharePoint products, and Jira required.
• Experience performing economic and technical project evaluations.
• Experienced providing written and oral presentations to internal and external customers.
• Experience with quality control processes including statistical quality control, design of experiment, and reliability theory desired.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance (e.g., Secret or Top Secret) may be required.
• Familiarity with defense industry standards, cybersecurity requirements, and export controls (e.g., ITAR, EAR).

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $160,000.00 - $175,000.00 per year

Work Location: In person