Sr. Director, Strategy & Program Engineering Management

BAE Systems•Falls Church, VA

1d•$173,023 - $294,137

About The Position

BAE Systems is seeking a Strategy & Program Engineering Management Leader to join their Information Technology team. This role is responsible for defining the strategic direction for digital engineering, digital manufacturing, and software development across the enterprise. The leader will establish the long-range vision for model-based engineering, advanced manufacturing technologies, automation, and modern software engineering practices to enable scalable, secure, and high-quality digital solutions. This position will lead a team of Program Engineering Managers who ensure technical execution excellence across complex enterprise programs. The role provides strategic engineering leadership, standardizes program engineering practices, oversees program technical performance, and partners with executive stakeholders to drive successful delivery of enterprise technology solutions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or related technical discipline, with a strong preference for an advanced degree.
Minimum 12+ years of progressive technical leadership experience spanning engineering, manufacturing, software development, or enterprise technology delivery.
Strong understanding of modern software engineering practices, model‑based engineering, automation, and digital manufacturing technologies.
Demonstrated experience developing and executing engineering strategies across digital engineering, model based systems engineering, digital manufacturing, and modern software development environments.
Demonstrated ability to standardize program engineering practices, establish governance mechanisms, define performance metrics, and lead enterprise-wide program engineering management transformation.
Demonstrated ability to manage technical performance across cost, schedule, quality, and risk, ensuring program objectives are achieved within constraints.
Proven success in leading, developing, and coaching engineering managers and technical leaders within complex program environments.
Skilled in strategic planning, technical road mapping, and investment prioritization, particularly in environments undergoing digital and business transformation.
Excellent communication, leadership, negotiation, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to communicate technical concepts to executive audiences.
Ability to operate effectively in a high‑complexity, multi‑program environment, driving clarity, alignment, and execution across diverse engineering teams.

Nice To Haves

Strong leadership skills, along with exceptional soft and interpersonal skills, including teamwork, facilitation and negotiation.
Cloud based architectures, model based systems engineering, devsecops, artificial intelligence, data analytics, software development practices, software development lifecycle
Strong consulting skills, such as targeted communications, engagement management, stakeholder management and business development.
Ability to balance the long-term (“big picture”) and short-term implications of individual decisions and organizational goals.
Innovative, consultative approach to driving digital business strategies and transformation.
Business acumen, with the ability to understand and communicate in the language of the business.
Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders.
Collaborative and supportive, fostering alignment with business strategies and values.
Innovative, with strong foresight, systems thinking and design thinking capabilities.
Vendor- and technology-neutral, focused on achieving targeted business outcomes over personal preferences or those of other business and IT leaders.
Practical in approach to problem solving and decision making.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop the Program Engineering Management team, including Program Engineering Managers, ensuring strong engineering performance across enterprise projects.
Set and oversee the enterprise IT wide product lifecycle execution strategy, driving consistent standards, methods, and performance measures across all programs.
Define and lead the digital engineering and manufacturing strategies for IT, ensuring interoperability, scalable enterprise integration and the application of AI for data driven decision making and workforce productivity.
Drive cross-program alignment and resource planning to enable consistent engineering execution and optimized technical capacity.
Partner across business areas, functions, disciplines, and major suppliers to ensure unified execution and effective enterprise solution delivery.
Ensure rigorous engineering practices, including requirements traceability, design quality, test planning, data migration preparation, and technical baselines.
Develop engineering talent, skills, and organizational capability through coaching, performance oversight, and continuous improvement.
Oversee program technical performance—including cost, schedule, quality, and risk—ensuring proposals, plans, and deliveries meet enterprise technical and business requirements.
Work across organizational boundaries to solve problems and ensure successful delivery.