Vice President of Engineering

AeroVironment•Dayton, OH

4d•$245,500 - $361,200•Onsite

About The Position

The Space, Cyber and Directed Energy Segment Vice President of Engineering serves as the senior engineering authority for the segment and is responsible for establishing the technical vision, engineering rigor, and product development discipline required to support a rapidly scaling portfolio of defense and national security programs. This leader oversees a diverse mix of engineering services and product-based businesses, balancing lightweight governance for mature service programs with rigorous systems engineering, execution oversight, and technical risk management for high-priority product development efforts. The role partners closely with the business leadership, CTO, program management, manufacturing, and growth teams to ensure engineering excellence, product commonality, rapid deployment capability, affordability, and successful transition from development into scalable production. The Vice President of Engineering will help mature the segment engineering organization over time, including the future establishment and leadership of Chief Engineers aligned to business units and major product lines.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related technical field required; advanced degree preferred.
15+ years of progressive engineering leadership experience within defense, aerospace, space, directed energy, RF systems, autonomous systems, or related national security sectors.
Demonstrated experience leading complex engineering organizations supporting both development and production environments.
Strong background in systems engineering, product development, and transition to manufacturing.
Experience operating within high-growth, fast-paced technology organizations.
Ability to balance technical rigor with speed and execution urgency.
Experience collaborating across enterprise engineering and business leadership organizations.
Strong communication skills with the ability to engage effectively with executives, customers, and technical teams.
Top Secret/SCI Clearance or the ability to obtain a clearance

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting defense acquisition programs, rapid prototyping efforts, and productized defense systems.
Familiarity with digital engineering, model-based systems engineering (MBSE), and modern product development environments.
Experience scaling engineering organizations following acquisition or integration activities.
Background supporting products transitioning from R&D into operational deployment and production scale-up.

Responsibilities

Serve as the senior engineering authority across the segment portfolio.
Establish engineering standards, technical review processes, and development rigor appropriate for both services and product organizations.
Ensure technical execution aligns with customer mission requirements, affordability targets, schedule commitments, and long-term product strategy.
Drive engineering best practices across systems engineering, software, hardware, integration, test, cybersecurity, reliability, and manufacturing readiness.
Lead independent technical assessments and support executive decision-making related to technical risk, investment priorities, and program execution.
Support the transition from bespoke engineering efforts to scalable, repeatable product solutions.
Ensure engineering organizations are structured to move rapidly while maintaining technical discipline and mission assurance.
Promote modular architectures, common product frameworks, reuse strategies, and product commonality across programs.
Partner with manufacturing and operations teams to improve producibility, reliability, and lifecycle affordability.
Drive engineering alignment with enterprise initiatives focused on speed, agility, commercialization, and rapid deployment.
Partner directly with the CTO to flow enterprise engineering strategies, processes, tools, and governance into the segment.
Support implementation of common engineering frameworks, digital engineering approaches, model-based systems engineering, and enterprise product development standards.
Ensure engineering organizations adopt enterprise technology roadmaps and modernization initiatives where appropriate.
Support engineering workforce planning, hiring strategies, succession planning, and capability development across the segment.
Monitor engineering staffing requirements against strategic growth objectives.
Help shape future engineering organizational structures, including eventual establishment of Chief Engineer roles aligned to business units or product portfolios.
Foster a culture centered on accountability, innovation, technical excellence, collaboration, and mission focus.
Partner closely with Business Unit leaders, Program Management, Manufacturing & Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, Growth & Capture, Security and Contracts.
Support customer engagements, technical roadmap discussions, milestone reviews, and strategic captures.
Participate in executive operating rhythms including program reviews, investment reviews, and annual operating planning activities.