Vice President of Engineering

AeroVironment•Albuquerque, NM

12d•$245,500 - $393,000

About The Position

The Space, Cyber and Directed Energy Segment Vice President of Engineering serves as the segment’s senior engineering authority. The role establishes technical vision, engineering rigor, and product development discipline for a rapidly growing portfolio of defense and national security programs. It oversees engineering services and product-based businesses, applying governance suited to mature service programs while providing rigorous systems engineering, execution oversight, and technical risk management for high-priority product development. The Vice President partners with business leadership, the CTO, program management, manufacturing, and growth teams to support engineering excellence, product commonality, rapid deployment, affordability, and the transition from development to scalable production. The role also helps mature the segment engineering organization, including the future establishment and leadership of Chief Engineers aligned to business units and major product lines. The position requires a bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical field and at least 15 years of progressive engineering leadership experience in defense, aerospace, space, directed energy, RF systems, autonomous systems, or related national security sectors. An advanced degree is preferred. Applicants must have a Top Secret/SCI clearance or be able to obtain one. The role also requires eligibility to meet ITAR/EAR requirements; some positions may require current U.S. citizenship due to contract requirements. The listed salary range is $245,500–$393,000. AeroVironment notes that offers may depend on factors including location, responsibilities, experience, education, training, and skills. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) with company matching, a 9/80 work schedule, and a paid holiday shutdown.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical field.
15 or more 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 and ability to engage effectively with executives, customers, and technical teams.
Top Secret/SCI clearance or ability to obtain a clearance.
Must qualify as a U.S. person under ITAR/EAR requirements or be eligible for an export license; some positions require current U.S. citizenship due to contract requirements.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree.
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 service 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, testing, cybersecurity, reliability, and manufacturing readiness.
Lead independent technical assessments and support executive decisions on technical risk, investment priorities, and program execution.
Support the transition from bespoke engineering efforts to scalable, repeatable product solutions.
Structure engineering organizations 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.
Align engineering with enterprise initiatives focused on speed, agility, commercialization, and rapid deployment.
Partner 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 the 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 with business unit leaders, program management, manufacturing and supply chain, quality, finance, growth and 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.