Vice-President, Strategy & Growth

Howell Instruments•Fort Worth, TX

15h

About The Position

The Vice-President, Strategy & Growth is the executive accountable for translating customer demand and engineering capability into program outcomes and profitable growth in alignment with the CEO’s vision and mission. The role integrates Business Development, Marketing Communications (MARCOM), Program Management, and Engineering under one leader, reconciling market direction, technical feasibility, certification burden, resource capacity, portfolio decisions, and delivery risk before commitments are made. The position supports the company’s aim to provide mission-enabling aerospace technologies that connect, monitor, modernize, and sustain critical platforms through engineering excellence, disciplined execution, and customer-focused modernization. This is an operating-model leadership role rather than a traditional functional head of Sales, Marketing, or Engineering. It owns the integrated customer-to-revenue system, including customer relationships and problem definition, market intelligence and capture priorities, portfolio and technology roadmaps, engineering capability and delivery, program baselines and outcomes, and growth conversion and revenue results. The role reports to the President & CEO and is classified as exempt. The Vice-President develops and executes multi-year growth strategy and annual operating-plan priorities aligned with the company’s strategic pillars. The position leads opportunity identification, qualification, shaping, capture, customer relationships, proposal strategy, and competitive positioning; directs brand positioning and go-to-market communications; and provides executive ownership of engineering capability, culture, capacity visibility, skills planning, and roadmaps. In partnership with Programs, the role supports program baselines, gates, risk identification, and technical delivery accountability. The role serves as the primary authority for reconciling trade-offs among customer urgency, technical feasibility, certification requirements, capacity, cost and schedule risk, and enterprise outcomes. It installs integrated decision processes, performance information, and escalation paths, and provides the CEO and Board with clear information on growth conversion, technical risk, and portfolio health. Organizational transition and governance installation are to be led effective January 1, 2027, or as directed. Success measures include achieving annual and multi-year growth targets, particularly for STC, modernization, and high-engineering-content work; improving engineering visibility and baseline stability; converting pipeline to backlog and backlog to revenue with fewer late-stage technical or capacity surprises; and progressing the skills roadmap, systems-engineering maturity, and organizational culture needed for the 2027–2032 strategy. The work involves frequent sitting, talking, and hearing, and occasional standing, walking, hand use, reaching, stooping, kneeling, crouching, and lifting or moving up to 25 pounds. The employee works both indoors and outdoors and travels extensively year-round, including to regions with extreme cold and heat.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, or a related field.
At least 15 years of progressive leadership experience in aerospace, defense, or related high-reliability technical markets, with significant experience in strategy, business development/capture, and/or engineering/product leadership.
Demonstrated success integrating customer demand, technical capability, and program delivery, or equivalent P&L/growth accountability spanning commercial and technical functions.
Deep familiarity with aerospace certification environments, including examples such as DO-178, DO-160, and STC processes; systems engineering; and converting technical solutions into fielded capability.
Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, drive organizational change, and install operating discipline, including visibility, baselines, and governance.
Strong executive presence and experience briefing CEOs, Boards, and senior customer stakeholders.
U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain security clearance as required by customer programs.
Ability to travel extensively year-round and work in indoor and outdoor environments, including extreme cold and heat.
Ability to meet the stated physical demands, including occasionally lifting or moving up to 25 pounds.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree such as an MBA, MS in Engineering, or equivalent.
Prior experience in cockpit modernization, avionics, displays, data acquisition, health monitoring, or related mission systems.
Track record of building or scaling engineering organizations while simultaneously driving commercial growth.
Experience with domestic military and international/allied customers.
Comfort operating in a mid-sized, high-growth aerospace company as both a strategist and hands-on operator.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute the multi-year growth strategy and annual operating-plan priorities aligned with the CEO’s vision and the company’s strategic pillars.
Identify, qualify, shape, and capture opportunities in cockpit modernization, STC/retrofit, health monitoring, data interfaces, rugged displays, autonomous-system support, and adjacent mission-enabling technologies.
Drive market and competitive intelligence focused on unmanned and autonomous systems, AI, sensing and software, counter-UAS, and modernization cycles.
Ensure certification, manufacturing readiness, capacity, and technical risk are considered early in capture decisions.
Lead portfolio prioritization so investments, IRAD, and engineering capacity align with customer access and strategy.
Own strategic customer relationships and convert customer problems into qualified opportunities and wins.
Lead capture strategy, proposal strategy, and competitive positioning for major pursuits.
Partner with Sales to shape demand while ensuring Engineering and Programs can deliver commitments.
Expand relationships with primes, OEMs, military services, and international partners, as relevant to the company’s markets.
Direct brand positioning, messaging, and go-to-market communications, and ensure the external narrative aligns with strategy, technical capability, and growth priorities.
Oversee content, events, digital presence, and thought leadership that support capture and customer engagement.
Provide executive ownership of engineering capability, culture, skills planning, and roadmaps.
Establish transparent engineering capacity and effort visibility, including planned hours by work package or milestone, actuals, and estimate-to-complete.
Drive systems-engineering discipline, architecture ownership, and future-state skills for modernization, data and health monitoring, and autonomous-system support.
Partner with Programs on baselines, gates, risk identification, and technical delivery accountability.
Lead engineering culture development focused on speed, ownership, constructive challenge, and measurable program outcomes.
Reconcile trade-offs among customer urgency, technical feasibility, certification burden, capacity, cost and schedule risk, and enterprise outcomes for the CEO.
Install and sustain integrated decision processes, a fact base covering revenue, backlog, capacity, and program performance, and clear escalation paths.
Provide the CEO and Board with clear, coherent information on growth conversion, technical risk, and portfolio health.
Lead organizational transition and governance installation effective January 1, 2027, or as directed.