Senior Director of Engineering

The Senior Director of Engineering is a hands‑on engineering leader who will plan, direct, coordinate, and oversee all activities within the Engineering and Product Development function at ND Defense. This role owns engineering execution across a growing, multi‑domain portfolio—including tactical wheeled vehicles, drones/UAS, maritime systems, aerospace platforms, automated vehicles, and defense electronics—ensuring programs are delivered on schedule, within budget, and in full compliance with customer technical requirements and government contract obligations.

A critical dimension of this role is building and scaling the engineering organization through a combination of internal hiring and strategic engagement of external engineering resources (contract engineers, consultants, and engineering services firms) to fill specialty gaps in new product lines and emerging domains. This leader will serve as the senior technical voice in business development, new bid efforts, and customer engagements, establishing ND Defense’s credibility in markets where the company is expanding.

This position reports directly to the CEO and is structured with a clear growth path to Vice President of Engineering as the organization scales.

• Own engineering execution across the full portfolio: on schedule, within budget, and meeting customer technical requirements across tactical wheeled vehicle, drone/UAS, maritime, aerospace, automated vehicle, and defense electronics programs
• Establish and enforce rigor in systems engineering, design reviews (PDR/CDR), verification and validation, and configuration management processes
• Identify, recommend, and implement new technologies, tools, and processes to improve engineering productivity, product quality, and organizational decision‑making
• Ensure compliance with all applicable regulatory and contractual requirements, including ITAR, export control, FAR/DFARS, MIL‑SPEC/MIL‑STD, CMMC/cybersecurity, and program‑specific CDRLs
• Establish and administer the engineering department budget, managing cost performance and making resource allocation tradeoffs across concurrent programs

• Build and lead a high‑performing, multi-disciplinary engineering organization spanning mechanical, electrical, systems, software, and test engineering disciplines
• Develop and execute a workforce strategy that blends internal hires with external engineering resources, including contract engineers, engineering services firms, and specialty consultants to address capability gaps in emerging product lines (drones/UAS, maritime, aerospace, automated vehicles, defense electronics)
• Identify, evaluate, and manage relationships with external engineering partners and staffing firms, negotiating SOWs, managing deliverables, and ensuring quality and IP protection
• Create career development pathways and technical ladder opportunities to attract and retain top engineering talent in a competitive Michigan defense market
• Ensure departmental decisions on staffing, organizational design, hardware acquisitions, and facilities align with the company’s business plan, growth strategy, and HR policies

• Serve as the senior technical voice in business development, customer engagements, and proposal efforts—particularly for programs in new domains where ND Defense must establish credibility
• Provide engineering leadership for bid/no‑bid decisions, technical volume development, basis of estimates (BOEs), and cost proposal support on government contract opportunities
• Collaborate with the CEO and business development team to identify and pursue new opportunities across DoD, naval, aerospace, and commercial defense markets
• Represent ND Defense at customer technical interchange meetings (TIMs), industry days, design reviews, and government stakeholder engagements
• Translate engineering capability into competitive differentiation in proposals and customer‑facing communications

• Collaborate with executive leadership to develop and execute organizational goals, supplying…