Engineering Operations Director

Company Overview Iridium is an award-winning and innovative satellite communications company with bragging rights to the only network that offers voice and data connectivity anywhere in the world. For over 20 years, Iridium's unique network and services have supported critical communications needs for individuals, businesses, and the evolving Internet of Things. At Iridium, we understand the importance of staying connected and the limitations of traditional communications networks.

People across the globe, including first responders, humanitarians, global militaries, scientific researchers, and lone workers, as well as ships, aircraft and remote operations all rely on Iridium to stay connected. We take our responsibility for providing these essential communications very seriously and pride ourselves on offering a reliable lifeline when needed. Likewise, Iridium is committed to providing an exciting and innovative workplace, where employees are challenged to think outside the box and collaborate on new, bold ideas and solutions.

Our talented teams are passionate about their work and the impact our company makes around the world. Iridium fosters an empowering and inclusive culture that allows employees to genuinely be their best selves. We are looking for others who want to join this truly unique company that celebrates our employees and provides the opportunity to truly make a difference in the world.

What We're Looking For:

If you are an experienced operational leader who excels at bringing clarity, structure, and strategic discipline to complex engineering organizations, then you will be excited about the Engineering Operations Director position with Iridium! In this role, you will lead the operational backbone for a diverse hardware, software, and systems development portfolio, ensuring that teams can focus on delivering high‑quality, reliable, and scalable solutions that advance Iridium's evolution and long‑term roadmap.

Your main focus will be to guide operational planning and execution across multiple engineering teams, partnering closely with senior leaders, technical experts, cross‑functional stakeholders, and financial partners, as well as defining operaional standards, knowledge-management practices, and data governance that strengthen engineering execution. If you take pride in simplifying complexity, aligning stakeholders, and enabling teams to deliver at their best, this is a great opportunity for you.

What You'll Do:
Lead operational planning and alignment across a myriad of software, hardware, and related technical teams Oversee staff planning and resource visibility to ensure clear understanding of workload, capacity, and availability Develop and maintain cost and schedule estimation frameworks to support both early‑phase planning and initiative approval Coach engineering staff in building clear task lists, structured work breakdowns, and reliable scoping materials Establish and maintain organizational priority frameworks that communicate near‑term focus and long‑term direction Lead quarterly and monthly operational reviews and create executive‑ready communication that highlights progress, risks, and trade‑space decisions Oversee budgeting and forecasting processes for multi‑initiative engineering portfolios;

translate engineering activity into financial insight Build strong partnerships with internal finance, accounting, and operational support teams to align planning and reporting Develop and enforce data‑management standards, including repository structure, access control, archival workflows, and knowledge‑management practices Promote scalable, secure, and sustainable operational processes that support engineering effectiveness and product evolution Translate business needs into operational frameworks, decision models, and communication packages Collaborate with cross‑functional partners to drive organizational readiness for supply‑chain or manufacturing‑related workflows as the scope expands Advocate for continuous improvement, efficiency gains, and workflow simplification across engineering operations Communicate priorities, dependencies, and decisions clearly to…