Director of Engineering in Newport News, Virginia at Aery Aviation LLC

About Aery Aviation LLC

Aery Aviation, LLC is an industry leader in Design, Engineering, Certification, and Aerospace Services. We partner with aviation, aerospace, and industrial customers to deliver high-integrity engineering solutions using advanced methods, technologies, and disciplined execution—meeting stringent requirements for safety, reliability, schedule urgency, and cost effectiveness. More information can be found on aeryaviation.com.

Who We Are Looking For

We are seeking an experienced Director of Engineering to lead and scale our multi-disciplinary engineering organization across Mechanical, Structural, Electrical, and Aerodynamic disciplines. This role is accountable for managing engineering strategy, team performance, program delivery, and technical execution—from early-stage feasibility through design, qualification testing, and transition to production.

What You Will Be Doing

Lead engineering program execution

• Plan and allocate engineering resources by project, including staffing, scheduling, workload planning, estimates, budgets, and asset allocation to ensure on-time delivery.

Build and develop a high-performing engineering organization

• Continuously improve team capability and performance aligned to business strategy.
• Provide coaching, career development, and leadership across the engineering staff.

Own delivery and drive continuous improvement

• Track milestones across the product development lifecycle and provide regular progress updates to senior management.
• Address missed targets through root cause analysis and corrective actions (e.g., training gaps, process improvements, methodology enhancements).

Establish engineering governance and quality standards

• Create, maintain, and enforce internal design review processes, engineering guidelines, and development standards.
• Conduct and oversee design reviews to ensure technical rigor and compliance.

Set engineering priorities and performance metrics

• Define department goals, objectives, KPIs, and initiatives that support corporate outcomes.

Serve as a primary technical interface

• Act as the primary interface for product engineering activities supporting Sales and Operations, including technical strategy and delivery planning.

Support business development and proposal readiness

• Partner with Sales to assess new business opportunities and support proposal development, including technical compliance matrices and engineering feasibility.

Drive a culture of innovation and excellence

• Promote innovation while ensuring maximum focus on product safety, manufacturability, and cost effectiveness.

Maintain engineering technical currency

• Stay current on state-of-the-art aerospace engineering practices, tools, and methods.

Support quality systems and compliance

Support AS9100, Lean initiatives, and other Company Quality objectives.

You Must Have

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or equivalent education and/or combination of education and experience.
• 10+ years of progressive engineering management experience, preferably in aerospace/defense.
• Experience with aerospace product development processes, including STC (Supplemental Type Certificate) and FAA certification workflows.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident.
• Proficiency with SolidWorks and Microsoft Office.
• Strong project management, planning, and organizational abilities with demonstrated capability to motivate teams and meet deadlines.
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent engineering programs of varying scope.
• Proven leadership skills with the ability to influence stakeholders across an interdisciplinary environment.
• Strong customer-focused communication and relationship management skills.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to clearly convey technical concepts.
• Experience analyzing complex business and technical requirements.
• 5+ years of experience in FAR compliance and signature authority in an FAA and/or Military certification environment.
• Business acumen, with preference for Business Administration / Finance background.
• Familiarity with commercial and DOD contracting processes.
• Ability to Travel: Up to 50% domestic and international travel (estimated).
• Physical: Occasionally required to lift/move bulky items over 50 lbs.
• Must participate in a Drug Free Workplace Drug Testing Program.

Security Clearance Requirement:

• Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret U.S. Security Clearance is required.
• U.S. Citizenship is required due to eligibility requirements for clearance processing.
• Clearance considerations include, but are not limited to: allegiance to the U.S., foreign influence/preference, criminal conduct, security violations, and drug involvement.

Accountabilities & Performance Measures

• Engineering staff productivity and utilization performance
• Quality outcomes and FAA/MCO compliance metrics
• Milestone adherence and schedule reliability across programs
• Effectiveness of design review governance and risk management
• Successful on-time delivery of qualification testing and transition-to-production plans
• Continuous improvement outcomes (root cause closure, process adoption, training effectiveness)

Aery Aviation job descriptions are meant as summarizations only.

They do not necessarily reflect all duties and responsibilities of a position.

If this opportunity excites you, come join our team!

For Aery Aviation, the question isn’t: “Can we?” When others are limited in the common approach, Aery Aviation jumps into higher gear asking, “How can we do this?” and then proceeds into problem-solving for customers. This is what customers appreciate most about Aery Aviation - avid tenacity. It’s not cookie cutter production that Aery Aviation is cultivating; it is projects that inspire the Aery Aviation work-family to come together and brainstorm, excited to come to work every day because there is always something inventive and interesting to work on.

Our Benefits
We offer the right candidate the chance to join a forward-thinking organization, supported by a competitive compensation and benefits package. Learn more about Aery Aviation, LLC at www.aeryaviation.com.

Aery Aviation, LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer

At Aery Aviation, we are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.