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Director, Engineering

Hood River, Oregon Job ID R0003648 Category Insitu Post Date Sep. 11, 2025
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Job Description

At Boeing, we innovate and collaborate to make the world a better place. We’re committed to fostering an environment for every teammate that’s welcoming, respectful and inclusive, with great opportunity for professional growth. Find your future with us.

Qualified Candidates will engage in the following:

  • Define and execute a comprehensive technical strategy for unmanned aerial vehicles.
  • Lead the Strategic Advisory Board to ensure Technical Roadmaps are informed by strong customer and technical insight and aligned with long-term innovation goals.  The position also collaborates with adjacent functions and Product Lines to guide and facilitate R&D investment recommendations.
  • Drive innovation via Senior Technical Team (Principal Engineers), and broader team.
  • Scale the engineering organization across multi-disciplinary functions.
  • Assign authority and responsibilities to the Engineering leadership team to execute the plan.
  • Review and monitor plan execution, make appropriate adjustments, and resolve issues.
  • Evaluate the feasibility of plans and make decisions to continue or discontinue projects or processes as appropriate.
  • Establish team expectations and hold leadership team accountable for achieving goals.
  • Oversee technical approach and deliverables meeting customer, company, quality, industry and regulatory standards and requirements.
  • Focus on Engineering excellence and strategic capability.
  • Guide the development and implementation of policies, procedures and documents.
  • Forecast, obtain and manage personnel and resources.

Typical Knowledge and Experience:

Knowledgeable of UAS technology – particularly in component and sub-system trends to inform partnership and R&D opportunities; understands the competition – ranging from Group 1 through Group 5 UAS – with demonstrated, detailed knowledge of Group 2 and 3.

Knowledge in several UAS domains; including, but not limited to:

  • subsystems (e.g., navigation, guidance and flight controls, communications, propulsion, avionics, hydraulic, electrical, and ground support),
  • LRUs/components (e.g., multifunction displays, antennas, PCB/As, mechanisms, and computers/processors),
  • payloads (e.g., EO/IR, SIGINT/ELINT, LIDAR, Radar/SAR, Electronic Warfare, Kinetics),
  • loadable/non-loadable software (e.g., operational programs, inertial navigation programs, operational flight programs, operator interfaces, mission planning suites, payload data processing, exploitation, and dissemination suites, and diagnostic suites), and
  • airframes and lifting devices (e.g. structure, materials strengths and properties, design criteria, loading conditions).

Knowledge of responsibilities and tasks performed by various engineering disciplines. Knowledge of the interaction between disciplines and how their product/processes affect one another and impact non-engineering processes.

Focus on decreasing time-to-market/time-to-capability deployment.  Create opportunities through guidance, coaching, and mentoring for component and subsystem development off-ramps to enable rapid system integration/deployment.

Sets high goals for personal and group accomplishment; using measurement methods to monitor progress toward goal attainment; tenaciously working to meet or exceed those goals while delivering maximum value per unit time.

Knowledge and understanding of phases of system development lifecycle including (requirements definition, system design, build/integrate, test and deployment).

Ability to determine the methods needed to accomplish goals (scale is important – lightweight versus complex), document processes, know how to organize people and activities, understand how to separate and combine tasks into efficient workflows, identify opportunities for synergy and integration, and continually simplify complex processes to deliver outstanding Customer outcomes.

Knowledge of product lifecycle, including manufacturing, deployment, modification, aging and continued service, and disposal.

Knowledge of engineering analysis (e.g. mechanical, electrical, avionics, design, circuit, systems, stress, structural, durability).

Deals effectively with others in challenging situations, uses appropriate interpersonal styles and methods to reduce tension or conflict.

Education and Experience:

Typical experience: 10-15 years in an engineering classification with a Bachelor's degree or 8-13 years experience in an engineering classification with a Master's degree.

What You'll Bring:

  • 10+ years of progressive technical leadership, with 5+ years in a senior role overseeing multiple engineering disciplines in aerospace or autonomous systems.
  • Demonstrated experience taking a product from prototype to production, specifically with complex software-enabled hardware products.
  • Experience across core engineering disciplines relevant to autonomous systems (Systems, Software, AI/Autonomy, Payloads, Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical).
  • Ability to build, mentor, and inspire high-performing teams in a fast-paced, startup-like environment.

Qualifications

  • Education: Bachelor's degree of Science from an accredited course of study, in engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics or chemistry (advanced degree preferred).
  • Experience: Minimum 10 years in defense aerospace, with at least 5 years in a leadership role.
  • Technical Expertise: Proven experience in systems engineering and managing “systems-of-systems”.  Prior working experience in core engineering disciplines required (aerospace, electrical, mechanical, software, or another engineering-related competency).  Progressive experience leading technical teams through complex design, development, integration, test, and fielding.  We seek a technical leader with a hands-on approach—someone who not only defines direction but actively contributes to execution and delivery– recommending troubleshooting/RCCA approaches, guiding external/internal stakeholder and partner engagements, building/clarifying technical briefings for multi-tiered leadership.
  • Regulatory and Standards Knowledge: Experience with US military standards (e.g., MIL-STD-461, 464, 810, 901, 1474, 2073), international standards (e.g., STANAG 4370, 4586, 4607, 4609, 4703), industry standards (e.g., ISO9001, AS9100, MISB), and emerging/draft standards and trends (e.g., autonomy, navigation, payloads).  Experience participating in consortiums, standards committees, and industry panels.
  • Manufacturing Knowledge: Familiarity with manufacturing processes for uncrewed systems.  Working knowledge of AS9100/IS9001 principles.  Experience with rapidly deploying prototypes for field/fleet evaluation and feedback. Ability to navigate New Product Introduction (NPI) for stable, enduring products, and tailoring to enable rapid technology deployment under aerospace standards
  • Leadership Skills: Demonstrated ability to lead high-performing engineering teams and deliver results.  Ability to successfully collaborate across diverse functions ranging from Supplier Management and Quality to Deployed Operations and Logistics.  Skilled at engaging effectively at every level—from front-line teams to executive leadership and industry partners.
  • Communication: Adept at engaging across all levels, from informal team check-ins to executive briefings, and skilled in choosing the right communication channel to drive for the most effective outcome. The ideal candidate can synthesize imperfect data into actionable intelligence to drive decisions with deliberate speed.  Experience coaching individual contributors and managers in written and verbal mediums to drive them to their highest potential
  • Project Management / Project Engineering: Experience with Project Management / Project Engineering to guide Program-of-Record development, and a demonstrated ability to also tailor/right-size process to enable rapid prototype deployment for specialized missions.  Knowledge of Agile or Lean methodologies a plus.  Familiarity with Earned Value Management (EVM) is a plus.
  • Budgets: Experience managing department budgets – Overhead, CAPEX, OPEX.  Experience managing execution budgets – Internal R&D, Customer R&D, SEPM.  The ideal candidate will have demonstrated the ability to manage both increases and reductions in budgets to optimize staff utilization and output.

At Insitu, we strive to deliver a Total Rewards package that will attract, engage and retain the top talent. Elements of the Total Rewards package include competitive base pay and variable compensation opportunities.

Insitu also provides eligible employees with an opportunity to enroll in a variety of benefit programs, generally including health insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retirement savings plans, life and disability programs and a number of programs that provide for both paid and unpaid time away from work.

The specific programs and options available to any given employee may vary depending on eligibility factors such as geographic location, date of hire.

Please note that the salary information show below is a general guideline only. Salaries are based upon candidate experience, qualifications and work location.

Typical Hiring Range: 189,000.00 - 260,150.00

Insitu is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, genetic factors, military/veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.


Equal Opportunity Employer:

Boeing is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, genetic factors, military/veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.

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No matter where you are in life, our benefits help prepare you for the present and the future.

  • Generous company match to your 401(k).
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These programs are subject to eligibility requirements and other conditions, which may differ for employees of certain subsidiaries or business units, or union-represented employees depending on bargaining agreement terms. If this information conflicts with the program documents, the latter shall control. This material is informational only.

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