This leader oversees a diverse mix of engineering services and product-based businesses, balancing lightweight governance for mature service programs with rigorous systems engineering, execution oversight, and technical risk management for high-priority product development efforts.
The role partners closely with the business leadership, CTO, program management, manufacturing, and growth teams to ensure engineering excellence, product commonality, rapid deployment capability, affordability, and successful transition from development into scalable production.

The Vice President of Engineering will help mature the segment engineering organization over time, including the future establishment and leadership of Chief Engineers aligned to business units and major product lines.

Key Responsibilities
Technical Leadership & Engineering Governance
    Serve as the senior engineering authority across the segment portfolio.
    Establish engineering standards, technical review processes, and development rigor appropriate for both services and product organizations.
    Ensure technical execution aligns with customer mission requirements, affordability targets, schedule commitments, and long-term product strategy.
    Drive engineering best practices across systems engineering, software, hardware, integration, test, cybersecurity, reliability, and manufacturing readiness.
    Lead independent technical assessments and support executive decision-making related to technical risk, investment priorities, and program execution.
Product Development & Productization
    Support the transition from bespoke engineering efforts to scalable, repeatable product solutions.
    Ensure engineering organizations are structured to move rapidly while maintaining technical discipline and mission assurance.
    Promote modular architectures, common product frameworks, reuse strategies, and product commonality across programs.
    Partner with manufacturing and operations teams to improve producibility, reliability, and lifecycle affordability.
    Drive engineering alignment with enterprise initiatives focused on speed, agility, commercialization, and rapid deployment.
Partnership with CTO & Enterprise Engineering Alignment
    Partner directly with the CTO to flow enterprise engineering strategies, processes, tools, and governance into the segment.
    Support implementation of common engineering frameworks, digital engineering approaches, model-based systems engineering, and enterprise product development standards.
    Ensure engineering organizations adopt enterprise technology roadmaps and modernization initiatives where appropriate.
Talent Strategy & Organizational Development
    Support engineering workforce planning, hiring strategies, succession planning, and capability development across the segment.
    Monitor engineering staffing requirements against strategic growth objectives.
    Help shape future engineering organizational structures, including eventual establishment of Chief Engineer roles aligned to business units or product portfolios.
    Foster a culture centered on accountability, innovation, technical excellence, collaboration, and mission focus.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
    Partner closely with:
    Business Unit leaders
    Program Management
    Manufacturing & Supply Chain
    Quality
    Finance
    Growth & Capture
    Security and Contracts
    Support customer engagements, technical roadmap discussions, milestone reviews, and strategic captures.
    Participate in executive operating rhythms including program reviews, investment reviews, and annual operating planning activities.

Basic Qualifications
    Bachelors degree in Engineering or related technical field required; advanced degree preferred.
    15 years of progressive engineering leadership experience within defense, aerospace, space, directed energy, RF systems, autonomous systems, or related national security sectors.
    Demonstrated experience leading complex engineering organizations supporting both development and production environments.
    Strong background in systems engineering, product development, and transition to manufacturing.
    Experience operating within high-growth, fast-paced technology organizations.
    Ability to balance technical rigor with speed and execution urgency.
    Experience collaborating across enterprise engineering and business leadership organizations.
    Strong communication skills with the ability to engage effectively with executives, customers, and technical teams.
    Top Secret/SCI Clearance or the ability to obtain a clearance

Preferred Experience
    Experience supporting defense acquisition programs, rapid prototyping efforts, and productized defense systems.
    Familiarity with digital engineering, model-based systems engineering (MBSE), and modern product development environments.
    Experience scaling engineering organizations following acquisition or integration activities.
    Background supporting products transitioning from R&D into operational deployment and production scale-up.

Leadership Expectations
    People First Culture
    Results & Ownership
    Innovate & Simplify
    Dedicated to Customers
    Evolve to Dominate

Clearance Level

 

The salary range for this role is:

AeroVironment considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the location, the role and associated responsibilities, a candidate’s work experience, education/training, and key skills.

ITAR Requirement:

This position requires access to information that is subject to compliance with the International Traffic Arms Regulations (“ITAR”) and/or the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”). In order to comply with the requirements of the ITAR and/or the EAR, applicants must qualify as a U.S. person under the ITAR and the EAR, or a person to be approved for an export license by the governing agency whose technology comes under its jurisdiction. Please understand that any job offer that requires approval of an export license will be conditional on AeroVironment’s determination that it will be able to obtain an export license in a time frame consistent with AeroVironment’s business requirements. A “U.S. person” according to the ITAR definition is a U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), or protected individual such as a refugee or asylee. See 22 CFR 120.15. Some positions will require current U.S. Citizenship due to contract requirements.

Benefits:  AV offers an excellent benefits package including medical, dental vision, 401K with company matching, a 9/80 work schedule and a paid holiday shutdown.  For more information about our company benefit offerings please visit:  http://www.avinc.com/myavbenefits.

We also encourage you to review our company website at http://www.avinc.com to learn more about us.

Principals only need apply.  NO agencies please.

About AV:

AV isn’t for everyone. We hire the curious, the relentless, the mission-obsessed. The best of the best.

We don’t just build defense technology—we redefine what’s possible. As the premier autonomous systems company in the U.S., AV delivers breakthrough capabilities across air, land, sea, space, and cyber. From AI-powered drones and loitering munitions to integrated autonomy and space resilience, our technologies shape the future of warfare and protect those who serve.

Founded by legendary innovator Dr. Paul MacCready, AV has spent over 50 years pushing the boundaries of what unmanned systems can do. Our heritage includes seven platforms in the Smithsonian—but we’re not building history, we’re building what’s next.

If youre ready to build technology that matters—with speed, scale, and purpose—there’s no better place to do it than AV.

We are proud to be an EEO/AA Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans. AeroVironment, Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and welcomes all qualified applicants. Qualified applicants will receive fair and impartial consideration without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetic data, sexual orientation, gender identity or other legally protected status.

ITAR

U.S. Citizenship required