Engineering Manager

About

Join a long-established defense engineering and manufacturing company in Central Florida supporting mission-critical government programs. This is an opportunity to lead a team working on complex, high-reliability products in a regulated environment where systems thinking, engineering discipline, and execution all matter. The organization is known for its deep engineering capabilities, strong manufacturing foundation, and long-standing support of important government programs. For the right person, this role offers the chance to lead a talented engineering group, influence technical execution across multiple efforts, and help strengthen how requirements, systems engineering discipline, and model-based engineering practices are applied in a real-world product environment.

This is a direct hire opportunity based in Central Florida.

The Role You'll Play

This Engineering Manager will lead an engineering team of approximately 8 to 10 professionals and serve as a key people leader and technical driver across engineering programs. The role is responsible for helping the team execute against project goals, resource needs, technical requirements, and process expectations, while also bringing structure and accountability to requirements development, requirements management, and model-based systems engineering practices.

This person will need to balance leadership and coaching with operational discipline. It is a strong fit for someone who can guide engineers, monitor execution, establish metrics, identify issues early, and communicate clearly with leadership and, at times, customers.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and provide day-to-day direction to an engineering team of approximately 8 to 10 employees
• Manage team staffing, performance, and development needs
• Oversee requirements development and requirements management activities across engineering efforts
• Support and reinforce model-based systems engineering practices across programs
• Establish and monitor KPIs, technical performance measures, and departmental metrics
• Present project and group status in program reviews and monthly updates
• Assign work across engineers and teams, and monitor progress against objectives
• Identify training needs to strengthen technical capability and process consistency within the group
• Help drive adherence to engineering processes, policies, procedures, and quality expectations
• Develop evaluation criteria, identify emerging technical issues, and help resolve execution risks
• Interface with customers when needed through meetings, presentations, and technical discussions
• Coordinate materials, tooling, equipment, and related engineering support needs for projects
• Support a collaborative engineering environment that emphasizes accountability, technical rigor, and continuous improvement

Background Profile

The ideal candidate is an engineering leader who brings a strong systems mindset, prior experience managing technical teams, and credibility in a defense, aerospace, manufacturing, or similarly regulated product environment. This person should be comfortable leading both people and process... someone who can bring order, structure, and accountability to engineering execution while still being respected by strong technical contributors. They should understand how to manage engineering work in a program-driven setting, especially where requirements traceability, systems engineering discipline, and cross-functional coordination are essential.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering required
• Master's degree in Engineering preferred
• 8+ years of relevant engineering experience
• Prior experience leading or managing engineers in a structured technical environment
• Experience with requirements development and requirements management
• Exposure to or working knowledge of model-based systems engineering
• Ability to establish and monitor KPIs, technical performance measures, and team performance metrics
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to present status to leadership and customers
• Proficiency with software applications relevant to the role
• U.S. Citizenship required
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a government security clearance

Preferred Background

• Experience in defense, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, electronics, sensor-based systems, or other highly regulated engineering environments
• Experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams
• Familiarity with structured systems engineering processes in a product development setting
• Experience with root cause analysis, corrective action, and engineering quality metrics
• Ability to work effectively in both office and manufacturing environments