Provides advanced technical leadership, oversight, and mentorship to engineering teams while serving as a key interface with internal and external customers. Operates in a fast-paced commercial product development environment supporting a defense-focused customer base. Works within matrixed Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) and functionally aligned organizations. This position operates with minimal supervision, exercising significant independent judgment and decision-making authority related to technical scope, risk management, and engineering execution. 

Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities:  

• Lead the maintenance and sustainment of existing products, driving upgrades and enhancements through established engineering development processes. 

• Own and oversee the development and management of project schedules in Agile environments while ensuring alignment with traditional waterfall milestones. 

• Partner with Product Managers to proactively resolve complex technical issues and inform product direction. 

• Drive and facilitate the identification, definition, and documentation of technical issues, risks, and dependencies across the project team. 

• Ensure delivery ownership of engineering solutions that meet committed scope, schedule, and performance objectives. 

• Serve as a primary technical interface with customers (internal and external) on requirements, issue resolution, planning, and status updates. 

• Lead and promote cross-team collaboration using tools such as Microsoft Teams to ensure alignment and transparency. 

• Oversee and monitor product development activities and progress using tools such as Jira, ensuring accurate tracking and reporting. 

• Coordinate and lead collaboration efforts with internal departments, customer representatives, and third-party suppliers to drive timely issue resolution. 

• Collaborate strategically with functional engineering managers to forecast, secure, and optimize resources in support of customer needs. 

• Lead troubleshooting efforts with customers and engineering teams to isolate root causes and deliver timely solutions or effective workarounds. 

• Ensure comprehensive documentation of all technical issues from initial identification through troubleshooting, escalation, and resolution. 

• Conduct advanced analysis and resolution of complex customer issues, driving escalation paths with Product Management and Engineering as needed.