Vice President of Engineering-Security Clearance Eligibility Required

Position Overview

Key Responsibilities/Duties/Functions/Tasks

Enterprise Engineering Leadership

• Lead the technical transformation of AVT from a program-based systems integrator to a mid-market OEM, focused on establishing product lines supported by centralized Engineering.
• Lead the centralized multidisciplinary engineering organization, establishing common standards, operating cadence, technical governance, decision rights, and technical performance expectations across programs.
• Directly manage and mentor the Engineering Directors (Enterprise Solutions Architect, Integrated Systems Engineering, and Software Engineering) to ensure functional depth and enterprise-wide technical governance.
• Implement and oversee the Centralized Design Authority with Product Line Alignment model, providing horizontal leadership to resolve technical risk, architecture decisions, resource conflicts, and cross-functional barriers through dotted-line Chief Engineer assignments.
• Partner with the Enterprise Solutions Architect / Technical Authority to govern technical decisions across all product families, protecting design authority and product qualification discipline.
• Build a culture of technical rigor, accountability, collaboration, and early escalation, with strong synchronization with Program Management, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Quality, and Test.
• Lead the development and maintenance of engineering processes, policies, and standards ensuring compliance with ISO and CMMI objectives, and driving achievement and ongoing management of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Level 2.

Engineering Execution & Program Health

• Own engineering performance against program schedules, drawing and software releases, design reviews, integration needs, and customer milestones.
• Maintain one trusted source of engineering status and provide clear program health KPIs, including technical risk assessments, with cause, impact, owner, recovery action, and date for at-risk conditions.
• Use leading indicators and a disciplined review cadence to identify and recover technical blockers before they affect schedule, cost, quality, margin, or customer delivery.

Product Development, Requirements & Configuration

• Own and continuously improve AVT’s engineering portions of the product-development lifecycle, simplifying unnecessary complexity while preserving critical controls.
• Ensure practical gate and review criteria for requirements, PDR/CDR, design readiness, production readiness, test readiness, technical release, product support including technical refresh cycles.
•  Maintain requirements traceability, configuration integrity, and disciplined control of  ECRs, ECNs, software defects, redlines, and major technical decisions.
•  Strengthen the transition from engineering development into procurement, manufacturing, integration, test, and repeatable production.
• Serve as the enterprise Technology Control Officer (TCO), providing executive oversight of the Technology Control Plan (TCP) to ensure rigorous compliance with ITAR and Export Control regulations governing the protection and handling of technical data for sensitive technology transfers and “deemed exports”.

Resource, Talent & PMO

• Maintain an enterprise view of engineering demand, capacity, critical skills, and future needs; resolve cross-program resource conflicts before commitments are affected.
• Partner with HR on critical technical recruiting, succession, onboarding, cross-training, and backup coverage to preserve and grow expertise across systems, mechanical, electrical, software, test, configuration management, and manufacturing engineering — reducing skill gaps, single-person dependencies, and ensuring the functional depth.
• Partner with Program Management and the PMO to integrate engineering commitments, resources, dependencies, and risks into program plans, and engage early in proposals to validate technical feasibility, schedule realism, manufacturability, capacity, cost realism, and program risk.

• Drive engineering support for new business capture, ensuring technical inputs for RFIs, RFPs, and white papers are accurate, compelling, and aligned with AVT’s product-based strategy.
• Direct the engineering Bid & Proposal process to ensure proposed solutions are technically compliant, competitively priced, and backed by realistic resource estimates and schedules.
• Lead the functional and technical management of Internal R&D (IRAD), conceiving and executing projects that deepen the company's understanding of critical requirements and technologies to improve proposal win rates, while overseeing the development and demonstration of AVT's internally-developed product lines.
• Collaborate on Business Development initiatives and engage with prospective teaming partners to evaluate technical synergies and expand AVT’s market reach.

• Drawing and software release adherence; critical technical backlog and aging.
• ECR/ECN aging, stalled approvals, unresolved technical decisions, critical defects, and configuration integrity.
• Engineering capacity and skill coverage, technical gate readiness, engineering-driven manufacturing holds, and downstream milestones at risk.
• Engineering contribution to on-time customer delivery, quality, program margin, and customer confidence.

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for the job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Qualifications & Experience

Minimum Requirements

• 15+ years of progressive engineering experience in aerospace, defense, training simulations, advanced manufacturing, complex engineered products, or a comparable technical environment.

• Proven (5+ years) leadership experience managing multidisciplinary engineering organizations across hardware, software, systems, integration, or complex product development.
• Demonstrated success establishing engineering standards, governance, metrics, resource discipline, and accountability across multiple programs.
• Strong understanding of requirements, configuration management, engineering change control, technical reviews, release processes, and manufacturing/test readiness, with a track record of improving schedule and delivery predictability.
• Relevant Experience in OEM environments, particularly in scaling engineering operations for repeatable product manufacturing.
• Experience transitioning products from development into low-volume/high-complexity and/or higher-volume manufacturing; familiarity with AS9100, ISO, CMMI, or structured stage-gate environments.

Preferred

• Experience with flight simulation, defense systems, aviation, mission-critical engineered products, or U.S. Government programs.

• Education

• Bachelor of Sciencedegree in Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or a related technical discipline required; advanced technical or business degree preferred.

Leadership Attributes

• Enterprise-minded and execution-oriented; manages Engineering for AVT’s success, not as an isolated function.
• Technically credible, data-driven, transparent, and able to make timely technical, resource, priority, and people decisions.
• Highly collaborative and capable of bridging Program Management, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, Business Development, and customers.
• Visible developer of talent who builds capability, accountability, succession, and continuous improvement.

Essential Physical Requirements

Success Metrics - First 12–24 Months

• Consistent engineering standards, management cadence, and program-health visibility implemented across AVT programs.
•  Improved engineering schedule predictability and on-time technical deliverables aligned to downstream need dates.
• Reduced aging drawings, ECRs/ECNs, technical decisions, defects, and engineering-driven production holds or rework.
• Improved resource planning, critical-skill coverage, onboarding, cross-training, and succession.
• Stronger technical gate discipline, proposal feasibility validation, and engineering-to-manufacturing readiness, with measurable improvement in customer delivery, quality, margin, and customer confidence.

Our Heritage:

Founded in 1998 by an engineer, AVT Simulation is an Orlando-based, end-to-end systems integration and full-service modeling and simulation small business. Since our beginning, AVT's highly specialized staff of engineers has included some of the top leaders in the simulation industry. With an average of over 20 years of simulation experience, our dedicated staff provides specialized solutions for customers requiring on point solutions to complex problems.

AVT has always been a company that strives to make a positive difference in the lives we touch. These lives include our employees and their families, our partner companies and their employees, and ultimately the warfighters receiving our products and services. Our core values are so very important to us as a company. They guide us towards success. They make us a great company to work for and a strong partner to work with.

- People First
- Mission Excellence
- Do the Right Thing
- Commitment

People First is our first and most important core value because we firmly believe the success of AVT is directly related to supporting our employees. We have a lot of fun (with regular employee events and engagements), while still working hard to accomplish our mission of serving our military and the warfighter.

We’re looking for candidates that embody these core values, know how to have fun while working hard, and think they would thrive in an environment like ours. If you’re a self-motivated individual, then come join AVT. Come make your difference.

EOE - Equal Opportunity Employer-Vet/Disability

Qualified individuals with a disability have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. If you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our careers website as a result of your disability, request a reasonable accommodation by visiting www.avtsim.com/careers and follow the instructions at the bottom.