Associate Director – Mechanical Engineering Discipline Lead

RTX

Associate Director leading Mechanical Engineering teams in developing mission critical systems at Collins Aerospace. Managing a cross-functional team while ensuring alignment with program objectives.

Posted 5/4/2026full-timeRichardson • Iowa, New York, Texas, Virginia • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $157,200 - $298,800 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Work with Mission Systems department leaders to coordinate efforts across portfolios within Strategic Defense Solutions, ensuring a unified approach to meeting business needs.
Participate in Requirements and Architecture Reviews, Independent Reviews and Non-Advocate Reviews to ensure designs and plans are aligned with requirements and manufacturing feasibility.
Partner with Engineering Leadership to develop talent that meet the needs of our portfolios and meet our customers’ most challenging commitments.
Conduct directorate leadership over the entire life cycle including bids, program management, requirements capture, design and implementation, integration, verification, and certification.
Connect geographically distributed teams to engage talent across sites, work to identify best practices and execute as a seamless organization.
Travel to SDS HW sites across the organization to engage with talent and connect with teams.
Identify, develop, track and deploy KPI’s within discipline to foster predictable performance and highlight areas of focus.
Foster a culture of technical rigor, collaboration, and continuous improvement in support of mission-critical delivery.
Communicate well with a wide variety of individuals including Engineering, Program Management, internal leadership, and customers.
Strives to spend 25 - 50% of week engaged in programmatic technical tasks and providing leader oversight to program performance.
Look out to industry for other developing technologies to adopt into our products – Identifying and incorporating AI into our engineering disciplines to achieve execution efficiency.
Partner with Mission Engineering & Technology HW Discipline Lead to align initiatives within organization.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Experience leading cross-functional technical teams with a passion for challenging and developing people.
The ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government issued security clearance is required.
U.S. citizenship is required, as only U.S. citizens are eligible for a security clearance.
Typically requires a degree in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) and minimum 12 years prior relevant experience or an Advanced Degree in a related field and minimum 10 years of experience.
Active DoD security clearance.
Special Access Programs experience.
Familiar with Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning techniques.
Previous experience in driving team accountability for meeting project deadlines, budgets, and quality standards.
Previous experience in problem-solving and decision-making skills.
Previous experience in a fast-paced, dynamic and creative work environment.
Previous experience in building, mentoring, and growing high-performing teams.
Previous experience in stakeholder management and ensuring that all teams remain aligned to business objectives, while maintaining a customer-centric approach.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Medical, dental, and vision insurance
Three weeks of vacation for newly hired employees
Generous 401(k) plan that includes employer matching funds and separate employer retirement contribution, including a Lifetime Income Strategy option
Tuition reimbursement program
Student Loan Repayment Program
Life insurance and disability coverage
Optional coverages you can buy pet insurance, home and auto insurance, additional life and accident insurance, critical illness insurance, group legal, ID theft protection
Birth, adoption, parental leave benefits
Ovia Health, fertility, and family planning
Adoption Assistance
Autism Benefit
Employee Assistance Plan, including up to 10 free counseling sessions
Healthy You Incentives, wellness rewards program
Doctor on Demand, virtual doctor visits
Bright Horizons, child and elder care services
Teladoc Medical Experts, second opinion program
And more!

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

program managementrequirements capturedesign and implementationintegrationverificationcertificationArtificial IntelligenceMachine LearningKPI developmenttechnical rigor

Soft Skills

leadershipteam accountabilityproblem-solvingdecision-makingmentoringstakeholder managementcommunicationcollaborationcontinuous improvementcustomer-centric approach

Certifications

U.S. government issued security clearance