Remote Research Operations Director Jobs in Virginia

Iridium is an award-winning and innovative satellite communications company with bragging rights to the only network that offers voice and data connectivity anywhere in the world.   For over 20 years, Iridium’s unique network and services have supported critical communications needs for individuals, businesses, and the evolving Internet of Things.

At Iridium, we understand the importance of staying connected and the limitations of traditional communications networks. People across the globe, including first responders, humanitarians, global militaries, scientific researchers, and lone workers, as well as ships, aircraft and remote operations all rely on Iridium to stay connected. We take our responsibility for providing these essential communications very seriously and pride ourselves on offering a reliable lifeline when needed.  Likewise, Iridium is committed to providing an exciting and innovative workplace, where employees are challenged to think outside the box and collaborate on new, bold ideas and solutions.  Our talented teams are passionate about their work and the impact our company makes around the world.  Iridium fosters an empowering and inclusive culture that allows employees to genuinely be their best selves.   We are looking for others who want to join this truly unique company that celebrates our employees and provides the opportunity to truly make a difference in the world.

If you are an experienced operational leader who excels at bringing clarity, structure, and strategic discipline to complex engineering organizations, then you will be excited about the Engineering Operations Director position with Iridium! In this role, you will lead the operational backbone for a diverse hardware, software, and systems development portfolio, ensuring that teams can focus on delivering highquality, reliable, and scalable solutions that advance Iridium’s evolution and longterm roadmap. Your main focus will be to guide operational planning and execution across multiple engineering teams, partnering closely with senior leaders, technical experts, crossfunctional stakeholders, and financial partners, as well as defining operaional standards, knowledge-management practices, and data governance that strengthen engineering execution. If you take pride in simplifying complexity, aligning stakeholders, and enabling teams to deliver at their best, this is a great opportunity for you.

• Lead operational planning and alignment across a myriad of software, hardware, and related technical teams
• Oversee staff planning and resource visibility to ensure clear understanding of workload, capacity, and availability
• Develop and maintain cost and schedule estimation frameworks to support both earlyphase planning and initiative approval
• Coach engineering staff in building clear task lists, structured work breakdowns, and reliable scoping materials
• Establish and maintain organizational priority frameworks that communicate nearterm focus and longterm direction
• Lead quarterly and monthly operational reviews and create executiveready communication that highlights progress, risks, and tradespace decisions
• Oversee budgeting and forecasting processes for multiinitiative engineering portfolios; translate engineering activity into financial insight
• Build strong partnerships with internal finance, accounting, and operational support teams to align planning and reporting
• Develop and enforce datamanagement standards, including repository structure, access control, archival workflows, and knowledgemanagement practices
• Promote scalable, secure, and sustainable operational processes that support engineering effectiveness and product evolution
• Translate business needs into operational frameworks, decision models, and communication packages
• Collaborate with crossfunctional partners to drive organizational readiness for supplychain or manufacturingrelated workflows as the scope expands
• Advocate for continuous improvement, efficiency gains, and workflow simplification across engineering operations
• Communicate priorities, dependencies, and decisions clearly to technical and nontechnical stakeholders
• Evaluate operational metrics and use data to guide improvements in predictability, quality, and delivery performance
• Partner with finance teams and translate complex engineering work into budgetaligned plans

• BS degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field
• 15+ years of related experience in engineering operations, technical leadership, or programaligned execution roles
• Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary operational frameworks across hardware and software environments
• Experience with cost and schedule estimation, including ROM development and structured forecasting models
• Strong understanding of engineering lifecycles, configuration control, and technical decisionmaking workflows
• Expertise in knowledgemanagement, documentcontrol systems, and data governance practices
• Demonstrated ability to develop roadmaps, operational strategies, and longterm execution models
• Familiarity with Agile concepts and modern engineering practices
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present information, drive discussion, and respond to difficult scenarios with limited preparation across all employee groups
• Capable of being a strong motivator and source of direction for your team and exemplifying commitment to your team’s goals
• Have a people-oriented mentality and actively promote cross-functional team building
• Able to confidently drive discussions, raise support for key ideas, and tailor your communication style to a wide range of audiences
• Possess the creativity, resourcefulness, and decisiveness needed to manage risks and respond to critical situations
• Have a strong sense of urgency in driving projects to completion and be motivated to achieve outcomes and results
• Excellent prioritization skills and the ability to effectively coordinate the activities of multiple groups

• Understanding of telecom or satellite communication systems and protocols
• Knowledge of lifecycle maintenance best practices and operational readiness models
• Training or certification in Agile methods such as Scrum or Kanban
• Experience improving or designing engineering workflows and process frameworks
• Familiarity with supply chain or manufacturing interfaces

• Be able to work in the office at least 60% of the time (3 or more days a week) to foster collaboration with the team and stakeholders
• Be able to travel up to 10% annually for meetings, workshops, and cross-site collaboration
• Be available for operational escalations when necessary
• Be a US Citizen

This position primarily works in an office setting and is largely sedentary with the majority of the position working with a computer. The role typically requires the use of basic office equipment such as a phone, video, computer, keyboard, mouse, and printer. 

We believe in-person connection drives innovation, strengthens mentorship, and builds culture, while flexibility enables employees to do their best work. Under Iridium’s Hybrid Work Policy, employees are expected to work at least three days per week (approximately 60%) in an Iridium office to support collaboration, relationship-building, and professional growth.

Additional Information

This job description outlines the general nature and level of work for this role and is not a comprehensive list of duties, responsibilities, or qualifications. Employees may be assigned additional responsibilities as needed.

Iridium is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.