Your question is Realigning Engineering Under Shifting Priorities. Take a moment with it on the right.
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You are the engineering manager for a federally focused cyber analytics platform used by defense and civilian agencies, with core capabilities spanning ATT&CK-based threat mapping, adversary emulation content, and mission analytics integrations. The organization has a 3-year strategy centered on becoming the default mission partner for high-trust cyber operations, with growth expected from expanding deployments tied to ATT&CK, D3FEND, and Caldera-based workflows, but in the last 9 months leadership has redirected engineering capacity three times in response to urgent customer requests, new funding lines, and competitive pressure from faster-moving commercial vendors. As a result, 42% of engineering capacity is now spent on one-off customer commitments, the roadmap slipped by 5 months, platform reliability fell from 99.5% to 98.7%, and only 55% of delivered work maps clearly to one of the top 5 strategic objectives. You have a $24 million annual engineering budget, 110 engineers across 8 teams, and a mandate to support near-term revenue opportunities without losing the long-term platform strategy.
How would you ensure engineering work stays aligned with long-term strategy while priorities continue to shift, and what operating model would you recommend to balance strategic platform investment against short-term customer and market demands?