> On a ship, I don't imagine that engineering would be very involved in helping to set the direction
On a warship at least, engineering would make inputs into command decisions, at least by identifying constraints such as when maintenance is required, redline limits, etc.
In fact the Kirk / Scotty relationship (as per classic Star Trek) is a fairly good model, except that there would be multiple Scotties, representing other functions such as damage control, weapons teams, etc. These different teams would have to mutually deconflict, e.g. scheduling maintenance / repair around critical warfighting activities.
On a warship at least, engineering would make inputs into command decisions, at least by identifying constraints such as when maintenance is required, redline limits, etc.
In fact the Kirk / Scotty relationship (as per classic Star Trek) is a fairly good model, except that there would be multiple Scotties, representing other functions such as damage control, weapons teams, etc. These different teams would have to mutually deconflict, e.g. scheduling maintenance / repair around critical warfighting activities.