Chief Engineer, Autonomous Airpower

The Air Dominance and Strike (AD&S) Chief Engineering Team is a driving force behind the technical execution and strategic vision of our most critical programs. They are responsible for architecting a vision for product development and guiding multi-disciplinary teams to deliver effectively. They are expected to own the mission and to be deeply involved in building the eco-system that enables execution.


ABOUT THE JOB
You’ll own the technical development of large aircraft from white paper sketches and conceptual design through detailed design, build, flight test, transition to production, and sustainment. This includes vehicle layout and conceptual design, airframe and propulsion system design and integration, guidance section development, payload and datalink integration, fabrication and flight test. These projects will be diverse in nature and require you to leverage your technical expertise as well as leadership skills to set objectives, build a team, and drive to completion. The ability to leverage your intuition and prior experience in programmatic level decision will play a key component in making sure the right design/analysis/ and test steps are being completed to ensure success without simply completing steps for the sake of the process that don’t add value. The ideal candidate will leverage their experience executing and successfully completing prior highly optimized multi-disciplinary projects.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

• Lead technical and programmatic execution of new and existing air vehicle systems design, fabrication, test, productization and sustainment.
• Own the technical and programmatic success of your programs, establish technical and programmatic vision assemble teams of internal and external subject matter experts, and communicate that vision to them.
• Set up trades to enable the exploration of early conceptual designs while working closely with technical SME’s and Business Development teams to find the right solution to current and future gaps in the DOD capability to ensure the warfighter has the best solution for current and future conflicts.
• Manage the detailed design of the system and subsystems including requirements development, sub-system trades and optimization, risk management etc. to ensure the appropriate consideration of design key performance parameters, schedule, costs and risks.
• Coordinate the fabrication of prototype and low-rate production articles and subsystem/system level test efforts.
• Support remotely deployed operations of your systems.
• Work with senior leadership to ensure resource plans are adequate for work scope.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Deep understanding of unmanned aircraft at and above Group 3 class
• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical or Software engineering, or equivalent experience in a relevant field.
• Experience in a senior role leading air vehicle programs from initial concept through test and delivery to customers
• Experience driving strategic direction in competitive landscapes, solving complex system optimization challenges under tight constraints.
• Proven ability to deliver functional capabilities while aligning technical objectives with programmatic outcomes.
• Demonstrated collaboration and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders
• Strong understanding of the “why” behind Vehicle and Systems design.
• Experience working on mission critical DOD systems
• Experience troubleshooting and analyzing remotely deployed systems.
• Travel up to 50% to Customer and Test Sites
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance