Sr. Systems Engineer Aerospace/Electro-Optical

Position Overview Our Company manufacturing facility, a world leader in space-based intelligence systems, is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer to own and drive the development of the state-of-the-art products necessary to fulfill the quickly-evolving demands of our customers. We are looking for a Principal Systems Engineer with extensive background in optical telescope assemblies (OTA) and/or electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors. You will have a demonstrated history of OTA and/or EO/IR system development through all phases of the product life cycle as both an individual contributor and a team leader.  It is essential that you have the ability to perform first order evaluations of complex problems, designs, and concepts in order to determine program direction as well as comprehend, evaluate, and assess technical details among diverse engineering disciplines.   As a technical leader, you will engage with engineering, program management and support functions, functional management, and customers. This position will guide and influence the execution of programs critical to enabling our customer’s needs.

There are no direct reports to this position. However, you will be responsible for the oversight and direction of engineering teams of varying sizes and disciplines.  You will:

• Work with the program office and technical team to establish robust and executable program plans including the identification of tasks, trade studies, modelling and analyses, staffing, resources, and risk and opportunity identification and management. 
• Review and assess customer requirements and develop and guide proper requirements management including validation, decomposition and flow down, specification development, and technical budgeting. This may be done independently or in conjunction with a lead systems engineer.
• Develop and guide verification management including verification matrix development, verification plan development, and preparation of sell-off materials to demonstrate compliance.
• Lead multi-disciplinary technical teams through the execution of the program plan.
• Provide overall program technical leadership and act as the technical conduit to the program office and the customer.   In addition, you will assess technical input and flow the appropriate direction to the technical team.
• Evaluate the work and results from the technical team and provide feedback and direction as necessary.
• Communicate and collaborate with the program office, functional management, and technical team members to ensure proper program execution and early issue and risk identification.

Education / Certifications Bachelor’s degree in physics, optical engineering, or related field.  Advanced degree preferred.

 Experience/Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years relevant work experience such as systems engineering of complex optical systems throughout the product lifecycle including requirements validation, decomposition and flow down, specification development, technical budgeting, and verification.
• Decomposition of complex systems into logical building blocks and the ability to develop the requisite error budgets and requirements traceability.
• Writing requirements specifications, verification matrices, verification plans, and verification reports.
• Development of reflective and refractive optical systems for visible through long wave infrared applications with the ability to identify the appropriate solutions for both imaging and non-imaging systems.
• Use and development of analytical tools for modeling and analysis for system development, evaluation, and verification.
• Evaluation and definition of the optical, mechanical, electrical, and environmental inputs into a system and their influence on overall requirements compliance.
• Program planning including scope definition, resourcing, and budgeting.
• Proven ability to plan, implement, and successfully lead a team from concept to operation.
• Technical leadership of cross-functional/discipline teams.
• Proficient written communication skills including technical writing.
• Proficient verbal skill including technical presentations with the ability and technical confidence to brief a variety of internal and external customers.

Desired

• Development of EO/IR systems including modeling and analysis
• Concept of operations (CONOPS) development
• Image processing and image quality assessment
• EO/IR sensor calibration
• Active security clearance