Airworthiness Staff Engineer

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft, tactical reconnaissance radars, and advanced high-resolution surveillance systems. We are seeking a Staff Engineer to join our Airworthiness group in Poway, CA.

About the role

This position provides leadership for airworthiness engineering activities related to civil and military Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) seeking airworthiness approvals. You will work with a wide range of engineering disciplines to establish airworthiness design and process requirements and assess compliance. Under general direction with limited oversight, you will apply innovative approaches to resolve unusual or complex engineering challenges, plan engineering projects, and collaborate with subject matter experts to meet project goals.

Responsibilities

• Support integration of airworthiness into the overall engineering environment.
• Review engineering systems to identify deficiencies and opportunities for improvement.
• Devise new approaches to resolve unusual or complex engineering challenges.
• Learn and apply airworthiness processes used by customers, regulators, and authorities to obtain and sustain airworthiness approvals.
• Work closely with customers, airworthiness authorities, and company engineering departments to develop airworthiness program plans, certification bases, troubleshoot conflicting requirements, develop certification plans, coordinate test and analysis activities, and address special airworthiness concerns.
• Plan and execute tasks supporting documentation and presentation of engineering analyses, tests, inspections, and other compliance means.
• Author technical documentation and represent the company at customer technical reviews and meetings.
• Organize and host airworthiness meetings as required.
• Manage performance of airworthiness tasks on programs, provide status updates, identify risks, assess causes of anomalous performance, and suggest corrective actions.
• Create labor hour estimates for airworthiness work in proposals.
• Support management of subcontractors, particularly regarding airworthiness matters.
• Maintain strict confidentiality of customer and company sensitive information.
• Support configuration management activities.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or PhD in engineering or a related technical discipline from an accredited institution. Progressive engineering experience: six or more years with a bachelor’s degree, four or more years with a master’s degree, or two or more years with a PhD. Equivalent engineering experience may substitute for education.
• Thorough understanding of engineering concepts, principles, codes, and theory, with broad application experience.
• Ability to develop and communicate new concepts, organize and coordinate work phases, and determine appropriate approaches for complex problems.
• Experience managing schedules and budgets; familiarity with Microsoft Project is desired.
• Strong communication, documentation, presentation, organizational, leadership, and interpersonal skills.
• Capability to manage airworthiness support for multiple projects simultaneously and work independently with strong delegation skills.
• Ability to work well in both self-initiated and team environments.
• Prior experience with FAA, EASA, EMAR, NATO (STANAG 4671), and US DoD (MIL-HDBK-516) airworthiness design and process requirements, especially DO-178C and DO-254, is strongly preferred.
• Experience working with domestic and/or international airworthiness authorities (Military or Civil) is preferred.
• Familiarity with uninhabited, autonomous systems is preferred.
• Experience assessing and verifying compliance with type certification requirements for aircraft or components is preferred.
• Ability to work on-site, work extended hours, and travel as required to meet project objectives.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD security clearance.

Pay

Salary range: $98,100 - $171,398