Autonomous Systems Engineer

Job Description

The Army Soldier and Weapon Systems Department (N214) mission is to provide world class engineering workforce for combat, testing, and training capabilities to provide the U.S. Army an asymmetric advantage. Key sponsors of the Department work program include CPE Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (Orlando, FL), CPE Ground – Soldier Systems (Fort Belvoir, VA), DEVCOM Soldier System Center (Natick, MA), Synthetic Training Environment Cross Functional Team (Fort Leavenworth, KS), PAE Fires and CPE Aviation (Huntsville, AL), CPE Ground – Combat Platforms and DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center (Ann Arbor, MI), Army Test and Evaluation Command (Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD) and CPE Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (Edgewood, MD).

Roles and Responsibilities

• Leverage expertise of real-time planning, optimization, and control algorithms for intelligent and autonomous systems to enable the Army’s strategic vision to reduce the burden on soldiers and increase combat power.
• Work closely with senior government civilian and military leaders to define and execute MITRE’s work across several Army acquisition offices. Regular sponsor interaction will be required.
• Drive the adoption for Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA), use of commercial solutions, and partnerships with industry.
• Assist PAE Fires to: Identify gaps and shortfalls in operational performance and propose effective mitigations. Develop CONOPs, TTPs, and business processes to support joint, interagency, and coalition interoperability. Perform analysis to support operational and technical assessments of Army Fire Control Systems.
• Collaborate within MITRE to leverage ongoing Autonomy research and lab capabilities. Identify and articulate program risks and associated opportunities. Establish goals and communicate clear expectations and guidance that contribute to highest priority sponsor outcomes. Establish strong relationships within the sponsor organization. Define opportunities to collaborate with organizations outside of the sponsor to create a greater mission outcome.

Basic Qualifications

• Typically requires a Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 2 years of related experience; or an advanced degree with relevant experience who can immediately contribute at this job step; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Technical background in disciplines of relevance in one or more of the following: computer vision, deep learning, machine learning, control theory, human machine teaming, and multi-robot systems.
• Applicable work experience related to Autonomy, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning.
• Proven experience in developing, testing, and acquiring data-driven solutions that meet military operational needs while working to understand specific areas for advanced autonomy research.
• Ability to perform technical analysis of existing, proposed, and in-development autonomy technologies.
• Experience in advising US Military on the acquisition and deployment of new autonomy capabilities.
• Experience leading engineering and automation teams for the integration of algorithms for intelligent and autonomous systems.
• Experience recognizing technical challenges and leading engineering activities to deliver appropriate solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• An advanced degree in Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, etc.
• Current/Active Top Secret Clearance.
• Prior experience developing or assessing Army systems or operations, reflected by: Working knowledge of Army organizations, missions, roles/responsibilities, and relationships.
• Extensive experience working on Autonomous Platforms.
• Extensive experience with Autonomy capabilities and features.
• Extensive experience with rapid prototyping, including fabrication and electronics.
• Extensive experience with field testing autonomous systems.
• Extensive experience with CUAS operations.
• Extensive experience with Army’s IAMD mission space.
• Demonstrated ability to take risks and lead work with partial insights, and operate effectively autonomously.
• Demonstrated ability to build collaboration across organizational units.
• Demonstrates collaboration and communication skills to support individual, team, and customer-related interaction.
• Knowledge of advances of Autonomy evaluation capabilities in industry and academia.
• Domain knowledge of swarming systems, agentic AI, manufacturing robotics, and/or missile defense.
• Developed, proposed and executed research in the field of autonomy and/or missile defense.