Deputy Chief Engineer

Responsibilities

• Program Technical Leadership
• Support the Chief Engineer in maintaining overall technical integrity of the missile defense program
• Serve as acting Chief Engineer when delegated, leading technical reviews and milestone readiness assessments
• Translate top-level technical direction and risk posture into actionable guidance for subsystem teams
• Lead integrated design reviews, risk boards, and engineering change control processes
• Systems Integration and Verification
• Ensure interfaces between major subsystems (host vehicle, interceptor, kill vehicle, ground systems) are technically sound and compatible
• Drive technical integration across disciplines, avionics, structures, thermal, propulsion, and GNC, to maintain system coherence
• Oversee verification planning, ensuring requirements are traceable, testable, and verified across the full lifecycle
• Ensure analytical and test rigor is scaled appropriately to design maturity and risk tolerance
• Engineering Discipline Coordination
• Mentor discipline leads, ensuring consistency in standards, modeling assumptions, and data management
• Promote cross-functional problem solving, ensuring issues are rapidly elevated and technically resolved
• Enforce engineering rigor, documentation, and configuration control across the design and analysis functions
• Oversee the engineering review process (ERB, CCB) and ensure technical disposition of non-conformances
• Strategic and Programmatic Alignment
• Support the Chief Engineer and Program Manager in balancing technical, schedule, and cost trade-offs
• Coordinate with Systems Engineering and SEIT to ensure cohesive technical baseline and verification closure
• Contribute to technology maturation and risk reduction planning for future phases of the SBI program
• Represent engineering during customer technical interchange meetings, design reviews, and audits

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in aerospace systems engineering, design, and technical leadership
• Proven record of leading multidisciplinary teams through full lifecycle development (concept through fielding)
• Deep understanding of configuration management, requirements traceability, and verification processes
• Strong background in one or more core domains (systems, structures, propulsion, GNC, avionics)
• Excellent communication, decision-making, and leadership skills
• U.S. Citizen and eligible for DoD Secret