Range Safety & Flight Termination Engineer (MDA)

About the role

The Range Safety & Flight Termination Engineer supports the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Targets and Countermeasures Engineering Directorate. Key responsibilities include serving as a Range Safety expert during flight tests, overseeing requirements development and verification for target system flight termination systems, conducting technical surveillance, authoring technical reports, and representing government interests in technical working groups.

Responsibilities

• Serve as Range Safety expert on behalf of the Targets Program office during flight tests, Range Safety Working Groups, and flight termination testing.
• Provide oversight of requirements development, allocation, and verification for target system flight termination systems, including autonomous flight termination systems.
• Conduct technical surveillance across flight termination systems hardware and software development, qualification, acceptance, integration, and final checkout.
• Author technical reports detailing system status, analytical findings, and formal recommendations.
• Represent government stakeholder interests in technical working groups, customer forums, and formal design reviews.

Requirements

• Demonstrated background in flight termination systems and ordnance systems.
• Master's degree with 12+ years of experience, or a Bachelor's degree with 20+ years of experience, supporting missile defense or large-scale, complex DoD programs.
• Active DoD Secret clearance.
• Proficient in flight safety analysis products, specifically RCC-319 (Flight Termination Commonality Standard) and RCC-324 (Range Safety Tracking Systems Commonality Standard).
• Working knowledge of range tracking architectures, including GPS, Inertial Measurement Units (IMU), and C-band tracking.
• Strong written and verbal briefing skills; willingness and ability to travel for mission deployments.

Desired Skills

• Direct experience with Autonomous Flight Termination Systems (AFTS).
• Hands-on flight test operations experience.
• Technical background in RF systems, antennas, batteries, and ordnance devices.
• 10+ years of experience in defense and aerospace.

Position Requirements

• Cleared Required: Secret
• Position Level: Principal
• FT/PT: Full Time
• Years Related Work Experience: 20
• Education Level Required: 4-yr Mission Driven Research is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans.