Software & Processing Project Engineer

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems. The Agile Mission Systems (AMS) team in San Diego, CA seeks high-performing technical contributors and future leaders in the Project Engineering role to define and execute program plans, lead strategic objectives, and drive missionized architectures across multiple UAS platforms.

About the Role

This role involves leading multi-disciplinary engineering teams, influencing business strategies, resolving critical mission gaps, and driving disruptive tactical advantages across platforms including Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), Longshot, Small UAS, Expendable UAS, NexGen ISR, and legacy variants such as MQ-1 and MQ-9A/B.

Responsibilities

• Plan and lead multi-disciplinary engineering teams, ensuring alignment with business and strategic objectives, resource allocation, milestone achievement, and program execution within cost and schedule.
• Lead and support software development teams through the software development lifecycle using Agile best practices.
• Oversee subcontractor technical scope by defining subsystem requirements, writing Statements of Work, performing technical evaluations, and aligning deliverables with program milestones.
• Identify, manage, and develop mitigations for risks at a system level.
• Support technology initiatives such as Open Architectures (OMS, FACE), Autonomy & Artificial Intelligence, onboard fusion, track management, resource management, and Human Factors-based HMI design.
• Foster collaboration and build consensus for technical solutions among GA functional departments, program management, external GA P&Ls, and customer stakeholders.
• Represent programs as the engineering lead, ensuring consistent messaging to external customer stakeholders, DoD representatives, industry partners, subcontractors, and senior internal/executive stakeholders.
• Write and support proposal technical volumes and engineering estimates.
• Perform system-level analysis and trade studies, generate requirements, and develop system architecture and designs.
• Generate and present technical review data packages (e.g., System Requirements Reviews, Preliminary Design Reviews, Critical Design Reviews) to customers and executive leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or PhD in engineering or a related technical discipline from an accredited institution, with progressive engineering experience:
  • Twelve or more years with a bachelor’s degree,
  • Ten or more years with a master’s degree, or
  • Seven or more years with a PhD.
  Equivalent engineering experience may substitute for education.
• Proven ability to quickly understand and apply new concepts to resolve complex technical problems.
• Demonstrated expertise in engineering principles, project management, and leadership, including organizing, planning, scheduling, and coordinating workloads.
• Experience developing and integrating hardware and/or software across disciplines such as Software, Electrical, RF, Cyber, Autonomy, AI/ML, and Mechanical.
• Experience in one or more of the following: Automation, Autonomy & Artificial Intelligence (A3I), HMI/UI, Cybersecurity, Software Architectures, Open Architectures and Standards (OMS, FACE, STANAG), Networking, Modeling & Simulation, Edge Processing, High Performance Computing.
• Experience with Product Management, Proposal Development, Basis of Estimation, Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS), or DoD/commercial product development.
• Strong leadership, team management, and self-starter skills.
• Effective communication skills with the ability to build enterprise relationships and manage customer expectations.
• Willingness and ability to support new business development efforts.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD security clearance.

Pay

Salary range: $116,480 – $208,505