Systems Research and Development Engineer
About the role
Working location: full on-site in Reston, VA. This position is for a Systems Engineer in the Systems Engineering Department of the Undersea Systems Office (USO) at the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL), Penn State. The role supports development of complex physical undersea systems — advanced vehicles, sensors, and integrated hardware/software technologies for undersea applications. This is not an IT, cloud, or enterprise systems position; it focuses on traditional systems engineering for defense hardware, spanning concept development, system architecture, subsystem integration, test, and transition to fielded military systems. The department emphasizes tailoring and applying rigor through the systems engineering process. You will contribute heavily to physical systems development from conceptual definition through design, test, and transition to production. USO designs, develops, validates, and maintains a suite of large-scale undersea warfare models and simulations used by technology developers, analysts, the Navy, and its allies, serving as a research center of excellence in undersea weapons, unmanned undersea vehicles, and advanced sonars. The office supports national security and undersea warfare sponsors by developing and demonstrating science and technology with the expertise, tools, and processes to take concepts from early development through transition to industry and the fleet. ARL is an authorized DoD SkillBridge partner and welcomes transitioning military members.
Responsibilities
- Translate stakeholder needs into system-level requirements and architectures
- Perform analysis of alternatives and develop system concepts for hardware‑centric undersea platforms and payloads
- Conduct system and requirements decomposition, interface definition, and integration planning
- Support model-based systems engineering (MBSE), system modeling, and hardware/software integration
- Develop verification and validation strategies, test plans, and test procedures for physical prototypes and fielded systems
- Participate in and support lab, dockside, and at-sea test events
- Collaborate regularly with engineering teams, program sponsors, Navy partners, and program management
- Identify risks, develop mitigation strategies, and support lifecycle decision-making
Requirements
- Applying systems engineering to complex physical systems, preferably in defense, aerospace, maritime, or robotics domains
- Experience collaborating in multi-disciplinary, team-oriented cultures
- Ability to express ideas successfully to drive understanding
- Past success in writing white papers or reports
- Past success in a lead role organizing, managing, and directing multi-disciplinary teams, while contributing and assisting in project management
- Past success leading or contributing to technical proposals and white papers
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or Science
- 19+ years of relevant experience
- No required certifications
Preferred qualifications
- Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace, Computer, Systems Engineering or related engineering discipline
- Unmanned underwater systems development experience
- Hardware integration, prototype testing, or system-level test events
- Past success using requirements and MBSE tools (Cameo, DOORS, Jama, etc.)
- Working knowledge of DoD acquisition, especially Department of the Navy systems engineering processes
- Exposure to environmental qualification, hardware-in-the-loop testing, or embedded system integration
- Current eligibility for access to classified information at the Secret level or higher (may be subject to government background investigation to