Chief Engineer Principal

Lockheed Martin Corporation; Kirtland (NM); On-site; USD 183,000 - 339,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

Flexible work schedules

401(k) match

Paid time off

Job summary

Lockheed Martin is seeking a Chief Engineer for a software ground system on a potential National Security Space program. The role involves leading the technical direction, defining system capabilities, overseeing integration, and ensuring ongoing operation and improvement of space mission ground systems.

Candidates should have broad experience in software engineering, development, and operations. This position is contingent on contract award and requires a Final Top Secret clearance with SCI

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering (or related technical field) or equivalent experience/combined education.
• Experience with ground systems agile software development and sustainment for space systems.
• Experience supporting software system cost estimating; awareness of cost account management principles.
• Demonstrated experience as a technical leader, coordinating across multiple teams.
• Requires Final Top Secret/SCI eligibility and U.S. citizenship.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical direction for a software ground system program and define system capabilities.
• Oversee integration, system validation, and operation of space mission ground systems.
• Mentor and lead a cross-functional engineering team and drive risk management and schedules.

Skills

TS clearance

Active TS clearance

Software engineering leadership

Ground system development

Cross-functional leadership

DevSecOps

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering

Job description

Standard Job Description

Space is a critical domain, connecting our technologies, our security and our humanity. While others view space as a destination, we see it as a realm of possibilities, where we can do more - we can innovate, invest, inspire and integrate our capabilities to transform the future.

Standard Job Description

Space is a critical domain, connecting our technologies, our security and our humanity. While others view space as a destination, we see it as a realm of possibilities, where we can do more - we can innovate, invest, inspire and integrate our capabilities to transform the future.

Join us in shaping a new era in space and find a career that's built for you.

Lockheed Martin is seeking a Chief Engineer for a software ground system on a potential National Security Space program (pending contract award). The role involves leading the technical direction, defining system capabilities, overseeing integration, and ensuring ongoing operation and improvement of space mission ground systems. Candidates should have broad experience in software engineering, development, and operations.

This position is contingent upon contract award to Lockheed Martin. Estimated award date is currently October / November 2026. Any job offers extended to chosen candidates will include a contingency clause stating that the offer is dependent on Lockheed Martin securing the contract.

Accountable for all aspects of engineering and technology activities within a program, program area, or line of business to ensure mission milestones and business objectives are met. Serves as the primary technical authority / technical interface with internal program management and external customers. Ensures proposals have sound technical solutions and schedules and drive affordability. Leads a technical team of cross functional engineers to ensure successful proper system/product development and execution. Evaluates and ensures complex issues are resolved in a cost effective, innovative way. Champion mission success and drive a mission success culture. Directs a team into exploration of new problem solution areas with novel concepts and approaches, guiding scope definition and prioritizing problems for investigation. Determine appropriate risk posture and develop mitigation strategies for complex projects. Ensure selected designs are robust and include appropriate margins to facilitate safety, performance, producibility and operational availability/supportability. Ensures program plans and technical baselines are consistent with Program Control processes and Modern Engineering Practices. Responsible for key decision making that impact businesses, the failure to achieve the objectives result in critical impact of program capabilities. Ensures identification of lessons learned, and corrective action are initiated and implemented to improve future and ongoing programs. Provides technical mentoring and career development support of team and allocates resources effectively. Leads and directs the technical execution efforts of the program or LOB.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering (or related technical field) or equivalent experience/combined education
• Knowledge and experience with ground systems agile software development and sustainment for space systems related tasking, planning, command and control, data delivery, data processing, data exploitation and data visualization, including defining new ground system features and solution designs
• Experience supporting software system cost estimating; awareness of cost account management principles, techniques, and processes
• Demonstrated experience as a technical leader, coordinating across multiple teams
• Demonstrated ability to communicate successfully across all levels of an organization from entry level to executive Vice Presidents
• Final Top Secret required priro to start
• U.S. citizenship with an Active TS security clearance with the ability to be granted an SCI.

Desired Skills

• Broad understanding of the U.S. Government’s customer’s ground systems environment; including cybersecurity and deployment requirements and standards
• Demonstrated Experience leading a ground system software development effort, including testing and feature/requirement verification and sell-off activities
• Demonstrated Experience integration of new space missions/platforms into a common satellite operations center
• Demonstrated Experience with Ground Terminal operations and sustainment
• Demonstrated Experience supporting, sustaining and enhancing software developed by another team/contractor
• Experience with the U.S. Space Force’s Satellite Control Network (SCN)
• Experience with delivering software via DevSecOps
• Experience establishing and forming a new project team distributed across multiple locations
• The successful candidate must also have ability to organize, motivate and lead groups of engineering personnel, and demonstrate in-depth technical skills.
• Proficient in AI prompting as it applies to this position and practice

Pay Information

Full-Time Salary Range: $182500.00 - $338900.00

At Lockheed Martin, we know mission success starts with taking care of our people. Our Total Rewards program is designed to attract top talent, support your well-being, and help you grow - both professionally and personally.

The salary range for this position is as listed on the requisition. Please note that the salary information listed is a general guideline only. Lockheed Martin considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/ training, key skills as well as market(work location) and business considerations when extending an offer.

Benefits offered

Medical, Dental, Vision, Flexible work arrangements and schedules (e.g., 4x10), 401(k) match, Paid time off, Holidays, Parental Leave, EAP, Flexible Spending Accounts, Education Assistance, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, and Long-Term Disability.

• Annual short-term and/or long-term incentive compensation programs may be offered depending on the position. Payments under these annual programs are not guaranteed and can vary from year to year and are tied to a range of performance metrics.
• For (Washington state applicants only) Non-represented full-time employees: accrue at least 10 hours per month of Paid Time Off (PTO) to be used for incidental absences and other reasons; receive at least 90 hours for holidays. Represented full time employees accrue 6.67 hours of Vacation per month; accrue up to 52 hours of sick leave annually; receive at least 96 hours for holidays. PTO, Vacation, sick leave, and holiday hours are prorated based on start date during the calendar year.