Chief Engineer, USV Programs & Systems

SubSea Craft Limited; Virginia Beach (VA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

PTO 10 days

Sick leave

401(k) plan

Health insurance

Dental & Vision

Disability insurance

EAP

Professional development

Inclusive culture

Job summary

SubSea Craft Limited is seeking a Senior Chief Engineer to lead the USV engineering arm in the US Operations. You will set technical direction, build a multidisciplinary team, and serve as Design Authority across programmes, ensuring defence regulatory compliance and robust lifecycle management.

You will collaborate with customers, partners and government stakeholders, drive technical excellence, and translate requirements into engineering roadmaps while delivering complex defense and autonomous

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Naval Architecture or Systems Engineering (Master's preferred).
• 10+ years of engineering experience within defense, maritime, aerospace, autonomous systems or robotics.
• Experience as Chief Engineer, Design Authority or equivalent senior technical leadership role.
• Experience building and leading multidisciplinary engineering teams.
• Experience delivering complex defense or regulated engineering programmes.
• Strong understanding of systems engineering principles and product lifecycle management.
• Experience managing engineering resources, budgets and priorities.
• Experience working directly with customers and senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Manage technical development and direction for all aspects of engineering for USV in the SubSea Craft US Operations operating unit, including design, development, implementation, testing and delivery of product.
• Act as Design Authority for operating unit programmes and platform variants.
• Build, lead and develop the operating unit engineering organisation and multidisciplinary engineering team.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Serve as the senior technical representative with customers, partners, suppliers and government stakeholders.
• Lead delivery of customer-driven capability enhancements.
• Oversee systems engineering, requirements management, verification, validation and technical review activities.
• Ensure configuration management and engineering change processes are effectively implemented.
• Develop engineering strategy and technology roadmaps.
• Ensure engineering activities comply with applicable US defence regulations and standards.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Systems engineering

Stakeholder management

Budget management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

Bachelor's degree in Naval Architecture

Master's degree preferred

Tools

MBSE

Configuration management

DoD standards

Job description

SubSea Craft Limited is seeking a Senior Chief Engineer to lead the USV engineering arm in the US Operations. You will set technical direction, build a multidisciplinary team, and serve as Design Authority across programmes, ensuring defence regulatory compliance and robust lifecycle management.

You will collaborate with customers, partners and government stakeholders, drive technical excellence, and translate requirements into engineering roadmaps while delivering complex defense and autonomous