Deputy Chief Engineer

General Atomics Intelligence; Charlottesville (VA); On-site; USD 128,000 - 229,000; Full time

Job summary

GA-Intelligence in Charlottesville, VA, seeks a Deputy Chief Engineer to guide the technical direction of a major software program and partner with the current Chief Engineer to learn the system and progressively assume broader leadership responsibilities. This senior role focuses on a real-time, mission-critical platform serving U.S.

Government missions, with responsibilities spanning architecture, risk management, and cross-team collaboration.

Qualifications

• Twelve or more years of software development experience with a bachelors degree or more advanced degree.
• Significant experience leading software engineering for large, complex distributed systems.
• Experience in senior technical leadership roles such as Chief Engineer, Deputy Chief Engineer, Chief Architect, Principal Engineer, Technical Director, or similar.

Responsibilities

• Understand architecture, roadmap, dependencies, operational context and risks with the Chief Engineer.
• Define and maintain technical direction of a complex software ecosystem (real-time data ingest, tracking, fusion, geospatial workflows).
• Provide technical leadership across multiple teams and subsystems.

Skills

Systems thinking

Technical leadership

Architecture leadership

Stakeholder communication

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's/Master's/PhD in CS or related

Job description

GA-Intelligence is seeking a Deputy Chief Engineer to help lead the technical direction of one of our largest and most mission-critical software programs. This individual will be hired initially as the Deputy Chief Engineer and will work in close partnership with the current Chief Engineer to learn the system, build trust across the organization, and progressively assume broader technical leadership responsibilities. Over time, this person is expected to transition into the Chief Engineer role.

This is a senior technical leadership role for a large-scale operational software environment supporting U.S. Government missions. The system is a complex, real-time platform focused on global situational awareness, tracking, data fusion, geospatial workflows, and operational decision support. It serves a large user base, integrates with numerous internal and external systems, and must operate with high reliability in demanding mission contexts.

The right candidate is a strong systems thinker, an experienced software and architecture leader, and a credible technical authority who will own the system. This person must be proactive, exercise sound engineering judgment, and have the confidence to make bold but disciplined technical decisions. They should be comfortable setting direction, driving clarity, and taking accountability for outcomes without creating unnecessary risk in a mission-critical environment.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Partner with the current Chief Engineer to understand the architecture, technical roadmap, dependencies, operational context, and major risks across the program.
• Help define and maintain the overall technical direction of a complex software ecosystem involving real-time data ingest, tracking, fusion, geospatial capabilities, analytics, and external integrations.
• Provide technical leadership across multiple teams, subsystems, and engineering disciplines.
• Guide major architectural decisions and evaluate tradeoffs among performance, resiliency, maintainability, scalability, delivery speed, and long-term system health.
• Take ownership of end-to-end system integrity and help ensure the program is making sound technical decisions across teams.
• Proactively identify technical risks, architectural friction points, and integration challenges before they become larger issues.
• Help ensure strong engineering rigor in system design, integration planning, testing strategy, and technical execution.
• Work closely with program management, engineering managers, product leadership, and technical leads to align architecture and delivery.
• Support technical planning, modernization efforts, risk reduction, release readiness, and cross-team coordination.
• Mentor technical leaders and help strengthen the engineering bench across the organization.
• Represent the program as a senior technical leader in customer and stakeholder engagements when needed.
• Progressively take on broader technical ownership in preparation for transition into the Chief Engineer role.

We recognize and appreciate the value and contributions of individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences and welcome all qualified individuals to apply.

Job Qualifications

• Typically requires a bachelors degree, masters degree or PhD in computer science, information systems or related discipline and progressive software development experience as follows; twelve or more years of experience with a bachelors degree, ten or more years of experience with a masters degree, or seven or more years with a PhD. May substitute equivalent experience in lieu of education.
• Significant experience leading software engineering for large, complex, distributed systems.
• Experience serving in a senior technical leadership role such as Chief Engineer, Deputy Chief Engineer, Chief Architect, Principal Engineer, Technical Director, or similar.
• Strong systems engineering mindset and ability to understand complex end-to-end system behavior across many interacting components.
• Experience with mission-critical operational systems where reliability, performance, and uptime matter.
• Demonstrated ability to lead across organizational boundaries and influence multiple teams.
• Proactive leadership style with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.
• Sound engineering judgment and the confidence to make bold but disciplined decisions.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical issues to senior leaders, customers, and mixed technical/non-technical audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, or other national security customers.
• Experience with real-time data processing, tracking, sensor integration, data fusion, geospatial systems, or operational command-and-control style environments.
• Experience with cloud and distributed data systems, event-driven architectures, and large-scale integration environments.
• Experience leading technical modernization in a large operational software environment.
• Experience mentoring senior engineers and building technical leadership bench strength.

What Success Looks Like

In the first phase, the Deputy Chief Engineer will build a deep understanding of the mission, architecture, technical risks, and organizational landscape, while becoming a trusted partner to the current Chief Engineer and engineering leadership team. Over time, this individual will assume greater ownership of technical direction, improve architectural clarity and cross-team alignment, proactively address risk, and be prepared to transition into the Chief Engineer role.

Why Join GA-Intelligence

GA-Intelligence builds mission-critical software systems that support some of the most important national security missions in the country. Our teams work on technically hard problems with real operational impact, including global situational awareness, tracking, fusion, and decision support at scale.

This role offers the opportunity to help shape the future of a major operational system, partner with highly capable leaders and engineers, and grow into the senior technical leadership role for a large, complex, mission-driven program.

Job Type: Full-Time Salary. Salary range: 128,130 - 229,358