Director, Autonomous Systems Engineering (Remote)

Merlin Labs, Inc.; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 220,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grants

Job summary

Merlin Labs, Inc., an aerospace and defense innovator, seeks a systems engineering technology leader to define architecture and verification strategy for autonomous flight programs in commercial and defense domains.

You will own the SE roadmap, lead cross-disciplinary teams, and drive safety, human factors, and certification activities while partnering with executives to scale the organization.

Qualifications

• BS in Electrical, Aerospace, Systems Engineering; MS/PhD preferred.
• 15+ years of systems engineering experience (10+ with MS, 8+ with PhD).
• Experience in Mission Autonomy and Vehicle Autonomy development, incl. AI in autonomy system engineering.
• Ability to define system-level requirements, architecture, and interfaces; drive validation.
• Experience certifying avionics with ARP4754A and RTCA DO-178B/C and DO-254.

Responsibilities

• Own Merlin’s feature systems engineering development roadmap, strategy, processes, and standards; align hardware, software, safety, and flight controls.
• Set technical direction for concepts of operation, architecture, and system interfaces across Merlin products; own critical architecture decisions.
• Define features, functions, and autonomous behaviors; ensure traceability to requirements and safety case.
• Lead Safety, Security and Human factors teams to keep architecture aligned with development pace.
• Collaborate with Core Architecture and Chief Engineer to drive engineering strategy and execution.
• Represent systems engineering artifacts in reviews with customers, suppliers, and regulators.
• Build and develop the systems engineering team; mentor technical leads and grow the bench.
• Coordinate with executives, program leads, and engineering to prioritize work and communicate risk.
• Own system and sub-system requirements, validation, traceability, and quality standards.
• Lead test methods and verification/validation from simulation to flight test.

Skills

Mission Autonomy

Vehicle Autonomy

AI in autonomy

System architecture

Requirements management

Safety-critical systems

System engineering leadership

Architecture decisions

Cross-domain collaboration

Agile development

Education

BS in Electrical, Aerospace, or Systems Engineering

MS or PhD preferred

Tools

Jira

Simulink

Cameo

IADS

Jama

MBSE

Job description

Merlin Labs, Inc., an aerospace and defense innovator, seeks a systems engineering technology leader to define architecture and verification strategy for autonomous flight programs in commercial and defense domains.

You will own the SE roadmap, lead cross-disciplinary teams, and drive safety, human factors, and certification activities while partnering with executives to scale the organization.