Head of Feature Systems Engineering & Autonomy

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

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

401k with match

Flexible paid time off

Job summary

Merlin Labs in Boston, MA, is seeking a systems engineering technology leader who will scale the function across hardware, software, safety, and flight controls to support autonomous aircraft development. You will own system and sub-system requirements, define operation concepts and architectures, lead Safety, Security and Human Factors teams, and mentor engineers as Merlin expands.

This role collaborates with executives, customers, regulators, and suppliers to articulate risk, tradeoffs, and a

Qualifications

• BS in Electrical, Aerospace, Systems Engineering or related field, MS/PhD preferred.
• 15+ years systems engineering experience, 4+ years managing system engineering managers.
• Experience in Mission Autonomy and Vehicle Autonomy, AI in autonomy systems.
• Define system-level requirements, architecture, interfaces, and verification.
• AR P4754A/DO-178B/C/DO-254 for safety-critical systems experience.
• Ability to lead across hardware, software, safety, and flight controls.
• Experience with requirements management tools and MBSE practices.
• Proven track record in solving complex architectural problems on new product programs.

Responsibilities

• Own Merlin’s feature systems engineering roadmap, strategy, processes, and standards, and evolve them with program maturity.
• Set technical direction for operation concepts, functional/physical architectures, and interfaces across Merlin products.
• Define features and autonomous behaviors, ensuring traceability to requirements and safety cases.
• Lead Safety, Security and Human Factors teams to keep architecture rigorous without slowing development.
• Partner 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, mentoring leads and growing the bench.
• Collaborate with executives, program leads, and engineering functions to prioritize work and communicate risk.
• Own system/sub-system requirements, development, validation, and traceability; maintain quality across disciplines.
• Lead test strategy definition and verification/validation from simulation to flight test.

Skills

Systems engineering

Architecture leadership

Requirement management

Agile / Jira

Safety-critical

Education

BS in Electrical, Aerospace or Systems Engineering

Tools

Jira

MBSE

Simulink

Cameo

IADS

Jama

Job description

Merlin Labs in Boston, MA, is seeking a systems engineering technology leader who will scale the function across hardware, software, safety, and flight controls to support autonomous aircraft development. You will own system and sub-system requirements, define operation concepts and architectures, lead Safety, Security and Human Factors teams, and mentor engineers as Merlin expands.

This role collaborates with executives, customers, regulators, and suppliers to articulate risk, tradeoffs, and a