Lead Systems Engineer, Aerospace & Defense Systems

Karman Space & Defense; Mount Vernon (WA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Health Savings Account with companycon

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)

Company-paid life and AD&D insurance

Short- and long-term disability

Job summary

Karman Space & Defense is seeking a systems engineer to guide multidisciplinary teams through complex development cycles, driving technical planning, coordinating program-wide technical activities, and validating system-level compliance. You will balance design, analysis, and testing to ensure architecture decisions, requirements, and verification support mission-ready aerospace and defense systems.

This role requires a bachelor’s or master’s in mechanical or aerospace engineering, 4–7 years of

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering.
• 4–7 years of aerospace/defense engineering experience.
• Experience with mechanical systems, structures, electronics, cabling, and integration.
• Knowledge of structural analysis, FEA, MBSE, and system verification.
• DoD Secret clearance or ability to obtain one.

Responsibilities

• Provides program-level technical oversight to ensure systems meet all applicable requirements.
• Balances engineering design, analysis, and testing to develop robust mechanical and aerospace systems.
• Drives system-level architecture decisions by modeling system behavior and supporting requirement decomposition.
• Verifies and documents system compliance with defined requirements.
• Leads development of test plans to validate system performance.
• Supports creation of engineering reports, documentation, and technical presentations.
• Contributes to development of interface control drawings and interface description documents.

Skills

Systems engineering

MBSE

Technical leadership

Requirement decomposition

FMECA / safety analysis

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in mechanical or aerospace engineering

Tools

DOORS Next Generation

Jazz Team Server

Job description

Karman Space & Defense is seeking a systems engineer to guide multidisciplinary teams through complex development cycles, driving technical planning, coordinating program-wide technical activities, and validating system-level compliance. You will balance design, analysis, and testing to ensure architecture decisions, requirements, and verification support mission-ready aerospace and defense systems.

This role requires a bachelor’s or master’s in mechanical or aerospace engineering, 4–7 years of