Principal Systems Engineer

Chaos Industries; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 198,000 - 320,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401k with company match

Free daily lunch onsite

Relocation assistance

Annual bonuses

Job summary

CHAOS Industries is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer to own an autonomous Massed Modular Aircraft development program, guiding MBSE-driven architecture from concept through sustainment. You will lead a cross-functional team, define system interfaces, and ensure traceability across variants and modules, leveraging SysML and multiple modeling tools.

The role requires 15+ years in aerospace/defense systems engineering, strong leadership presence, and the ability to drive technical decisions

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related discipline.
• 15+ years of systems engineering experience in aerospace/defense with ownership across lifecycle phases.
• Strong MBSE and SysML modeling experience.
• Experience leading SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR reviews and interfacing with customers.
• Experience with model-based verification and simulation-driven V&V approaches.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior technical authority for systems engineering across all program phases, from concept to sustainment.
• Own the system architecture and requirements baseline for a modular aircraft platform with configurable variants.
• Drive technical decisions at program reviews and manage exit criteria and review packages.
• Collaborate with Chief Engineer and Program Manager on trade studies balancing technical, cost, and schedule.
• Establish and mature the MBSE environment using SysML and maintain bidirectional traceability.
• Define, enforce modeling standards and governance across a multi-disciplinary team.
• Lead requirements decomposition down to subsystem and component levels within the model.
• Integrate SysML models with digital engineering tools to support a true digital thread/digital twin.

Skills

MBSE practices

SysML modeling

Systems engineering

Leadership presence

Cross-functional collaboration

Requirements management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Cameo Systems Modeler

MagicDraw

Rhapsody

Job description

CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with a multi-product portfolio that gives the ultimate advantage—domain dominance. The company's products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats.

CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised a total of $1 billion in funding from leading investors, including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, and London. For more information, please visit www.chaosinc.com .

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Principal Systems Engineer who will have a technical ownership of an autonomous Massed Modular Aircraft development program, holding end-to-end responsibility across the full program lifecycle — from concept definition and requirements development through design, integration, verification/validation, qualification, production transition, and in-service/sustainment support. This role requires deep command of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) practices using SysML, and the ability to establish and lead a model-centric development environment across a modular, multi-variant aircraft architecture. The ideal candidate combines strong systems engineering fundamentals with hands-on MBSE tooling experience and the leadership presence to drive technical decisions across a large, cross-functional engineering organization.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior technical authority for systems engineering across all phases of the program: concept development, requirements definition, preliminary and critical design, integration and test, qualification, production transition, and in-service/sustainment support.
• Own the system architecture and requirements baseline for a modular aircraft platform, ensuring configurability and commonality across variants/mission modules while maintaining system-level integrity.
• Drive technical decision-making at major program reviews (SRR, SFR, PDR, CDR, TRR, qualification reviews) and own associated review packages and exit criteria.
• Partner with the Chief Engineer and Program Manager to balance technical, cost, and schedule trades across the lifecycle.
• Establish, govern, and continuously mature the program's MBSE environment using SysML, ensuring the system model serves as the authoritative source of truth for requirements, architecture, interfaces, and behavior.
• Define and enforce modeling standards, viewpoints, and model governance practices across a multi-disciplinary engineering team.
• Lead requirements decomposition and allocation from system-level down to subsystem and component levels within the model environment, maintaining full bidirectional traceability.
• Drive integration of the SysML model with digital engineering tools across the toolchain (e.g., requirements management, simulation, verification tracking, configuration management) to support a true digital thread/digital twin environment
• Define and maintain the modular system architecture, including interface control documents (ICDs) governing structural, electrical, data, and software interfaces between core airframe and mission/payload modules.
• Lead trade studies evaluating commonality vs. mission-specific optimization across module variants.
• Define the system-level verification and validation (V&V) strategy, ensuring full traceability from requirements through test/analysis/demonstration/inspection methods to verification closure.
• Lead integration of model-based verification artifacts (e.g., simulation-based verification, model execution/analysis) alongside traditional test-based verification.
• Support qualification planning and execution, ensuring the system design and supporting model artifacts meet contractual and regulatory certification/qualification requirements
• Partner closely with Configuration Management, Data Management, Program Scheduling, and Contracts functions to ensure systems engineering artifacts align with program baselines and contractual deliverables.
• Represent systems engineering in customer technical interchange meetings, program reviews, and audits.
• Support proposal efforts with systems engineering approach development, technical staffing plans, and MBSE implementation roadmaps for new business pursuits.
• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• 15+ years of systems engineering experience within the aerospace/defense industry, including demonstrated ownership of a program across multiple lifecycle phases.
• Strong hands-on experience with MBSE practices and SysML modeling (e.g., using tools such as Cameo Systems Modeler/MagicDraw, Rhapsody, or equivalent).
• Demonstrated experience defining and governing system architectures for complex, multi-variant, or modular platforms.
• Strong understanding of systems engineering principles, including requirements management, architecture development, and verification/validation planning.
• Experience leading technical reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR) and interfacing directly with government or commercial customers.
• Experience with model-based verification and simulation-driven V&V approaches.

Preferred Requirements

• Direct experience with modular aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or multi-mission/multi-variant platform architectures.
• Experience establishing an MBSE environment and digital thread/digital twin capability on a new program from the ground up.
• Ability to obtain/maintain Secret/Top Secret/SCI clearance

Why CHAOS?

• Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
• Additional benefits: 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay), FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more
• Our Perks: Free daily lunch while you're working onsite, fully-stocked kitchen, unlimited PTO, casual dress code
• Compensation Components: Competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and (coming soon!) annual bonuses
• Team Growth: 500+employees and counting across 5 global offices

Salary Range: $198,000 - $320,000

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations.

Recruiting Agencies

CHAOS Industries does not accept unsolicited resumes or outreach. Unsolicited submissions will not be reviewed or compensated.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in CHAOS Industries's Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.