Principal Systems Engineer

Waypoint Human Capital; Huntsville (AL); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Waypoint’s client in Huntsville, AL seeks a Principal Systems Engineer to provide engineering oversight for target payloads and countermeasures. You will act as a trusted advisor to the program office, delivering critical assessments of prime contractor designs, technical plans, and target instrumentation layouts.

As the technical anchor during major milestones—from System Requirements through Product Acceptance—you will collaborate with modeling teams, cost analysts, and schedulers to ensure

Qualifications

• Active DoD Secret clearance required.
• Master's degree in STEM and 12+ years supporting missile defense or large DoD programs.
• Experience managing end-to-end program lifecycles for complex systems.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities.
• Willingness to travel up to 20%.

Responsibilities

• Expert Advisory: provide technical guidance on payload and countermeasure requirements, design, and fielding.
• Independent Evaluation: assess prime contractor designs, plans, reports, and procedures.
• Instrumentation Analysis: review instrumentation requirements, layouts, and testing methods.
• Milestone Reviews: support SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRB, MRB, PAR with engineering input.
• Cross-Agency Coordination: lead TIMs and respond to inquiries from external agencies.
• Cost Estimation: contribute to program cost estimates with technical input.
• Schedule Alignment: collaborate with schedulers to monitor deadlines and report status.

Skills

DoD Secret clearance

End-to-end lifecycle management

12+ years missile defense experience

Fast-paced environment

Multi-tasking under pressure

Travel up to 20%

Education

Master's degree in STEM

Job description

Position Title: Principal Systems Engineer

Position Type: Full-Time

Location: Huntsville, AL

Clearance: Active Secret Clearance

Travel: up to 20%

Waypoint’s client is seeking a highly skilled Principal Systems Engineer to provide engineering oversight for target system payloads and countermeasure development. In this role, you will act as a trusted advisor to the program office, delivering critical assessments of prime contractor designs, technical plans, and target instrumentation layouts. You will serve as a technical anchor during major program milestones—from System Requirements through Product Acceptance—while seamlessly collaborating across multiple organizations, modeling teams, cost analysts, and schedulers to ensure items are delivered accurately and on time.

Responsibilities

• Expert Advisory: Serve as the technical expert on payload and countermeasure requirements development, analysis, design, qualification, and fielding.
• Independent Evaluation: Review and provide assessments of prime contractor designs, plans, reports, and technical procedures.
• Instrumentation Analysis: Evaluate target instrumentation requirements, physical layouts, component selection, and testing methodologies.
• Milestone Reviews: Provide technical evaluation and engineering support during all major program milestones (including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRB, MRB, and PAR).
• Cross-Agency Coordination: Answer technical inquiries from external MDA organizations and lead multi-disciplinary Technical Interchange Meetings (TIMs).
• Cost Estimation: Provide technical assessments to the cost analysis team to ensure accurate program management budget estimates.
• Schedule Alignment: Partner with the program scheduler to track delivery deadlines and proactively keep leadership advised of status.

Required

• Active DoD Secret clearance.
• Master's degree in STEM and 12+ years supporting missile defense or large-scale, complex DoD programs.
• Experience managing end-to-end program lifecycles, including the development, testing, and fielding of complex systems.
• Thrive in a fast-paced environment where priorities change quickly.
• Handle multiple urgent tasks at once without losing focus.
• Able to support travel request up to 20% of the time.

Desired

• Understanding of IR/RCS signatures for flight objects and countermeasures.
• Experience with material properties and material property measurements.
• Knowledge of real-world threat systems and how they impact target designs.
• Have an understanding of MDA flight test requirements and apply that to the payload hardware development.
• Technical proposal development and evaluation.