Range Safety & Flight Termination Engineer

Telesis; Huntsville (AL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Telesis in Huntsville, AL, is seeking a principal-level professional with extensive DoD flight termination and ordnance experience for on-site work at Redstone Arsenal. The role requires leadership in safety systems, requirements verification, and technical reviews.

Applicants should hold a Master's or Bachelor's with 12+ / 20+ years in defense programs, maintain an active DoD Secret clearance, and be willing to travel for deployments and tests.

Qualifications

• Active DoD Secret clearance required.
• Experience with flight termination or ordnance systems in DoD programs.
• 20+ years of defense and aerospace program experience (or 12+ years with a Master’s).
• Experience with RCC-319 and RCC-324 standards.
• Knowledge of range tracking architectures (GPS/IMU/C-band).

Responsibilities

• Serve as Range Safety expert on behalf of the Targets Program office during flight tests, Range Safety Working Groups, and flight termination testing.
• Provide oversight of requirements development, allocation and verification for target system FTS products, including autonomous flight termination systems.
• Conduct technical surveillance across FTS hardware and software development, qualification, acceptance, integration, and final checkout.
• Author technical reports detailing system status, analytical findings, and formal recommendations.
• Represent government stakeholder interests in technical working groups, customer forums, and formal design reviews.

Skills

Flight termination systems

Ordnance systems

Briefing and communication

Travel readiness

Technical surveillance

RF systems knowledge

Education

Master's degree

Bachelor's degree

Tools

GPS

IMU

C-band tracking

Job description

Requisition #: TLS-26-027 | Clearance: Active DoD Secret (US citizenship required) | Level: Principal | Experience: 20+ years | Education: Bachelor's (4-yr) | Work site: Redstone Arsenal - Huntsville, AL (on-site)

What you'll do

• Serve as Range Safety expert on behalf of the Targets Program office during flight tests, Range Safety Working Groups, and flight termination testing
• Provide oversight of requirements development, allocation and verification for target system FTS products, including autonomous flight termination systems
• Conduct technical surveillance across FTS hardware and software development, qualification, acceptance, integration, and final checkout
• Author technical reports detailing system status, analytical findings, and formal recommendations
• Represent government stakeholder interests in technical working groups, customer forums, and formal design reviews

Required qualifications

• Technical expertise: demonstrated background in flight termination systems and ordnance systems
• Education & experience: Master's degree with 12+ years of experience, or a Bachelor's degree with 20+ years of experience, supporting missile defense or large-scale, complex DoD programs
• Security clearance: active DoD Secret clearance
• Standards: proficient in flight safety analysis products, specifically RCC-319 (Flight Termination Commonality Standard) and RCC-324 (Range Safety Tracking Systems Commonality Standard)
• Tracking systems: working knowledge of range tracking architectures, including GPS, Inertial Measurement Units (IMU), and C-band tracking
• Communication & mobility: strong written and verbal briefing skills; willingness and ability to travel for mission deployments

Preferred qualifications

• Direct experience with Autonomous Flight Termination Systems (AFTS)
• Hands-on flight test operations experience
• Technical background in RF systems, antennas, batteries, and ordnance devices
• 10+ years of experience in defense and aerospace