Principal Weapon System Architect

Overview:

Draper is an independent, nonprofit research and development company headquartered in Cambridge, MA. The 2,000+ employees of Draper tackle important national challenges with a promise of delivering successful and usable solutions. From military defense and space exploration to biomedical engineering, lives often depend on the solutions we provide. Our multidisciplinary teams of engineers and scientists work in a collaborative environment that inspires the cross-fertilization of ideas necessary for true innovation. For more information about Draper, visit draper. com.

Summary:

Duties/Responsibilities
• Independently drive solutions to complex problems - develop requirements, propose ways forward when customer requirements are unclear or incomplete, and adapt appropriately to changes in requirements
• Sustained record of successful task leadership. Identifies risks and develops and executes mitigation strategies for them.
• Lead medium-sized teams (5-10 people). Reliably aligns team towards program goals and builds trust within the team.
• Subject Matter Expert (SME) in Systems Engineering
• Provide insight and suggest design modifications based on analysis outcomes, and to apply analysis techniques across a range of technical challenges and disciplines
• Identify program/system-level technical risks and develop and execute mitigation strategies.
• Develop, document, and teach best practices to less experienced engineers
• Demonstrate strong organization, planning, and time management skills to achieve program goals
• Actively mentors. Recognizes strengths and weaknesses in others and provides thoughtful constructive feedback.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Skills/Abilities
• Highly-organized, capable of approaching problems with a system-level perspective.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Practical experience with simulation-based performance analysis.
• Practical experience with the systems engineering process.
• Roles may require proficiency with modeling and simulation, computer language coding, descriptive modeling (e. g. SysML), STPA, and/or other engineering analysis tools
• Knowledge of GN&C, avionics architectures, fault tolerance, cyber/security, comms/encryption, threat modeling or other technologies may be required as defined in the summary.

Education
Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, mathematics, or related field. Masters degree or higher preferred.

Experience
7-10+ years experience as systems engineer or related role.

Additional

The Hypersonic and Advanced Weapons group at Draper is seeking a Principal Weapon System Architect to work within multi-disciplinary teams to conceptualize and prototype advanced weapon/guidance systems that are of strategic importance to the nation. This role will be of high interest to applicants that desire to build/leverage expertise in guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) technologies to enable/shape new mission-level capability solutions for the warfighter. Relevant mission domains may include: global strike and/or strategic deterrent systems, hypersonic weapons, missile defense systems, space systems, precision guided munitions, and autonomous air/sea vehicles.

A successful candidate for this position will be highly motivated to: (a) support the delivery of technology solutions that are of strategic importance to the nation in the context of evolving threats from peer and near-peer competitors; (b) build deeper expertise in both the core mission domain(s) and underlying GNC technology, and (c) support business development and shape new warfighter capabilities. Working in a dynamic team environment developing state-of-the-art weapon/GN&C systems will provide exposure to a wide range of advanced technologies as well as afford opportunities for increased leadership/impact on the development of new war-fighter capability.

Duties and responsibilities may include:

• Identification of customer mission needs and development of use cases;
• Analysis of mission use cases to derive subsystem requirements;
• Conceptualization of novel GNC hardware, software, and system solutions;
• Trade-space analysis for complex system-of-systems;
• Architecture/interface definition and requirements development;
• Establish/manage digital representations of system technical baselines;
• Development of systems engineering, design, and analysis artifacts/documentation;
• Detailed functional and performance modeling of component technologies;
• Verify complex modeling in 6-degree-of-freedom simulations (6-DOF);
• Support integrated hardware/software prototype development;
• Development of test strategies/plans for prototype technology;
• Analysis of performance and test data;
• Development of research proposals and plans;
• Briefing of results to leadership and government sponsors;
• Task/project planning and leadership;
• Supervision of junior engineers.

• Experience leading tasks/teams of 10 or more engineers;
• Experience leading successful proposals to US department of defense (DOD);
• Knowledge of guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) technology;
• Demonstrated ability to formulate a research program plan and write proposals;
• Ability for occasional travel;
• Strong presentation skills and the ability to articulate complex technical ideas.

Applicants selected for this position may be required to obtain and maintain a government security clearance.

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