Senior Principal Engineer, AirTrain

About the Role

AirTrain JFK is an elevated people mover system stretching 8.1 miles (13 km) through Queens, New York City. Serving John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), it operates 24/7 with a fully automated, driverless design. The AirTrain consists of three distinct lines—the Howard Beach Line, the Jamaica Line, and the Central Terminal Circulator—and stops at nine stations, including all JFK terminals, parking lots, rental car facilities, and key transfer points. Passengers can easily transfer between terminals or connect directly to the New York City Subway at Howard Beach station (A train) or via an enclosed walkway to the Long Island Railroad and subway (E, J, Z trains) at Jamaica Station. Since its opening in December 2003, AirTrain JFK has provided a reliable, weather-resistant link for millions of travelers each year.

Responsibilities

• This position serves as a subject matter expert on safety certification, technical specifications, engineering calculations, test procedures, and equipment/system performance data analysis for the AirTrain system’s ATC signaling, electrified track, JMUX, SCADA, network, communication equipment, and related software/hardware design. Reporting to the AirTrain Assistant Manager, this role manages contract staff for track, signaling, and communication infrastructure. Key duties include providing technical guidance on planning, scheduling, and auditing, and overseeing daily preventive/corrective maintenance, as well as safety certifications for system expansion or design changes.
• Project Management and Technical Oversight: Support signal and Automatic Train Control (ATC) projects, including lifecycle replacements, state-of-good-repair programs, and system upgrades. Coordinate with contractors and stakeholders, monitor schedules and deliverables, support technical reviews, and ensure alignment with operational and safety requirements.
• Operational Data Analysis & Technical Support: Support Rail Operations through technical analysis using programming (Python), Excel, Power BI, Power Automate, and other analytical software. Analyze ridership trends, fault data, survey results, reliability metrics, and other operational data to identify trends, inform decisions, improve performance, and address operational issues.
• Field Engineering and Troubleshooting: Inspect signal and ATC equipment rooms, wayside locations, and control facilities. Collaborate with Operations & Maintenance contractors and teams to investigate failures, verify fixes, and identify risks to reliability and availability.
• Build and maintain expertise in railroad signaling according to Federal Railroad Administration guidelines. Oversee technical and managerial tasks for signal system rehabilitation, maintenance, and improvements. Conduct rapid research on strategic issues. Coordinate planning studies and activities. Build relationships with peers at other railroad agencies.
• Ensures that assets and services are protected through proper inspections, maintenance, and repairs when needed for all track, signal, and communication infrastructure, including responding to and coordinating emergency incidents on the system, and provides assurance that signal inspections, maintenance, and operational tests are in compliance.
• Provide expert technical support and advice on test procedures, test requirements, and lead investigations to identify root causes of equipment and subsystem failures. Also, analyze and evaluate system performance levels, and make recommendations for hardware/software changes and upgrades.
• This position will communicate across departments to inform the organization about updates and improvements to equipment and systems. It will ensure responsibilities are completed, problems are addressed, and communications to all impacted teams are clear and thorough.
• Work with contractors to develop preventive and corrective maintenance plans that effectively and efficiently use the resources required to support Automatic Train Control (ATAC) engineering tests, software, and hardware changes. This position will develop and implement contingency plans for changes or events that affect planned work and ensure plans have the least impact on revenue service.
• Adhere to all safety rules, work processes/procedures, and monitor/audit activities to ensure that contractors are in compliance with safety rules and have the skills and certifications to participate in tests, software/hardware upgrades, and changes. This position will conduct safety risk analysis, inspections, and address safety concerns and issues. This position will report fully on system problems, malfunctions, incidents/accidents, and other