Principal Systems Engineer for GNC Requirements and Interfaces

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 www.draper.com.

Job Description Summary:

The GN&C System Architecture group at Draper is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer to develop and manage requirements and interface specifications for guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) systems in mission domains such as strategic defense systems, hypersonic and space systems, precision guided munitions, and autonomous air/sea vehicles. This role entails the application of systems engineering methods within a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and/or digital engineering framework. Responsibilities include the elicitation of stakeholder needs, definition of use cases and operations concepts, descriptive system modeling in SysML, requirement tree development and flow-down, analysis of requirements and interfaces to define architectures and system designs, and requirements management through the product lifecycle.

Job Description:

Duties/Responsibilities
• Coordinate, schedule and participate in the requirements assessments.
• Conducts requirements engineering, scheduling, reliability, development, and evaluation, maintainability and analysis for training.
• Lead assessment effort in conducting both formal and informal evaluations and analysis.
• 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.
• Lead medium-sized teams. 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.
Skills/Abilities
• Highly-organized, capable of approaching problems with a system-level perspective
• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Practical experience with the systems engineering process
• Familiarity with model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and/or digital engineering (DE) tools/methods
• Roles may require proficiency with modeling/simulation, computer coding languages, SysML, STPA, DOORs, and/or other engineering analysis tools
• Knowledge of GN&C, avionics architectures, fault tolerance, cyber/security, comms/encryption, or other technologies may be required as defined in the summary.

Education
Requires a bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, mathematics, or related field. Masters degree preferred.

Experience
10+ years experience in systems engineering with emphasis in requirements engineering.

Additional Job Description:

• Elicit stakeholder needs, define concept of operations, and identify the system context to bound the problem space 
• Work with subject-matter experts across engineering teams to define requirements and interface specifications 
• Define expectations for verification and validation of requirements and interface specifications 
• Analyze requirements and interfaces to define architectures and system designs 
• Maintain traceability with higher- and lower-level specifications as well as system architecture and design work products 
• Lead a culture of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) on Draper programs by establishing best practices and standards 
• Lead a team developing and managing one or more requirements & interface specifications 
• Present details of requirements & interfaces to both internal and external stakeholders 

Applicants selected for this position will be required to o