FTEN Project Engineer II

Who we are:

Fuse builds innovative communications, networking, and computing solutions that improve the sharing of information, video, text, and voice among operators distributed throughout the airborne, maritime, and ground environments. We are a technology firm creating in-house software, network and hardware solutions that support our noble cause of advancing warfighter capabilities with elegant, user-focused communications, networks, and software systems.

About this role:

Fuse is seeking a Project Engineer to own day-to-day execution of the FTEN software roadmap. Working directly with the FTEN Product Manager, you will move initiatives from market requirements documents (MRDs) and product requirements documents (PRDs) through estimation, development, validation, launch, and post-launch measurement.

The Product Manager owns long-term strategy, product priorities, and what we build and why. You own delivery planning and follow-through across engineering, operations, and program teams. Engineering leads own technical solutions and estimates. We need a self-starter who learns quickly, works independently with minimal oversight, and drives issues to closure. You will drive delivery against business timelines and surface tradeoffs early when scope, capacity, or risk threatens a commitment.

What you’ll do:

• Translate approved product and program requirements into executable work with engineering leads, including user stories, acceptance criteria, and traceability through validation.
• Drive estimation, sequencing, and release planning with engineering leads. Maintain milestones, owners, and delivery forecasts against business timelines.
• Identify blockers, dependencies, assumptions, and risks early. Drive resolution, confirm ownership, and escalate decisions with options and recommendations.
• Serve as Scrum Lead for FTEN software teams, facilitating planning, backlog refinement, reviews, and retrospectives to keep work moving.
• Lead technical reviews and coordinate testing, integration, troubleshooting, documentation, training, and launch readiness. Verify acceptance criteria and close outstanding actions.
• Build walking skeletons: thin, working end-to-end prototypes that demonstrate proposed workflows, test assumptions, and capture user feedback before full development.
• Lead demonstrations and technical discussions with internal and external customers. Resolve questions, synthesize feedback, and drive decisions and agreed next steps.
• Own product operations (ProdOps), maintaining accurate backlogs, delivery dashboards, decision records, and status reporting in Jira or equivalent tools.
• Turn initiative success criteria into measurement plans with baselines, evidence sources, and a reporting cadence. Report delivery health, adoption, and customer, mission, and business outcomes; recommend follow-up actions.
• Identify and advocate for new features and opportunities using customer feedback and delivery insights, with Product Manager guidance on strategic fit and priority.

Requirements

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Systems, Electrical, Computer, Mechanical, or a related field) or equivalent practical experience.
• 2+ years of experience in technical project, systems, integration engineering, or product delivery roles supporting complex hardware/software systems.
• 2+ years of experience practicing Agile methodologies, including facilitating team planning and delivery.
• Demonstrated ownership of cross-functional technical initiatives from requirements through release, including schedule management and issue resolution with minimal supervision.
• Strong requirements analysis, systems thinking, and problem solving; ability to resolve ambiguity and make sound execution decisions.
• Hands-on ability to build functional prototypes or walking skeletons and use customer feedback to refine requirements.
• Demonstrated ProdOps capability and strong interest in improving delivery processes, measuring initiative success, and reporting results through dashboards and metrics.
• Clear written and verbal communication; confidence presenting to customers and influencing engineering and business stakeholders without formal authority.

• U.S. citizen.

Nice to have:

• Certified Scrum Master and/or Product Owner.
• Experience in defense, aerospace, or other mission-critical, highly regulated environments.
• Working knowledge of networking protocols and Linux DevOps processes.
• Experience with DoD Security Technical Implementation Guidelines (STIGs) and cybersecurity hardening for deployed systems.
• Familiarity with MIL-STD and other defense and aerospace certification and qualification processes.
• If you meet many, but not all, of these qualifications, we still want to hear from you. Tell us how your experience and strengths align with this role and Fuse's mission.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision
• Employee coverage is fully funded; a portion of dependents' coverage is funded as well
• 11 paid Federal Holidays
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Date of hire through second year: 10 days/year (accrued)
• After two years: unlimited
• 40 hours of paid sick leave per year
• 401k with employer matching
• Annual bonuses
• Cell phone reimbursement: $100/month