Integration Project Engineer

The System Integration Project Engineer provides technical leadership for the development and integration of capabilities across an unmanned aircraft system. This role bridges systems engineering, software development, hardware engineering, integration, and test to ensure individual engineering efforts come together as a complete, functional system.

The ideal candidate combines strong unmanned aircraft systems knowledge with hands-on experience supporting complex system development and integration. This individual must be able to understand the system at both the architectural and implementation level-from aircraft and ground-system functions to the LRUs, software components, interfaces, and data flows that enable those functions. The role requires the technical depth to challenge engineering decisions, the systems perspective to understand their broader implications, and the judgment to independently identify and manage technical and integration risks.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead technical software integration activities for an unmanned aircraft platform across systems, electrical, mechanical, integration, test, and other engineering teams.
• Develop and maintain a detailed understanding of aircraft and ground-system architectures, including major subsystems, Line Replaceable Units (LRUs), Computer Software Configuration Items (CSCIs), interfaces, data flows, and their relationships to system features and capabilities.
• Work closely with software development teams throughout requirements, design, implementation, software test, hardware/software integration, and system-level verification and test.
• Lead technical discussions and recurring execution reviews with software and engineering teams. Understand development status at a technical level, identify dependencies and obstacles, drive issues toward resolution, and ensure development remains aligned with integration objectives.
• Work with systems engineering to define, mature, and allocate requirements for new capabilities and support the Design Review process and other technical reviews.
• Coordinate software development and release activities with hardware development, simulation capabilities, Software Integration Laboratory (SIL) availability, integration events, and system test activities.
• Provide technical input into software release content, roadmaps, and software version matrices, including CSCI dependencies, integration sequencing, system configurations, and capability maturity.
• Independently identify and assess technical and integration risks, develop mitigation strategies, and determine when issues require escalation based on potential impacts to system performance, development objectives, cost, or schedule.
• Evaluate proposed design changes and technical decisions from a system perspective, identifying impacts to hardware/software interfaces, dependent subsystems, integration, verification, and downstream activities.
• Coordinate development and implementation or execution of engineering documentation such as system feature capabilities, requirements, modification and documentation.
• Track technical execution, issues, risks, dependencies, and metrics using JIRA, Confluence, and other engineering management tools.
• Communicate effectively across technical and organizational levels-from detailed engineering discussions with developers to concise communication of technical status, risks, and decisions to program and executive leadership.
• Lead through technical credibility and influence within a matrixed organization, coordinating priorities and execution across engineering teams without direct authority over functional resources.