Staff Engineer, Avionics Integration

About You:

You're a seasoned avionics integration engineer who thinks in systems, not just circuits. You've spent years pulling together sensors, computers, software, and airframes into aircraft that actually fly and get certified - and you're ready to own the technical strategy for how Merlin integrates the Merlin Pilot across an entire fleet of platforms, not just a single program. You're comfortable being the person a room full of engineers looks to when an integration problem doesn't have an obvious owner, and you know how to turn ambiguity into a plan, a schedule, and a working aircraft.

Responsibilities:

• Own the avionics integration architecture across multiple aircraft platforms - defining how flight computers, sensors, actuators, communications, power, and software subsystems come together as a certifiable, flyable system.
• Set integration strategy and technical standards used across the Aircraft Engineering team, including interface control documents, integration test methodology, and design review criteria.
• Lead systems-level integration and verification of COTS/MOTS avionics, custom hardware, and software components across lab and aircraft installations, spanning multiple concurrent platforms.
• Act as the senior technical authority in design reviews, flight test readiness reviews, and certification discussions, representing avionics integration to internal leadership, customers, and regulators.
• Identify systemic integration risks across programs and drive root-cause resolution, rather than working platform-by-platform issues in isolation.
• Mentor and provide technical direction to other integration engineers and installation technicians, raising the bar for integration rigor across the team, without formal people-management responsibility.
• Partner with Systems Engineering, Software, Flight Test, Certification, and Maintenance to ensure integration decisions hold up end-to-end, from architecture through flight test and into sustainment.
• Drive and review electrical/electronic, mechanical, and software interface definitions and installation and certification documentation package produced by the broader team.
• This position may require up to 50% travel, sometimes with short notice, to domestic and international locations to support aircraft and system integration.

Qualifications:

• BS in Electrical, Aerospace, Systems, or related Engineering discipline (or equivalent experience).
• 8+ years of experience integrating complex systems onto aircraft, with demonstrated ownership of integration architecture across more than one platform or program.
• Deep, hands-on experience integrating and debugging systems spanning COTS/MOTS avionics modules, custom hardware, embedded software, sensors, and human-machine interfaces - not limited to any single engineering discipline.
• Working knowledge of standard avionics interface protocols (e.g., Ethernet, ARINC 429, RS-232/422/485, CAN, MIL-STD-1553) and the judgment to choose and defend an interface architecture, not just implement one.
• Track record of leading integration efforts through design review, lab test, and flight test, including managing cross-discipline dependencies and schedule risk.
• Experience authoring or approving system schematics, interface control documents, and subsystem architecture diagrams.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and act as a technical reference point across a team, without necessarily holding a management title.
• Outstanding organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills, with the judgment to prioritize across competing program needs.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation communication skills, including comfort presenting to executives, customers, and regulatory bodies.

Nice to Have:

• Direct experience with certified avionics on fixed-wing aircraft, particularly flight management systems (FMS), autopilot, or other flight control system components.
• Working knowledge of environmental qualification and regulatory frameworks: RTCA DO-160, DO-178, DO-254, MIL-STD-461, and MIL-STD-810.
• Experience standing up integration or systems engineering practices for a new program or platform from scratch.
• Familiarity with lab test equipment (oscilloscopes, multimeters, current probes, data acquisition, bus analyzers) sufficient to guide others, even if not performing hands-on bench work daily.
• Exposure to aviation/aerospace wire harness design and electro-mechanical system integration (motors, EMI/EMC), useful for evaluating others' work even if not a primary daily task.
• Experience with design tools such as SolidWorks, Altium, or KiCAD.