{"id":3416318,"url":"https://alion.io/job/merlin-labs-staff-systems-engineer-architecture-interfaces","title":"Staff Systems Engineer - Architecture & Interfaces","company":{"id":46278,"name":"Merlin Labs","domain":"merlinlabs.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/merlin-labs","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":88,"open_postings":24,"ghost_share":0.208,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":44,"computed_at":"2026-11-05T05:54:30Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"staff","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Boston, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":165000,"max":220000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":220000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Cameo Systems Modeler","optional":false},{"name":"DO-178C","optional":false},{"name":"MBSE","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-28T17:20:57Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-28","last_verified_at":"2026-11-06T04:12:22Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":8,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":7},"description":"Merlin (NASDAQ: MRLN) is a publicly traded aerospace and defense company building a non-human pilot to deliver full-stack autonomy for any aircraft from takeoff to touchdown. The Merlin Pilot autonomy system powers a growing range of aircraft and mission profiles and has been proven through hundreds of autonomous flights from Merlin's global flight test facilities, including Kerikeri, New Zealand; Smithfield, Rhode Island; and soon, Bedford, Massachusetts. Headquartered in Boston, Merlin is expanding its organization to accelerate the development and deployment of its autonomy platform, helping customers solve some of aviation's most pressing challenges, from pilot shortages to improving flight safety. Backed by some of the world's leading investors prior to its public listing, Merlin continues to advance the certification and commercialization of autonomous flight across commercial and defense aviation.\nAbout You:\nYou are an experienced systems engineer with a strong background in system architecture, interface definition, requirements management, and system validation for civil-certified or DOD safety-critical avionics systems. You excel at capturing and communicating architectures, and at translating customer needs into top-level system requirements that decompose cleanly into subsystems. You have a passion for new product development and a proven record of delivering high-quality systems engineering work products in a fast-moving R&D flight test environment while keeping safety at the forefront. You work effectively across engineering domains and communicate clearly with hardware, software, safety, and flight test teams, as well as customers, suppliers, and partners.\nResponsibilities:\nExecute assigned segments of the Merlin Pilot System architecture and interface definition, including functional/logical architecture, functional behaviors, and physical architecture.\nCapture and maintain system architectures in models (MBSE), keeping them current as the design evolves.\nTranslate customer needs into top-level system descriptions and requirements that decompose to the Mission Autonomy and Flight Autonomy teams. Develop CONOPs, Use Cases, and other tools to capture customer needs.\nDefine and assess the interfaces between mission autonomy and flight autonomy, ensuring correctness and feasibility, and document Merlin Pilot’s architecture interfaces to support interoperability and integration across multiple aircraft types.\nDevelop system-level requirements for features, functions, interfaces, performance, and operational needs, and support allocation of requirements to sub-systems and items.\nSpecify physical interfaces and data protocols, and produce detailed interface definitions and supporting documentation.\nSupport Merlin Pilot software releases, providing systems engineering support from requirements definition through validation.\nPerform change impact assessments in response to change requests, problem reports, and new requirements from Air Vehicle Integration.\nExecute trade studies and present results and recommendations to appropriate Engineering Review Boards.\nCollaborate with System Safety and Product Cybersecurity to capture system-level safety and cybersecurity requirements.\nParticipate in reviews of artifacts with customers, suppliers, and regulatory authorities as required.\nQualifications:\nBS in Systems/Aerospace/Electrical Engineering or a related subject, MS preferred.\n10+ years of experience conducting systems engineering in FAA/EASA/DOD certification programs (7+ years with MS degree, 5+ years with PhD).\nDemonstrated ability to independently own and deliver complex systems engineering work products with minimal supervision.\nHands-on experience in integrated avionics equipment using ARP4754A/B and RTCA DO-178B/C for flight-critical systems.\nDemonstrated ability to develop system-level requirements, architectures, and interfaces, and decompose down to lower levels.\nHistory in requirements validation and verification.\nDemonstrated experience capturing system architectures using Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools (e.g., Cameo).\nDemonstrated familiarity with general aviation aircraft and integration.\nNice to Have:\nDemonstrated ability to lead projects or work packages from a technical perspective.\nSpecific experience in the area of Automatic Flight Controls, Flight Management, or Display Systems.\nSpecific experience in developing software requirements and performing software verification.\nLogistics:\nWe welcome remote applicants for this role, with a preference for candidates based in or willing to relocate to Boston, MA for a hybrid work schedule at our HQ.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4662,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Hybrid work"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Avionics & Flight Control","Drone AI"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-28T19:33:23Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":7,"expected_fill_days":44,"reasons":["conf:2","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-05T05:54:30Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":220000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/merlin-labs-staff-systems-engineer-architecture-interfaces","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/merlin-labs-staff-systems-engineer-architecture-interfaces.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-06T05:35:55Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":9825,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-07T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":46278},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=46278"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fmerlin-labs-staff-systems-engineer-architecture-interfaces"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fmerlin-labs-staff-systems-engineer-architecture-interfaces"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fmerlin-labs-staff-systems-engineer-architecture-interfaces"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/merlin-labs-staff-systems-engineer-architecture-interfaces\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fmerlin-labs-staff-systems-engineer-architecture-interfaces"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3416318}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"merlinlabs.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3416318},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}