Senior Lead Engineer – Datalink Systems (Hybrid)

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Shape the Future of Aerospace Technology

At RTX, the world's largest aerospace and defense company, approximately 185,000 professionals are united by a common purpose: solving the world's most complex challenges through innovation, advanced technology, and engineering excellence.

Collins Aerospace, an RTX business, is at the forefront of developing intelligent, technologically advanced aerospace solutions that redefine the future of flight. Our innovations help connect aircraft, enable reliable communications, and support safer, more efficient aviation worldwide.

Join our team and bring your systems-engineering expertise to the development of next-generation avionics solutions that connect and protect our world.

The Opportunity

We are looking for an experienced Senior Systems Engineer - Avionics Datalink Systems to drive systems-engineering activities across complex, safety-critical avionics platforms. This role offers the opportunity to contribute to the development, integration, verification, and certification of avionics datalink subsystems, working with technologies such as RIU, CMU, ATSU, ACR, DLCA, and Link2K.

You will translate customer and industry requirements into robust engineering solutions, support system architecture and interface definition, and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to deliver reliable, compliant, and high-quality avionics products.

The ideal candidate combines strong systems-engineering fundamentals with practical knowledge of avionics communication protocols, requirements management, and aerospace development standards, along with a proactive approach to solving challenging system-level problems.

What You'll Do

Avionics Systems Engineering

• Lead and contribute to systems-engineering activities across avionics datalink portfolios, including RIU, CMU, ATSU, ACR, DLCA, and Link2K.
• Support system architecture development, requirements decomposition, interface definition, subsystem integration, verification, and validation.
• Analyze customer, system, and industry requirements and translate them into clear, measurable, verifiable, and traceable engineering requirements.
• Collaborate with hardware, software, systems, verification, and certification teams to deliver integrated avionics solutions.
• Identify technical challenges, assess system-level impacts, and drive engineering issues toward resolution throughout the product lifecycle.

Avionics Communication and Interface Engineering

• Apply knowledge of avionics communication protocols, including ARINC 429 (A429), ARINC 618, ARINC 739, ARINC 758, and ARINC 724B.
• Analyze avionics interfaces, communication flows, and interactions between system components and subsystems.
• Support interface definition, integration, troubleshooting, and verification activities to ensure seamless system interoperability.
• Contribute to the analysis and resolution of interface-related issues encountered during integration and testing.

Requirements Management and Engineering Excellence

• Develop, review, maintain, and manage system requirements using tools such as Jama and IBM DOORS.
• Establish and maintain end-to-end requirements traceability across customer, system, subsystem, and verification levels.
• Ensure requirements are complete, consistent, testable, and aligned with customer expectations and system objectives.
• Support requirements verification, validation, baseline management, and change-impact assessments.
• Participate in technical reviews and ensure engineering artifacts meet applicable quality and process requirements.

Integration, Verification, and Certification

• Support the integration, testing, verification, and validation of avionics datalink subsystems.
• Review test procedures, analyze test results, investigate anomalies, and support root-cause analysis of system-level issues.
• Work closely with verification and test teams to demonstrate compliance with system requirements and performance expectations.
• Support certification activities by contributing technical analyses, verification evidence, and engineering documentation.
• Apply structured engineering methods to ensure product reliability, quality, and compliance throughout the development lifecycle.

Systems Safety, Standards, and Compliance

• Apply aerospace systems-engineering principles and relevant development processes, with particular emphasis on ARP4754.
• Support the development of safety-critical avionics products within regulated engineering and certification environments.
• Participate in engineering reviews, technical assessments, process evaluations, and internal and external quality audits.
• Collaborate with quality and certification stakeholders to address compliance gaps and maintain engineering integrity.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen engineering processes, improve product quality, and enhance development efficiency.

Collaboration, Ownership, and Continuous Improvement

• Partner with cross-functional and geographically distributed engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges.
• Communicate technical findings, risks, dependencies, and recommendations clearly to engineering teams and stakeholders.
• Demonstrate accountability for assigned deliverables and proactively manage technical issues and priorities.
• Contribute to engineering best practices, process improvements, and technical knowledge sharing.
• Embrace continuous learning and evolving engineering practices, including Agile methodologies where applicable.

What You Bring

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Science, Technology, or Mathematics (STEM), or equivalent relevant experience.
• 6-9 years of systems-engineering experience in aerospace, avionics, defense, or another safety-critical industry.
• 6+ Years of Proven experience in the development, integration, testing, or verification of avionics subsystems, preferably RIU, CMU, CMF, or related avionics communication platforms.
• 5+ Years of Strong knowledge of avionics communication protocols, particularly ARINC 429, ARINC 618, ARINC 739, and ARINC 758.
• Solid understanding of system requirements engineering, requirements decomposition, traceability, verification, and change management.
• Hands-on experience with requirements-management tools such as Jama and/or IBM DOORS.
• 4+ Years of Strong knowledge of ARP4754 and its application in aerospace systems engineering.
• 4+ Years of Experience in supporting system integration, interface analysis, verification, testing, or resolution of system-level technical issues.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder-collaboration skills.
• Ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary engineering teams and deliver results in a structured, quality-focused environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience with avionics datalink systems such as RIU, CMU, ATSU, ACR, DLCA, or Link2K.
• Familiarity with ARINC 724B and additional avionics communication standards.
• Exposure to I/O-related activities, interface testing, and hardware-software integration.
• Familiarity with aerospace certification practices, safety-critical development processes, and engineering assurance activities.
• Experience working with Agile development methodologies and modern systems-engineering practices.
• Demonstrated initiative, technical curiosity, adaptability, and a commitment to continuous professional development.

The Engineer We're Looking For

You are a technically strong, analytical, and collaborative engineer who enjoys understanding complex systems and turning challenging requirements into practical engineering solutions.

You take ownership of your work, communicate effectively across disciplines, and approach technical challenges with structured problem-solving and sound engineering judgment. You are comfortable working in a dynamic, regulated environment and motivated to expand your expertise while contributing to meaningful aerospace innovations.

Most importantly, you are passionate about engineering reliable avionics systems that meet demanding standards for safety, performance, and quality.

Why Collins Aerospace?

At Collins Aerospace, you will work alongside experienced engineering professionals, contribute to advanced avionics technologies, and help deliver solutions that support the future of global aviation. We foster an environment that values technical excellence, innovation, collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning.

Bring your expertise. Take ownership of complex engineering challenges. Help shape the next generation of avionics systems with Collins Aerospace.

RTX adheres to the principles of equal employment. All qualified applications will be given careful consideration without regard to ethnicity, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

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