Engineering Manager
Poway, California
Overview
General Atomics pioneers technologies with the potential to change the world. Behind a talented global team of engineers, GA delivers safe, sustainable, and economical solutions to meet growing global demands. Our Engineers have an opportunity to work on first of a kind product lines within an incredible, dynamic environment.
Engineering positions typically require a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or PhD in engineering or a related technical discipline from an accredited institution and progressive engineering experience. Candidates from mechanical, electrical, and aerospace engineering backgrounds must know the fundamentals of engineering system developments, requirements, testing, and integration before getting to the final stages of customer interface and project management.
Schedule: Full-Time Salary
Job Level: Management
Travel: 0 - 25
Success Profile
What makes a successful Engineering Manager at General Atomics? Check out the top traits we’re looking for and see if you have the right mix.
- Analytical
- Collaborative
- Inventive
- Problem Solver
- Team Player
- Creative
Job Summary General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), is a world leader in Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAV), autonomy, AI-solutions, defense technologies, and advanced sensing capabilities. GA-ASI is committed to rapidly delivering disruptive and advanced autonomous aircraft, end-to-end mission solutions, and cutting-edge technologies at scale to ensure the nation maintains strategic advantages through ISR and Air Dominance in contested environments.
The Agile Mission Systems (AMS) at GA-ASI in San Diego, CA is a growing center of excellence seeking high-performing technical contributors, unique talent, and future leaders in the Project Engineering (PE) role. In this role the candidate will be responsible for managing and leading the Advanced Payloads PE team supporting end-to-end payload development, integration, and sustainment across GA customer platforms. In addition to being a manager, this individual must be a high performing Technical Contributor, leading company’s strategic objectives, supporting multi-subsystem configurations, influencing complex ISR collection chains, resolving critical mission gaps, and driving missionized architectures to achieve disruptive tactical advantages and effects on adversarial competition.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Project Engineers: Lead multi-disciplinary teams, innovate, design, integrate, test, qualify, and rapidly field advanced technologies and mission systems onto GA-ASI ISR and UCAV platforms.
- Payload Development: Lead architecture, requirements, design and test of payload technologies such as Radar, RF Sensors, IR Sensors, Anti-Submarine Warfare, Self Protect, ELINT/COMINT/SIGINT, Airborne Early Warning, Laser Tech, and Communications to meet mission objectives.
- Platform Integration: Lead integration of payloads and complete mission packages including sensors, comms, mission compute, C2, and dissemination in a highly integrated environment through System Integration Lab, Ground, and Flight Test.
- Payload Sustainment: Lead continued sustainment of payloads including customer and vendor management, DMSMS, LRIP, transition to production, payload maturation, and product management across the fleet of fielded systems.
- Team Leadership: Lead and manage a high-performing team of Project Engineering supervisors and staff, ensuring alignment with business and strategic objectives, and allocating technical resources to achieve stated and program objectives.
- Team Management: Establish and maintain consistent team expectations, ensure the quality of the group’s work products, conduct performance management, and provide training and mentoring for staff and supervisors.
- Resource Management: Maintain group manpower and ensure appropriate resources and skillsets are available through hiring, mentoring, internal cross-training, external courses, and targeted individual career growth. PE resources are to be scaled with customer growth and align key skill sets according to technical gaps.
- Collaboration: Foster a collaborative environment and build consensus for technical solutions between GA functional engineering departments, program management, external GA P&Ls, and customer stakeholders.
- Program Execution: Lead diverse multi-functional engineering teams to meet critical program milestones and successfully execute programs within defined cost and schedule parameters.
- Customer Engagement: Represent programs as the engineering lead, ensuring consistent and appropriate messaging to external customer stakeholders, PoR representatives across the DoD, industry partners, subcontractors, and senior internal/executive stakeholders.
- Proposals: Support engineering estimates and proposals in response to customer and leadership directives.
- Technical Reviews: Perform system analysis, conduct trade studies, author technical white papers, and generate customer technical data packages. Complete, document, and present System Requirements Reviews (SRR), Preliminary Design Reviews (PDR), and Critical Design Reviews (CDR).
- Develop Artifacts: create specifications block diagrams, system interconnect diagrams, interfaces and ICDs for UCAV mission systems.
- Test & Evaluate: Configure, integrate, simulate, test, and evaluate tactical data link networks and topologies.
Job Qualifications:
- Typically requires a Bachelors, Masters or PhD in engineering or a related technical field as well as eleven or more years of progressively complex engineering experience. May substitute equivalent experience in lieu of education.
- Must have previous experience in technical leadership with an emphasis on product development through the entire V-cycle as well as product innovation through a first principles approach.
- Must have previous experience in personnel leadership with an emphasis on training, mentoring, and maintaining quality of deliverables.
- Proven ability to understand new concepts quickly and apply them in a dynamic work environment.
- Demonstrates technical expertise in the application of engineering principles, concepts, theory, and practice as well as project management and leadership skills including organizing, planning, scheduling, and coordinating workloads to meet established deadlines or milestones.
- Experience in developing and integrating hardware and software with various engineering disciplines, including Mechanical, Electrical, RF, Cyber, Autonomy, AI/ML, and Software.
- Direct Technical expertise and experience with more than one of the following:
- Multi-Mode Radars, EO/IR systems, Advanced IRST, Electronic Warfare systems, Multi-INT systems, Antennas, Countermeasures, Communications, Tactical Datalinks, Automation, Autonomy & Artificial Intelligence (A3I), HMI/UI, Cybersecurity, Software Architectures, Open Architectures and Standards (AMS GRA, OMS, FACE, STANAG), Networking, Modeling & Simulation, operational use of sensor systems.
- Product Management, Proposal Development, Basis of Estimation, Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS); Commercial and/or DoD Product development experience.
- Ability to resolve complex technical problems.
- Strong leadership and team management skills.
- Effective communication skills with the ability to build enterprise relationships and manage customer expectations.
- Must be customer-focused, able to work independently and in a team environment, and willing to work extended hours and travel as required.
Salary:$125,810 - $229,670
Benefits
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Healthcare
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Pension, 401(k)/Retirement Plans
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Competitive Pay
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Multiple product lines means a variety of work
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Paid Time Off

“The company is growing, has a very good reputation and had open positions in my area of expertise (aircraft design/design methodology development).”– Peter, Senior Staff Engineer

“We don't ascribe to quotas; we do ascribe to securing the BEST talent to enrich our culture toward healthy diversification and active/viable community service. We are STEM advocates.”– Debra, CSSBB: Staff Engineer

“Every day is different, with different problems to solve and many programs to support. I am a problem solver and have always been motivated by the tough questions.”– Scott, Laser Scientist

“I work in the Components Engineering and Obsolescence Management Dept. Our efforts are saving General Atomics several millions of dollars by proactively leading and informing the company of all these decisions which significantly impact production, sustainment and new designs.”– John, Staff Engineer
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