Chief Engineer, Seeker

True Anomaly•Long Beach, CA

2d•$250,000 - $325,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Seeker Subsystem Chief Engineer serves as the accountable technical authority for the interceptor seeker, with end-to-end responsibility spanning requirements definition, architecture, detailed design, integration, test, and verification and validation. This role ensures full traceability from Missile Defense mission-level objectives through seeker subsystem requirements, design implementation, and verified performance, and acts as the final arbiter for seeker technical decisions, risk acceptance, and compliance evidence. In this capacity, the SSCE leads the development and maturation of seeker architectures across three distinct topologies, ensuring consistent performance, interface compatibility, and design coherence across variants. The role encompasses technical leadership across all infrared sensor bands, including optics, detectors, focal plane electronics, cryogenic systems, and associated signal processing, and drives informed trade studies to balance mission performance, robustness to countermeasures and operational environments, SWaP-C constraints, producibility, and cost. The SSCE defines and controls seeker interfaces with guidance, navigation, and control (GNC), avionics, structures, thermal, propulsion, and algorithm teams, ensuring effective sensor–algorithm co-design and seamless integration into the broader interceptor system. The role supports end-to-end kill chain performance assessments by providing seeker-specific performance characterizations, sensitivities, and risk drivers, and ensures alignment between seeker behavior and overall engagement objectives. Ownership of the seeker verification and validation strategy is a core responsibility, encompassing component-level testing, subsystem and environmental qualification, hardware- and software-in-the-loop testing, captive carry, and flight test. The SSCE defines verification methods, success criteria, and data products required to close seeker requirements, leads anomaly resolution and root cause analysis, and certifies the technical sufficiency of seeker test evidence. The role provides technical governance for the seeker subsystem by establishing and maintaining technical baselines, managing margins and performance reserves, and leading technical reviews, readiness assessments, and design certifications. The SSCE represents the seeker technical position in program-level, customer, and partner forums, and ensures consistent, disciplined execution across internal teams and external suppliers. Finally, the SSCE leads and mentors multidisciplinary seeker engineering teams, setting standards for technical rigor, design discipline, and review quality. The role fosters a culture of accountability, engineering excellence, and mission focus, ensuring that the seeker subsystem is delivered with the performance, robustness, and credibility required to support Missile Defense operational success.

Requirements

Advanced degree in Physics, EE, Optical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field (PhD strongly preferred)
15+ years in seeker, EO/IR sensor, or missile guidance system development
Demonstrated ownership of seeker or sensor systems through design, test, and V&V
Deep understanding of IR phenomenology, detector physics, optics, and signal processing
Experience with multi-architecture or multi-variant seeker development
Proven ability to lead high-consequence technical decisions under schedule and performance pressure