Engineering Associate Vice President, Business Group Chief Engineer

AeroVironment•Princeton, CA

61d•Hybrid

About The Position

As Vice-President level, the Precision Strike and Defense Systems (PSDS) Business Group Chief Engineer (BGCE) is the overall technical authority for the PSDS Business Group. The BGCE is accountable for all technical aspects of the products and leads a team of engineers to ideate, conceptualize, develop, launch, and sustain products throughout the total product lifecycle. The BGCE works with Customers and Product Line Managers to develop concepts of operations which feed into product roadmaps to meet business objectives. The BGCE chairs technical review boards and drives technical requirements for any failure analysis and root cause corrective action activities. The BGCE also serves as functional leader to a small and distinguished group of Product Line Chief Engineers (PLCE).

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in a Mechanical, Aerospace, Electrical, or Systems Engineering discipline (or equivalent)
Minimum of 15 years of demonstrated experience in aerospace product design and sustainment
Experience with Defense products and customers
Experience with leading UAS technical teams through the product lifecycle
Experience with drawings and BOMs; Engineering Change systems; Quality systems for non-conforming parts and corrective action
Experience in an Agile and Waterfall development environment
Excellent verbal, presentation, and written communication skills
Exceptional leadership and management skills, with the ability to develop and communicate a vision that inspires and motivates staff and aligns with the business strategy
Ability to build strong relationships within all disciplines within organization
Effective influencing and negotiation skills in an environment in which resources may not be under your direct control
Experience with product manufacturing and product configuration processes
Project Management Experience
Experienced and proficient with MS Office applications and other office productivity tools
U.S. Citizenship required
Must be capable of obtaining and maintaining a DoD Secret security clearance

Nice To Haves

Education / experience or aircraft subsystems in R&D environment is preferred
Direct experience with design or development in the Aerospace or Defense industries (UAVs or Military aviation preferred)
Direct technical expertise in any of the following areas: Group 1, 2 or 3 UAS Avionics, sensors, and RF-based data links, Radio frequency spectrum and modern communication systems, SIGINT technologies and sensors, including EO/IR optics, GPS navigation systems including DGPS, SAASM and M-Code, Aviation propulsion systems, including internal combustion and electric motors, OCONUS military operations
Secret or Top Secret clearance, or the ability obtain a clearance is desired

Responsibilities

Ideate, conceptualize, develop, launch, and sustain products throughout the total product lifecycle.
Develop concepts of operations which feed into product roadmaps to meet business objectives.
Chair technical review boards.
Drive technical requirements for any failure analysis and root cause corrective action activities.
Serve as functional leader to a small and distinguished group of Product Line Chief Engineers (PLCE).
Lead a team of engineers.
Integrate new capabilities onto UAS platforms, requiring flow-down of requirements to lower-level systems.
Project planning in terms of schedule, budget, and resource estimations.
Lead a multi-disciplinary team in an engineering environment.