Manager, Specialty Engineering - Space Technologies

AeroVironment•Albuquerque, NM

22h•$106,500 - $162,500

About The Position

The Specialty Engineering Manager leads a team of specialty engineers supporting space electronics programs across EEE parts engineering, radiation effects, and reliability. The role combines technical leadership with direct people management. Approximately 50% of the manager’s time is spent applying technical expertise to support the division and its programs, while the remaining 50% focuses on team leadership, including coaching, performance management, workload allocation, one-on-one meetings, and monitoring the quality and timeliness of work outputs. The ideal candidate is a technically credible engineer who can contribute directly to engineering work while creating clarity, accountability, and effective execution across the team. The manager provides technical support in relevant specialty disciplines, supports program teams with assessments and problem solving, reviews technical work, and serves as a subject matter expert and escalation point. The manager also leads, develops, and staffs the team; allocates workload across competing priorities; and promotes collaboration across engineering and business functions. This role requires the ability to work in office and manufacturing environments. The position requires access to ITAR/EAR-controlled information; applicants must qualify as a U.S. person or be eligible for an export license. The posting also states that U.S. citizenship is required and that the candidate must be willing to work on government contracts and able to obtain a security clearance. The listed clearance level is No Clearance.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, physics, materials science, reliability engineering, or a related technical field.
Significant professional experience supporting space electronics, aerospace hardware, defense systems, or another highly regulated technical environment.
Demonstrated technical experience in at least one of the following: EEE parts engineering and parts control; radiation effects, radiation hardness assurance, or radiation testing; or reliability engineering, reliability prediction, qualification, or failure analysis.
Experience leading technical work across multiple programs or functional organizations.
Ability to prioritize work, allocate resources, and manage competing program commitments.
Ability to make sound technical and personnel decisions using objective information and clear judgment.
Must qualify as a U.S. person under ITAR/EAR or be eligible for an export license to access controlled information.
The posting states that U.S. citizenship is required and requires willingness to work on government contracts and ability to obtain a security clearance.

Nice To Haves

Graduate-level degree in a relevant engineering or scientific discipline.
Experience with spaceflight electronics, avionics, payloads, spacecraft, launch vehicles, or radiation environments.
Familiarity with applicable EEE parts, reliability, radiation effects, quality, and mission assurance standards.
Experience with supplier technical oversight, parts obsolescence, counterfeit parts prevention, or component qualification.
Experience supporting customer reviews, audits, nonconformances, failure investigations, and corrective actions.
Experience supervising, mentoring, or managing engineers.
Experience managing a team with multiple technical specialties.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Experience improving engineering processes, metrics, or organizational operating models.
Ability to obtain and maintain any required security clearance.

Responsibilities

Provide technical support in one or more relevant disciplines, including EEE parts selection and control, radiation effects analysis, reliability engineering, or related space electronics specialties.
Support program teams with technical assessments, risk identification, problem resolution, and design or qualification decisions.
Review and approve technical analyses, reports, processes, plans, and engineering recommendations.
Serve as a subject matter expert and escalation point for complex technical issues.
Help establish and improve engineering methods, standards, tools, and lessons-learned practices.
Participate in design reviews, risk reviews, failure investigations, anomaly resolution, and customer or supplier technical discussions.
Maintain awareness of applicable industry standards, customer requirements, mission assurance practices, and space hardware development processes.
Identify technical capability gaps and help develop the team's technical depth.
Directly manage, coach, and develop a team of specialty engineers.
Conduct regular one-on-one meetings focused on priorities, performance, development, support needs, and career growth.
Set clear expectations for quality, timeliness, technical rigor, communication, and professional conduct.
Allocate team members' time across programs, projects, operational activities, and improvement initiatives based on business priorities and available capacity.
Monitor work progress and outputs to ensure commitments are understood, risks are visible, and deliverables meet expectations.
Balance workload across the team and address conflicts among competing priorities.
Provide timely feedback, recognize strong performance, and manage performance concerns using objective, fact-based expectations and follow-up.
Establish development plans, mentoring opportunities, and training priorities for each team member.
Recruit, onboard, and retain high-performing engineering talent.
Represent the team in organizational planning, staffing discussions, and resource reviews.
Promote collaboration across systems engineering, design, manufacturing, quality, program management, supply chain, and mission assurance.