Principal Engineer

Chenega Corp • Huntsville, AL

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Venturi, LLC, a Chenega company, is seeking a Principal Engineer to provide engineering oversight for target system payloads and countermeasure development in support of the Missile Defense Agency’s missions. The role serves as a technical advisor to the program office, assessing prime contractor designs, technical plans, and target instrumentation layouts.

The Engineer supports major program milestones from System Requirements through Product Acceptance, collaborating with organizations, modeling teams, cost analysts, and schedulers to support accurate, timely delivery. The role also provides technical assessments to support budget estimates and keeps leadership informed of delivery status. Travel may be required up to 20% of the time.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in a STEM field.
• 12 or more years supporting missile defense or large-scale, complex DoD programs.
• Active DoD Secret clearance.
• Successfully pass background and drug screening.
• Experience managing end-to-end program lifecycles, including development, testing, and fielding of complex systems.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities.
• Ability to handle multiple urgent tasks while maintaining focus.
• Ability to support travel requests up to 20% of the time.

Nice To Haves

• Understanding of IR/RCS signatures for flight objects and countermeasures.
• Experience with material properties and material property measurements.
• Knowledge of real-world threat systems and their effects on target designs.
• Understanding of MDA flight test requirements and ability to apply them to payload hardware development.
• Technical proposal development and evaluation.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a technical expert on payload and countermeasure requirements development, analysis, design, qualification, and fielding.
• Review and assess prime contractor designs, plans, reports, and technical procedures.
• Evaluate target instrumentation requirements, physical layouts, component selection, and testing methodologies.
• Provide technical evaluation and engineering support during major program milestones, including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRB, MRB, and PAR.
• Answer technical inquiries from external MDA organizations and lead multidisciplinary Technical Interchange Meetings (TIMs).
• Provide technical assessments to the cost analysis team to support accurate program management budget estimates.
• Coordinate with the program scheduler to track delivery deadlines and proactively advise leadership of status.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Professional development opportunities, including on-the-job learning and formal development programs.
• Well-being programs.
• Flexible daily choices to support health and well-being.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal