Principal Project Engineer
About The Position
At Areté, we are on the forefront of utilizing innovative solutions, with great minds from all backgrounds, to help solve the nation’s most complex security challenges. We strive for an inclusive, collaborative team environment that approaches differences as opportunities for innovation and excellence. As an employee-owned company, we foster an atmosphere that propels diverse career opportunities and professional growth. Discover your future with us. We are seeking a dynamic Project Engineer with a passion for bringing products to life in a customer useable configuration. We are looking for a Technical Principal Project Engineer to act as a critical bridge between design engineering, production and Program management. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a cutting-edge team at a new facility. Areté is seeking a Project Engineer to support the Maritime Airborne Systems Sector, providing integrated technical, programmatic, schedule, and risk management across complex defense programs. This role operates at the intersection of engineering execution and program management, ensuring alignment between technical performance, cost, and schedule objectives. The selected candidate will contribute across the full program lifecycle, including program execution, integrated master scheduling, risk and opportunity management, manpower planning, and proposal development. The role requires familiarity with the Department of Defense acquisition framework, including BAA, RFI, and RFP processes, as well as experience supporting DoD contracts and procurement activities. This position requires strong communication skills and the ability to prepare and deliver technical and programmatic briefings to both internal leadership and external stakeholders, including customers and government representatives. This position will be based at our Healdsburg, CA office and is classified as a full-time, exempt, non-supervisory position.
Requirements
- Experience running an engineering technical team
- Technical direction to the engineering team
- Lead engineering team through design reviews both internal and external customers
- Schedule creation and maintenance
- Work with team to create an estimate to complete
- Risk creation and updates
- New production Introduction or production build experience
- Documentation of the product and process
- Ability to get secret clearance
Nice To Haves
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering, or related field. Or 10 years of project engineering for a technical engineering team.
- Proven experience in design development for electro-optical systems and gimbals.
- Currently hold a Secret or Top Secret clearance
- Proficiency in tools and practices.
- Microsoft Project
- Microsoft Excel, Outlook
- Jira
- CostPoint MES
Responsibilities
- Drive planning, execution, and delivery of engineering programs across design, development, and production teams
- Collaborate with technical leads to define scope, requirements, deliverables, and success criteria
- Lead cross-functional execution to meet cost, schedule, and technical performance objectives
- Support New Product Introduction (NPI) and production build activities
- Develop and maintain Integrated Master Schedules (IMS) using MS Project
- Support Estimate-to-Complete (ETC) development and ongoing financial tracking
- Utilize financial and labor tracking tools (e.g., Cognos, Costpoint) to monitor program performance
- Identify, track, and mitigate program risks, issues, and opportunities
- Develop and maintain risk registers, mitigation plans, and supporting analysis (e.g., risk cubes, burn-down/waterfall views)
- Provide technical direction to engineering teams
- Lead and support internal and external gate reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, etc.)
- Prepare and deliver program reviews, audits, and customer briefings (PowerPoint-based)
- Support technical and cost proposal development
- Contribute to capture efforts, including requirements shaping and solution definition
- Champion continuous improvement across program execution processes, tools, and team collaboration
Benefits
- Generous PTO and Leave Times
- Flextime Scheduling
- Bereavement
- Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Paid Parental Leave
- Company-funded 5% contribution to your 401(k) retirement plan
- Company-funded 5% contribution to your Employee Stock Ownership Plan
- Continuing Education Assistance
- Medical Insurance
- Dental & Vision Insurance
- Life Insurance and Long-Term Disability (LTD)
- Vision Reimbursement
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
Number of Employees
101-250 employees
