Program Chief Engineer

TRIDENT SYSTEMS•Fairfax, VA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

At Trident Systems Space Electronic Systems (SES) division, we believe in the power of using strong engineering principles to drive innovation and solve complex problems. We foster a culture of rigorous engineering and continuous improvement, leveraging the full knowledge of our organization through collaborative product development processes that include design and peer reviews. We combine our expertise in space electronics with right-sized development processes to create innovative, high-performance space-based electronic systems that meet our customers' evolving needs. We are a mission partner supporting DoD, Intelligence Community, and Civil space customers. We develop complex, radiation effects mitigated, designs that balance competing requirements in modern space programs, delivering cutting-edge solutions that enable our customers to achieve more in space. The Program Chief Engineer is the program’s technical leader, responsible for ensuring the system is designed, integrated, tested, and delivered to meet all technical, cost, and schedule commitments. This role provides day to day engineering direction, drives key technical decisions, and ensures alignment with product strategy and engineering standards. Success in this role is reflected in predictable engineering execution, early and proactive risk management, strong cross team alignment, and delivery of a fully verified, technically compliant solution that meets customer and program objectives for mission critical space software defined systems.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
12+ years of engineering experience (OR 10+ years with a graduate degree) with demonstrated technical leadership.
Experience in delivering aerospace, defense, communications, or other mission critical hardware systems.
Background in project engineering, systems engineering, integration, and verification.
Experience supporting or leading complex development programs.
Strong communication, planning, and problem-solving skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience delivering radiation mitigated and fault tolerant software-defined or reconfigurable processing architectures.
Experience in high-rate production operations enterprises.
Background in rad-hard processors, FPGA architectures, GPUs, or SDRs.
Background in cyber security including secure boot, cryptography, or hardened OS.

Responsibilities

Lead all technical aspects of the program and serve as the primary technical point of contact.
Drive requirements development, system integration, and verification activities.
Manage technical risks and issues with timely, actionable mitigation plans.
Prepare and conduct engineering reviews and support customer technical discussions.
Lead customer-facing Program Reviews including System Requirement Review (SRR), Preliminary Design Review (PDR), and Critical Design Reviews (CDR).
Ensure engineering execution supports overall program cost, schedule, and performance goals.
Coordinate with engineering functional teams on staffing, standards, and engineering processes.
Provide clear communication of technical status to program and engineering leadership.
Ability to support travel or off-site work, as needed.
Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

Health benefits
Medical
Dental
Vision
Basic life with AD&D
Short term disability
Long term disability
Ancillary (Voluntary life with AD&D, accident, critical illness, hospital, and pet)
Spending accounts (HSA, FSA, and DCFSA)
Paid time off
Holidays
401(k) (including company match)
Tuition reimbursement
Leaves (Parental, maternity, and military)
Annual discretionary bonus (for eligible roles)