Senior Systems Engineer

SAIC • Huntsville, AL

1d • Onsite

About The Position

SAIC is seeking a Senior Systems Engineer to support the Common Translator (CT), an embedded software module that translates between existing aircraft software and a new Identification, Friend or Foe (IFF) transponder. The position is based in Huntsville, Alabama, and supports safety-critical avionics software developed under DO-178C DAL C objectives. The engineer will work closely with software and test engineers to translate operational and certification requirements into system and software requirements, architectures, interfaces, and verification strategies.

The role covers systems engineering activities across the lifecycle, including requirements engineering and traceability, architecture and interface definition, verification and validation planning, integration and testing, certification support, and technical documentation. The engineer will collaborate with customer stakeholders and multidisciplinary teams, participate in agile ceremonies and technical reviews, and support data analysis and testing in customer or third-party laboratories, including travel.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree and five years of experience; an additional four years of experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Active Secret security clearance that the candidate must be able to maintain.
• U.S. citizenship.
• Experience in requirements engineering, including elicitation, analysis, decomposition, allocation, baselining, and traceability.
• Experience developing system and software architectures, defining interfaces, and working with multidisciplinary teams to realize designs.
• Experience collaborating closely with software engineering teams and discussing software design and implementation trade-offs in the context of requirements.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including impact analysis and resolution of complex integration and requirements issues.
• Proficiency with requirements management practices and tools, including traceability matrices, baseline control, and change management.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, including experience producing technical documentation and participating in formal reviews.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with DO-178B/C concepts and the role of systems engineering and requirements management in safety-critical software development and certification.
• Experience in aerospace, avionics, or other safety-critical domains, such as flight displays, flight management systems, or navigation/mission systems.
• Knowledge and experience with MIL-STD-1553 databuses, including bus monitoring and analysis.
• Experience developing and using Interface Control Documents, particularly those related to MIL-STD-1553.
• Hands-on experience with requirements management tools, preferably IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS (DOORS Classic or DOORS Next Generation).
• Prior experience mentoring engineers or acting as a technical lead for systems and requirements engineering activities.

Responsibilities

• Elicit, analyze, document, decompose, and allocate system-level and software-level requirements for transponder-based capabilities.
• Ensure requirements are clear, consistent, testable, and traceable to customer needs, standards, and DO-178C DAL C objectives.
• Manage requirements baselines and changes, conduct impact analyses, and maintain end-to-end requirements traceability and traceability matrices.
• Support audits and reviews focused on requirements completeness and consistency.
• Develop and refine system and software architectures for Common Translator configurations, including data interfaces and avionics integration.
• Define and maintain interface control documents and data models for integration with aircraft flight management systems and other avionics subsystems.
• Collaborate with software engineers to ensure architecture and requirements support performance, safety, configurability, and maintainability goals.
• Perform data analysis and testing in customer and/or third-party laboratories, with some travel.
• Apply DO-178C and related aerospace standards and guidance to systems engineering and requirements activities.
• Support development of plans, standards, and guidelines for Common Translator-based solutions.
• Produce and review systems engineering and requirements artifacts supporting audits and certification reviews.
• Define and maintain verification and validation strategies, mapping system and software requirements to test plans and procedures.
• Develop and review test plans, procedures, and cases to ensure adequate requirements coverage and coverage of key operational scenarios.
• Support integration and system testing, including anomaly investigation, root-cause analysis, and requirements-focused corrective actions.
• Work with test engineers to evaluate test results, confirm requirements satisfaction, and improve test effectiveness and traceability.
• Participate in agile ceremonies and represent systems and requirements engineering concerns.
• Collaborate with software engineers, test engineers, and customer stakeholders to refine features against operational needs and certification constraints.
• Lead or contribute to requirements, architecture/design, and test-readiness reviews.
• Develop and maintain requirements specifications, architecture descriptions, interface control documents, and verification reports.
• Ensure systems engineering and requirements artifacts are baselined, controlled, and integrated with configuration-management tools and processes.
• Identify and help implement improvements to requirements management, architecture practices, verification workflows, processes, and tools.
• Support customer interactions and technical presentations, communicating requirements rationale, system capabilities, constraints, and trade-offs.

What This Job Offers

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