Group Lead - Mission

Overview

Draper is an independent, nonprofit research and development company headquartered in Cambridge, MA. The 2,000+ employees of Draper tackle important national challenges with a promise of delivering successful and usable solutions. From military defense and space exploration to biomedical engineering, lives often depend on the solutions we provide. Our multidisciplinary teams of engineers and scientists work in a collaborative environment that inspires the cross‑fertilization of ideas necessary for true innovation.

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As part of the Software Engineering Division, the primary focus of the Intelligent Mission Applications Group is the generation and analysis of software requirements, system software architectures based on those requirements, system software decomposition to functional components (CSC's), implementation in the optimal language for the mission, unit testing, and delivery of an integrated software product. The group has deep expertise in complex avionics architectures and mission‑critical software, as well as multi‑core processors, GPUs, and all modern computing hardware.

Working with microkernels, OSAL implementation, secure boot loaders and overall system security are also part of this group’s responsibility. The group provides innovative and cutting edge software solutions to meet the most challenging mission requirements. The software developed by this group must be highly reliable and robust in order to architect new system capability solutions and enabling technologies for a wide variety of systems.

These systems include hypersonic weapon systems, autonomous and collaborative systems, integrated air & missile defense systems, global strike and power projection in contested environments, and other systems critical for our nation’s security and defense. This group will also apply the tools and technologies for development and testing of flight code built upon its custom operating systems (preliminary through pre-release versions) using SIMICS, QEMU, Simulink, and other industry standard tools.

The Group Leader is responsible for leading and managing a group of approximately 10-20 engineers who have technical and domain expertise related to the group’s focus areas and can provide the highest level of support to our customers. The continual development and advancement of Draper’s expertise for specific mission domains and related embedded systems technology is a key focus of the Group Leader.

Group Leaders are the first line of line management in engineering ir main responsibility is the care and development of their direct reports to ensure Draper has the workforce it needs to meet its customer needs both now and in the future. Group Leaders are responsible for administrative duties (e.g., staffing, hiring, performance reviews), workforce development (e.g., training, mentoring), and developing/furthering the group’s charter/capabilities (e.g., developing technology/capability roadmaps, improving processes/procedures/best practices).

• Ensure the long-term success of the group, and its contributions to Draper, by shaping the group’s talented workforce, while maintaining and developing key, differentiating capabilities that align with customer and business needs.
• Collaborate regularly with internal group members, Draper Program Offices, customers/sponsors, other Draper engineering groups, and the external technical community.
• Partner with customers/sponsors, Draper Program Managers and subject matter experts within Draper to develop and implement strategic plans and technology roadmaps.
• Promote and direct internal and external R&D activities, including development and alignment of research proposals with technology roadmaps, collaborations with universities and direction of scholar, coop, and internship cohorts.
• Support and enable the technical and career growth of individual staff members by performing check‑in reviews and annual performance reviews, as well as advocating for leadership, mentorship, and training opportunities.

• Manage administrative details and career development for group members.
• Convey relevant information from management to group members.
• Lead, mentor, build depth in their area of expertise, and conduct performance evaluations of group members.
• Maintain awareness of staffing requirements, write job requisitions (responsibilities and required qualifications) for hiring as required, review and disposition incoming resumes, conduct interviews.
• Serve as Lead Subject Matter Expert for area of specialty.
• Shape Draper’s technology offerings and open new business areas based on program and technical experience.
• Analyze Draper strategy and work with management to build capability in key areas that align Draper’s capabilities with customer’s strategic priorities.

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