Lead, Systems Engineer; Mission Payload

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Harris is dedicated to recruiting and developing high-performing talent who are passionate about what they do. Our employees are unified in a shared dedication to our customers’ mission and quest for professional growth. L3

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Harris is the Trusted Disruptor in defense tech. With customers’ mission-critical needs always in mind, our employees deliver end-to-end technology solutions connecting the space, air, land, sea and cyber domains in the interest of national security.

Lead, Systems Engineer – Mission Payload

46150

Fort Wayne, Indiana

9/80 (Every Other Friday Off!)

L3

Harris is seeking a Lead, Systems Engineer to support development of a space-based Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) sensor system. This position will play a key technical leadership role across the system lifecycle, with primary emphasis on requirements development and management, interface definition and control, and system-level analysis.

The successful candidate will work across cross-functional engineering teams to ensure mission, payload, subsystem, and external interfaces are clearly defined, traceable, verifiable, and aligned to customer and program objectives. This role is well-suited for an engineer with strong experience in systems engineering rigor, technical coordination, and development of complex space or remote sensing systems.

This position is in Fort Wayne:

• Lead systems engineering efforts for a space-based EO/IR mission payload system across concept, development, integration, test, and verification phases.
• Develop, decompose, allocate, and manage system and subsystem requirements in accordance with program and customer needs.
• Establish and maintain requirements traceability from mission objectives through system architecture, subsystem specifications, and verification methods.
• Define, document, and manage internal and external interfaces, including development of Interface Control Documents (ICDs) and interface verification approaches.
• Perform and coordinate system-level analyses to assess performance, functionality, risk, operability, and compliance to requirements.
• Support system architecture definition and technical baseline maturation for EO/IR payload solutions.
• Coordinate with multidisciplinary teams including payload, optics, focal plane, electronics, software, mechanical, integration and test, and mission operations engineering.
• Lead or support technical reviews such as SRR, SDR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and other lifecycle reviews.
• Ensure systems engineering products are complete, consistent, and compliant with internal processes and customer expectations.
• Identify technical risks, develop mitigation plans, and communicate status to engineering and program leadership.
• Support verification and validation planning, including requirements verification cross-reference matrices and test/analysis inspection demonstrations.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to other engineers on systems engineering methods, tools, and best practices.
• Job is onsite in Fort Wayne, Indiana

• Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related STEM discipline and a minimum of 9 years of relevant experience; or a Graduate degree and a minimum of 7 years of relevant experience. In lieu of a degree, a minimum of 13 years of prior related experience.
• Ability to obtain DoD Secret security clearance