Engineering Manager, Advanced Systems Engineering

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.

The Research & Design (R&D) Engineering organization at GA-ASI has recently established a new engineering department called System Development & Integration (SD&I) Engineering, and we are hiring! The SD&I Department is comprised of engineering leaders working as system engineers, integration engineers, sub-IPT leads, IPT leads, and/or Chief Engineers who use their previous detailed design, integration, and/or test experience as a foundation for these wider in breadth roles at the system level.

The main objective for these roles is to guide and lead detail design engineers in the other engineering design departments in R&D Engineering during next generation aircraft development efforts at GA-ASI.

This position reports to the head of the SD&I Engineering Department. Successful candidates will be capable of leading a team of system engineers responsible for guiding and coordinating detailed design engineers across multiple disciplines, defining pragmatic system engineering approaches that leverage Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) tools alongside traditional methods and discipline-specific tools, as well as establishing integration strategies between MBSE tools, physics-based models, code-generating platforms, and PLM systems.

The successful candidate will have 10+ years of engineering experience including 7-10 years in design, integration, or test in one of the primary aerospace disciplines (flight sciences, mechanical systems, electrical/avionics, propulsion, software, airframe structures, etc.) followed by a transition into system engineering. This leader will balance technical rigor with practical program execution and value outcomes over methodological purity.

Leadership and Team Management

• Leads, mentors, and develops a team of system engineers supporting complex aerospace programs
• Recruits, retains, and develops engineering talent
• Conducts performance reviews and career development planning
• Manages resource allocation, workload distribution, and technical staffing
• Fosters collaboration across engineering disciplines including flight sciences, mechanical systems, electrical/avionics, propulsion, software, and airframe structures
• Provides direction to system engineering and technical staff
• Represents system engineering in program reviews, customer engagements, and internal leadership meetings

System Engineering Strategy and Process

• Defines and implements system engineering processes, standards, and best practices that balance rigor with practicality and program needs
• Establishes a balanced system engineering approach that leverages MBSE tools (e.g., Cameo, Magic Draw, etc.) alongside traditional methods and discipline-specific environments
• Defines integration strategies between MBSE tools, physics-based analysis models, code-generating platforms (e.g., MATLAB/Simulink, Stateflow), and PLM systems (e.g., Teamcenter)
• Deploys the right tools and methods for specific engineering problems without dogmatic adherence to any single methodology
• Sets technical direction and priorities aligned with program objectives and organizational strategy

System Engineering Execution

• Understands systems engineering across multiple disciplines and leads development of behavioral and functional capabilities at the system level
• Creates, analyzes and interprets requirements at the system level, decomposes and flows down to lower-level specifications
• Oversees system architecture development, trade studies, and interface definition and control
• Conducts trade studies and other analyses to inform requirements flowed down to detailed design engineering departments
• Drives requirements definition, decomposition, allocation, and traceability across system and subsystem levels
• Evaluates and guides the development of detailed designs to ensure system-level requirements are met
• Ensures proper configuration management and change control across the system engineering lifecycle
• Oversees verification and validation planning, including test…