Systems Integration Engineer

Company Overview

Metrea delivers effects-as-a-service to national security partners across five domains and more than a dozen mission areas. These include airborne ISR, electronic warfare, secure communications, aerial refueling, special air missions, aerial firefighting, and advanced simulation. We own the whole stack: designing, building, and operating turnkey capabilities that give our partners decisive, asymmetric advantage against rapidly evolving threats.

Our operating model is built around three interlocking pillars. The Support Groups provide a global shared-service – spanning people, finance, platform, operations, legal, and engagement. This frees up our Core Groups, who develop and own mission capabilities end-to-end, to focus entirely on delivery. The Market Groups apply a regional lens, ensuring that our agile and adaptable capabilities remain aligned to the wicked problems that matter most to our partners across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific.

At the heart of our model is a simple but powerful idea: be a true partner with skin in the game. Our partners need effects, not just equipment. By owning the full stack – from the lab to the field – we are able to drive a continuous cycle of innovation that keeps our partners ahead. It's a fast-moving, intellectually demanding environment where talented people are given real responsibility, work on problems that matter, and contribute to an enterprise that is growing quickly and deliberately.

Headquartered in Washington, DC, with facilities across the United States, the United Kingdom, as well as Continental Europe and Asia-Pacific.

The ISR Systems Engineer bridges engineering and operations, translating mission needs into deployable airborne capability. In this role, your will lead systems design for the rapid adaptation, integration, and lifecycle engineering of airborne ISR mission systems onto operational aircraft platforms. You will support aircraft mission system modifications, integration efforts, flight test activities, and sustainment engineering while working alongside operators, maintainers, and cross-functional engineering teams.

You will be successful if you can translate ISR mission needs into innovative, safe and compliant systems solutions delivering reliable, high-performance ISR capability directly supporting real-world operations.

• Translate operational ISR requirements into systems design, specifications, and installation packages.
• Perform requirements decomposition, traceability, and verification across mission systems.
• Conduct engineering trade studies for sensor payloads, communications architectures, and integration strategies.
• Develop system artifacts including CONOPS, architecture diagrams, and integration drawings.
• Design and develop architecture for sensors, mission computers, data links, and communication systems.
• Define aircraft modification requirements including electrical load analysis, cooling, structural provisions, and RF/antenna placement.
• Plan and execute lab, ground, and flight test activities for ISR systems validation and verification.
• Support airworthiness and certification efforts (FAA and/or military standards, STC processes).
• Analyze test data and iterate system performance improvements.
• Configure and troubleshoot TCP/IP-based mission networks (routing, subnetting, VLANs, secure transport.)
• Build and validate software images to support integration and test activities.
• Execute software loads, firmware updates, and baseline configuration management.
• Support full lifecycle engineering from concept through modification, deployment, and sustainment.
• Manage technical risk, configuration control, and lifecycle planning.
• Ensure compliance with airworthiness, safety,…