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Engineer VIII

General Atomics

Huntsville, ALFull-time$158–277K/yrSeen 1 day agoSeen in employer's feed 1 day ago

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At a glance

Compensation
$158–277K/yr
Location
Huntsville, AL
Schedule
Full-time
Work Authorization
US work authorization required

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Requirements

Credentials this posting asks for.

Top Secret clearance

Job overview

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems seeks a Chief Engineer to lead design and development of new weapon systems, including missiles, projectiles, and hypersonic weapons. The role provides technical leadership across multidisciplinary engineering teams and customer and subcontractor partners, from requirements and architecture through integration, testing, and technical reviews. The position is based onsite in Huntsville, Alabama, and requires an active Secret clearance with the ability to obtain Top Secret/SCI access as needed.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Weapon Systems EngineeringTactical Guided MissilesProjectilesHypersonic VehiclesSystems EngineeringDesign EngineeringGuidance Navigation and ControlModeling and SimulationAssembly Integration and TestStakeholder Needs ElicitationSystem ArchitectureRequirements DevelopmentVerification PlanningInterface Control DocumentsTrade StudiesRisk ManagementTechnical ReviewsFailure Modes and Effects AnalysisProposal DevelopmentCost EstimationMentoringCommunicationInterpersonal SkillsComputer SkillsPresentation SkillsTeamworkIndependent WorkProblem SolvingMultitaskingInitiativeWork Ethic

Qualifications

Bachelor's or Equivalent Experience18+ Years With Bachelor's16+ Years With Master's13+ Years With PhDActive DoW Secret Clearance or EquivalentAbility to Obtain Top Secret SCITravel Under 25%

Benefits

Relocation Assistance

Full job description

58707BR

Job Summary:

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) designs and manufactures first-of-a-kind electromagnetic and electric power generation systems. GA-EMS' expanding portfolio of specialized products and integrated system solutions support critical fleet, space systems and satellites, missile defense, power and energy, and process and monitoring applications for defense, industrial, and commercial customers worldwide.

We have an exciting opportunity in our Aerospace Systems Engineering directorate for a full-time Chief Engineer to lead the design and development of one or more new weapon systems such as cruise missiles, air defense missiles, dispensing submunitions, gun-launched projectiles, and hypersonic glide weapons. The successful candidate will provide technical expertise to multi-disciplinary teams that may be geographically distributed between Huntsville, AL, Centennial, CO, Fredericksburg, VA, Oxford, MS, and San Diego, CA. The work location for this position is in Huntsville, AL at our office in Cummings Research Park.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Provide weapon systems expertise to guide systems engineering; design engineering (electrical, mechanical, flight software, RF, EO/IR, warhead/lethality); guidance, navigation and control; modeling and simulation; and Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT) efforts for the development of missile/weapon system prototypes.

  • Collaborate daily with GA and customer engineering and program management teams

  • Collaborate with subcontractor teams to guide and monitor their progress during the weapon system development effort

  • Elicit stakeholder needs from government and industry customers and define Concept of Operations and System Architecture to meet those needs

  • Collaborate with Lead Systems Engineer to define systems engineering approach to be used for the weapon system development

  • With the assistance of a master scheduler and in coordination with subsystem leads, develop Integrated Milestone Schedules (IMS) to complete the weapon system program scope of work, milestones and deliverables within the allocated budget and timeline

  • Review and refine system, subsystem, and component level requirements for hardware and software configuration items

  • Review and refine verification cross-reference matrices, Master Test Plan, acceptance criteria, and test objectives

  • Review and refine mechanical, electrical, and logical Interface Control Documents (ICDs) for weapon system applications

  • Define system and subsystem level trade studies to be completed to refine the weapon system design; review trade study results and make informed technical design decisions based on trade study and analysis results

  • Lead weekly weapon system level engineering working groups to capture status of design, development, integration and testing activities; resolve complex technical problems facing the engineering team; and ensure risks are being mitigated in accordance with program risk and opportunity management plans

  • Support the planning, development and execution of major program technical reviews including System Requirements Reviews, System Functional Reviews, Preliminary Design Reviews, Critical Design Reviews, Integration Readiness Reviews, Test Readiness Reviews, and Pre-Ship Readiness Reviews to include reviewing and tailoring entrance and exit criteria; reviewing objective evidence; and developing, reviewing, and presenting briefing materials.

  • Lead definition of Key Performance Parameters, Technical Performance Metrics and other similar technical measures of health/progress for weapon system projects

  • Support definition of failure modes, effects and criticality for weapon systems, subsystems, and components

  • Support development and review of weapon system design and development content for proposals, Request For Information (RFI) responses, and other technical white papers

  • Demonstrate strong communication skills with and between customers, team members, task leads, functional managers, and program management to facilitate rapid resolution of technical and program issues

  • Serve as the technical lead on one or more development projects

  • Make technical presentations during working groups and peer reviews, or to senior management or customers, as required

  • Mentor less experienced engineers in weapon system design best practices; socialize and ingrain sound engineering processes into the local engineering team culture and project execution

  • Perform other duties as required

We recognize and appreciate the value and contributions of individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences and welcome all qualified individuals to apply.

Job Qualifications:

  • Typically requires a bachelors degree, masters degree or PhD in engineering or a related technical discipline from an accredited institution and progressive engineering experience as follows; eighteen or more years of experience with a bachelors degree, sixteen or more years of experience with a masters degree, or thirteen or more years with a PhD. May substitute equivalent engineering experience in lieu of education.

  • A thorough and broad understanding of chief engineer roles and responsibilities and the demonstrated ability to apply that knowledge effectively to the development of new weapon systems is required.

  • Deep understanding of tactical guided missiles, projectiles, or hypersonic vehicles and their subsystems and the engineering disciplines, tools, and methods used in their design and development is required.

  • The ability and desire to teach and mentor other engineers is required.

  • Experience developing technical inputs and cost estimates for proposals, white papers, and requests for information (RFIs) is highly desired

  • Success in this position requires consistent application of the following key abilities:

  • Demonstration of a positive attitude, strong initiative and work ethic, and ability to multi-task

  • Achieving good results and delivering solid products with minimum time expenditure

  • Exceptional interpersonal, communication, computer, and presentation skills

  • Able to collaborate as part of a team, as well as accomplish tasks independently with minimal direct supervision

  • Rapid and effective problem solving

  • Able to work extended hours as required

  • Travel expectation: <25%

  • Must possess active Department of War (DoW) Secret security clearance (or equivalent Department of Energy security clearance) with ability to obtain Top Secret with Secret Compartmented Information (SCI) access, as required.

Job Category:

Engineering

Experience Level:

Senior (8+ years)

Workstyle:

Onsite

Full-Time/Part-Time:

Full-Time Salary

Pay Range Low:

158,000

Pay Range High:

276,500

Travel Percentage Required:

0% - 25%

Relocation Assistance Provided?:

Yes

US Citizenship Required?:

Yes

Clearance Required?:

Yes

Clearance Level:

Secret

General Atomics is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, ancestry, gender, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, transitioning status, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, medical condition, mental disability, physical disability, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. In accordance with applicable federal law, General Atomics takes affirmative action to employ and advance the employment of qualified protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. We also prohibit compensation discrimination under all applicable laws. U.S. Citizenship is required for certain positions. To learn more, please review the EEOC’s "Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal" poster.

How this job compares

Set against the 409 open Chief Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 4, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$158–277K/yr
  • US median$165–253K/yr310 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $217K, is 3% above the US median midpoint ($211K) — in the middle half of Chief Engineer salary ranges across the US.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 15 open Chief Engineer jobs in Alabama and 409 across the US. 2% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most across the US
Experience
This posting asks for at least 13 years of experience — more than three in four Chief Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for (median 10 years, across 329 postings).
Education
165 of the 409 open Chief Engineer jobs (40%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 4, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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