Principal Systems Engineer (Aerospace/Defense)

Location: El Segundo, California, United States; onsite

Salary: $198,000–$320,000 base compensation per year

Company

hirify.global develops defense and aerospace products powered by Coherent Distributed Networks for warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams.

What you will do

• Own systems engineering across concept development, requirements definition, design, integration and test, qualification, production transition, and sustainment.
• Own the system architecture and requirements baseline for a modular, multi-variant autonomous aircraft platform.
• Establish and govern the program's MBSE environment using SysML as the authoritative source for requirements, architecture, interfaces, and behavior.
• Lead technical reviews, trade studies, requirements decomposition, interface definition, and cross-functional technical decisions.
• Define system-level verification and validation strategies, including model-based verification and simulation-driven analysis.
• Represent systems engineering in customer meetings, audits, qualification activities, and proposal development.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related discipline; an advanced degree is preferred.
• 15+ years of systems engineering experience in the aerospace or defense industry, including ownership across multiple program lifecycle phases.
• Hands-on experience with MBSE and SysML using Cameo Systems Modeler, MagicDraw, Rhapsody, or equivalent tools.
• Experience defining and governing architectures for complex, modular, or multi-variant platforms.
• Strong understanding of requirements management, architecture development, and verification and validation planning.
• Experience leading SRR, PDR, CDR, and TRR reviews and interfacing with government or commercial customers.

Nice to have

• Experience with modular aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems, or multi-mission platforms.
• Experience establishing MBSE, digital thread, or digital twin capabilities from the ground up.
• Ability to obtain or maintain Secret, Top Secret, or SCI clearance.

Culture & Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits fully paid by the company.
• 401(k) with a 50% company match up to 6% of pay, FSA, HSA, life insurance, and other benefits.
• Free daily lunch onsite and a fully stocked kitchen.
• Unlimited PTO and a casual dress code.
• Relocation assistance, pre-IPO stock option grants, and annual bonuses planned for the future.