Lead Systems Engineer, Flight Autonomy (AI)

Location: Boston, United States; hybrid workplace

Company

Merlin is a publicly traded aerospace and defense company developing a non-human pilot and full-stack autonomy platform for aircraft.

What you will do

• Lead a small team of systems engineers and own the execution of systems engineering tasks and work products.
• Develop systems engineering plans and processes for technical execution.
• Coordinate systems engineering tasking across disciplines and manage system-level verification and validation.
• Review concepts of operation, functional and physical architectures, system requirements, and interfaces.
• Lead artifact reviews with customers, suppliers, and regulatory authorities.
• Work with safety, hardware, and software teams to define, document, and communicate requirements and interfaces.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Aerospace, Systems Engineering, or a related field; a master’s degree is preferred.
• 6–9 years of systems engineering experience, or 4–6 years with an MS or 2–4 years with a PhD.
• Experience with flight control system development and flight control systems involving machine learning or autonomy.
• Ability to lead small teams solving complex architecture and systems engineering problems.
• Experience with requirements management tools and processes, including system-level requirements, architecture, interfaces, validation, and verification.

Nice to have

• Systems engineering experience in FAA, EASA, or DOD certification programs.
• Experience certifying avionics equipment using ARP4754A and RTCA DO-178B/C for safety-critical systems.
• Experience with automatic flight controls, flight management, display systems, software requirements, or software verification.
• Knowledge of FAA, EASA, or DOD regulations and standards, plus familiarity with MBSE.
• Familiarity with Simulink, Cameo, IADS, or Jama.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on autonomous aviation systems across commercial and defense mission profiles.
• Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams, customers, suppliers, and partners.
• Full-time employees receive top-tier benefits.
• Competitive equity grants are included in the total compensation package.