Survivability Engineer

Job Summary 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 General Atomics (GA) group of companies is a world-renowned leader in developing high-technology systems ranging from the nuclear fuel cycle to electromagnetic systems; remotely operated surveillance aircraft; airborne sensors; advanced electronic, wireless, and laser technologies; and biofuels.

GA’s Hardware Engineering team has identified an opening for an industry subject matter expert within the specialty of Survivability Integrated Design. The successful candidate will bring extensive product design experience and industry relationships with the objective of building organic capability in the areas of product design and analysis, tool development, and systems development support with an emphasis on growing the competencies within the Survivability and Aerostructures Design teams within the Advanced Airframe Engineering organization. The successful candidate will be responsible for directing the approach to delivering technically compliant designs which target a number of high priority programs.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Influence the design of survivable structures and guide design and requirements development for new program builds. Mentor the Aerostructures design team and the Survivability team and influence the development of design guides to build a library of solutions and experience that achieve produceable solutions to satisfy the unique requirements of future programs.
• Create integrated RF solutions for a range of conventional and survivable platforms supported by results of numerical models, simulations and testing.
• Develop tools to aid analysis and predictions of platform performance, such as first-order modeling, material property prediction or estimation, geometry fixing, and design optimization.
• Participate in the design and fabrication of measurement and test articles (“fixtures”, “pole models”) for validation of survivable designs.
• Support testing efforts at outside facilities and mature in house RCS testing capabilities. The successful candidate will provide oversite to the preparation of test plans, interface with vendor personnel, and may require being onsite during testing to ensure test integrity and to provide mentoring and oversight to build experience within the Survivability team.
• Develop tools to evaluate measured test data of platform performance, including transferring measured data to numerous 2D and 3D RCS analysis codes to inform design iterations.
• Provide technical oversight and leadership to ensure that work products meet requirements through simulation, fabrication and test. The successful candidate will prepare and present status and progress reports, PDR and CDR presentations, and formal proposals to senior level personnel and customers. The successful candidate will also provide SME review of engineering content to promote learning and to build a bench of experience within the airframe design and Survivability team.
• Act as Principal Investigator and provide technical leadership to IRAD and CRAD projects targeting development and implementation of Survivability technologies.
• Ensure compliance, reporting, and safety standards are maintained. Work in a safe manner in accordance with established operating procedures.
• Observe all laws, regulations, and other applicable obligations wherever and whenever business is conducted on behalf of the Company.

• 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; twenty or more years of experience with a bachelors degree, eighteen or more years of experience with a masters degree, or fifteen or more years with a PhD. May substitute equivalent engineering experience in lieu of education.
• Electromagnetics phenomenology experience with emphasis in RF technology is a must, with work related experience in integration of low observable designs.
• Experience in design and modeling of vehicles and low observable systems utilizing 2D and 3D RCS analysis codes such as (but not limited to) RAM2D, XPATCH, and SENTRi. Experience with Pioneer, Knowbell or other similar tools for analysis of measured data is also desirable.
• Experience in creating geometry inputs using CAD and meshing tools, such as NX, Rhino, and Cubit.
• Experience in developing tools using MATLAB, LabView, Python or other programming languages.
• Understanding of a wide range of technical theories and concepts related to electromagnetics and RF integration of subsystems.
• Strong written and oral communications skills and demonstrated ability to mentor and transfer knowledge to a group of highly motivated, less experienced engineers.
• Strong team player with demonstrated leadership qualities. The successful candidate will work under general supervision, following established procedures to achieve strategic business objectives.
• Must possess the ability to contribute to the development of new concepts and techniques.

• Established industry subject matter expert.
• Demonstrated experience integrating LO-compatible systems and sub-systems into aircraft applications with experience building and leading teams of engineers to deliver results.
• Demonstrated experience modeling and analyzing RF responses for a variety of integrated subsystems and processing test data on component and full scale systems.