Engineering Lead, Air Defense U.S. Air Force Portfolio
Irvine · Seattle · Washington · Irvine, CA (OC-62) · Seattle, WA (SEA-01) · Washington, DC (DC-01) · USD 166,000-220,000 · 8+ years experience · Full-time · Posted Sep 30, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 8+ years experience
- Employment
- Full-time
- Location
- Irvine · Seattle · Washington · Irvine, CA (OC-62) · Seattle, WA (SEA-01) · Washington, DC (DC-01)
- Salary
- USD 166,000-220,000 · Base salary
About the role
- You are the engineering lead across the U.S. Air Force Air Defense portfolio, owning the technical baseline for delivered configurations including architecture, interfaces, networks, accreditation scope, and verification approach.
- The role involves balancing permanent installations, deployable kits, rapidly relocatable passive detection, and special access environments.
- You hold the picture that spans multiple programs, settling technical questions and providing latitude over where engineering effort goes.
Responsibilities
- Own the technical baseline, architecture, interface set, and verification approach for delivered configurations across the portfolio.
- Own the certification and accreditation scope where it applies, working with responsible teams.
- Integrate systems you do not own, including base equipment, partner command and control, government-furnished equipment, and third-party sensors/effectors.
- Negotiate requirements directly with partners or program offices to determine what integrates cleanly, requires an engineering sprint, or is not technically ready.
- Define the verification and environmental qualification approach, making the call on whether a configuration is ready to ship.
- Reproduce failures on real hardware and real data under time pressure during fielded site degradation, and feed learnings back into the product.
- Carry the engineering position with the customer and in pursuits by translating operational requirements into executable technical scope.
- Write technical content and bases of estimate behind proposals.
- Define deployment networking standards to solve recurring site deployment problems globally instead of per-site.
Requirements
- Engineering, science, or other technical degree, or equivalent practical experience
- 8+ years of systems or engineering experience on fielded systems
- End-to-end accountability for whether a delivered system actually worked at the site, not only for producing its design artifacts
- Has owned the architecture, interface set, and verification approach for a delivered capability or a program's technical scope
- Experience integrating third-party and government-furnished hardware and software into a system you were accountable for
- Ability to define the verification approach for a full scope and explain why the planned coverage is sufficient
- Ability to negotiate requirements, deviations, and acceptance directly with a customer's technical representatives, and to write a credible basis of estimate
- Works from real hardware and real data: reproduces field failures independently before proposing a fix, and has run recovery at a fielded site under time pressure
- Ability to set technical direction for a small number of engineers without managing them
- Eligibility to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance
Preferred qualifications
- Active Top Secret clearance, or current or prior special access program read-on
- Experience delivering counter-UAS, air defense, or installation defense capability to a U.S. Air Force customer
- Depth in one or more of: radar, passive RF detection, electro-optical and infrared sensors, effector integration, tactical networking, tactical data links, or command and control software
- Experience with accreditation and authorization for a fielded system, including STIG compliance, offline or disconnected operation, and government-approved data transfer
- Experience standardizing deployment networking or configuration management across multiple sites
- Experience with environmental qualification for extreme cold or other demanding operating environments
- Prior military or government service in an air defense, flight test, or special operations organization
Benefits
- Highly competitive equity grants included in the majority of full time offers
- Top-tier benefits for full-time employees supporting health, recovery, and whatever comes next
Workplace
- Willingness to travel up to 25% of the time
Skills
- Lattice OS
- Lattice SDK
- Radar
- Passive RF Detection
- Electro-optical And Infrared Sensors
- Effector Integration
- Tactical Networking
- Tactical Data Links
- Command And Control Software
- STIG Compliance
