Product Engineering Lead, Airborne Systems

Hermeus is a high-speed aircraft manufacturer focused on the rapid design, build, and test of high-Mach and hypersonic aircraft for the national interest. Working directly with the Department of Defense, Hermeus delivers capabilities that will ensure that our nation, and our allies, maintain an asymmetric advantage over any and all potential adversaries.

The Product Engineering Lead is responsible for owning the end-to-end capability integration pipeline downstream of the aircraft’s Interface Control Document (ICD). This role ensures that all mission-enabling subsystems including autonomy, mission systems, weapons, operator interfaces, data/debrief tools, and simulation/test environments integrate into a coherent, testable, and certifiable product. The Product Engineering Lead establishes and maintains the digital thread, governs capability release cycles, and delivers fully traceable, audit-ready engineering artifacts to internal leadership and government customers.

• Own the product engineering plan and digital thread: maintain the end-to-end mapping from requirements to Interface Control Documents (ICDs) and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to software and hardware baselines to verification artifacts to release packages and deliverables; govern the single source of truth for product structure including the capability map, Electronic Bill of Materials (EBOM), Manufacturing Bill of Materials (MBOM), software baselines, and Mission Data Load (MDL) schemas.
• Translate engineering data into deliverables: convert aircraft-level ICDs, technical orders (TOs), drawings, and standards into capability increments, release notes, acceptance criteria, compliance matrices, presentations, and data packages; curate deliverables with correct security classification markings.
• Drive release integration and readiness: orchestrate integrated content across autonomy, weapons and pylons, ground control interfaces, debrief and data systems, and simulation environments; run content and readiness reviews for System Requirements Review (SRR), System Functional Review (SFR), Preliminary Design Review (PDR), Critical Design Review (CDR), Test Readiness Review (TRR), and Functional and Physical Configuration Audits (FCA/PCA); define “Definition of Ready” and “Definition of Done” criteria and ensure capability testability using simulation environments and flight data.
• Ensure ICD conformance: maintain conformance matrices and automated checks including schema validation, API harnesses, message catalogs, and interface differencing; standardize service contracts and data models across all mission system subsystems.
• Lead configuration, compliance, and change control: chair or support Change Control Board (CCB) and ICD workflows; manage interface versions and backward compatibility; track configuration status accounting for as-designed, as-built, and as-flown configurations including MDL versions, software hashes, and pylon or Bomb Release Unit (BRU) configurations.
• Establish a test, data, and evidence pipeline: ensure every capability has linked verification evidence including simulation outputs, Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) and Joint Simulation Environment (JSE) traces, flight logs, and debrief artifacts; define data tagging and metadata standards so mission data, autonomy decisions, and operator actions are time-correlated and searchable for verification and debrief.
• Build and operate the engineering toolchain: manage requirements systems such as DOORS or Jama, Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environments such as SysML/Cameo, engineering backlogs such as Jira or Azure DevOps, source control systems, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) tooling, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems, test management tools, and compliance dashboards; implement automated quality gates such as ICD and Open Mission Systems–Universal Command and Control Interface (OMS–UCI) validation, API contract testing, Universal Armament Interface (UAI) and MIL-STD-1553/1760 stubs, and simulation smoke tests.
• Integrate security and accreditation requirements: embed Risk Management Framework (RMF) and Authority to Operate (ATO) artifacts, Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs), and cybersecurity scan results into release packages; enforce proper data handling and cross-domain workflows required for controlled deliverables.
• Provide leadership and cross-team coordination: run weekly product integration and release planning sessions, surface integration risks, drive mitigations, and communicate technical and program status to leadership.
• Mentor engineers: guide subsystem teams on deliverable expectations, traceability discipline, integration best practices, and verification and evidence quality.

• B.S./M.S. in Aerospace, Electrical, Computer, Systems, or Software Engineering (or a closely related field).
• 10+ years of experience in systems or product engineering for aircraft, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or mission systems.
• Demonstrated expertise building and governing a complete digital thread with traceability from requirements to test evidence.
• Strong working knowledge of OMS, UCI, UAI, MIL-STDs, and API-driven system architectures.
• Hands-on experience with tools such as:
• SysML/Cameo (Model-Based Systems Engineering)
• DOORS/Jama (Requirements Management)
• Git/GitLab (Source Control & CI/CD)
• Jira/Azure DevOps (Backlog & Planning)
• Windchill/Teamcenter (Product Lifecycle Management)
• Deep familiarity with test, V&V, simulation workflows, and evidence pipelines.
• Ability to lead multi-discipline integration efforts in a high-tempo environment.
• Active Secret clearance required; TS/SCI preferred.

• Experience leading capability release trains for autonomy and mission systems.
• Background in mission planning tools and workflows (JMPS, FalconView), operator operations, and debrief/playback ecosystems.
• Familiarity with EVMS to align technical burndown with schedule and cost performance.
• Experience with containerization and deployment of OMS/UCI services in secure and on-platform environments.

U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS 

The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. US persons include U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending. 

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Hermeus is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions at Hermeus are based solely on merit, competence, and qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status.