Senior Vice President of Engineering

About Merlin:

Merlin is a venture backed aerospace startup building a non-human pilot to enable both reduced crew and uncrewed flight. Backed by some of the world’s leading investors, Merlin is scaling alongside our customers to begin leveraging autonomy today to solve some of aviation’s biggest challenges.

About the Role: 

Merlin is developing the world’s most intelligent autonomous pilot, built to operate safely and effectively across a range of platforms—from small uncrewed systems to transport-category aircraft. We’re looking for a Vice President of Engineering to lead the technical development and delivery of our autonomy core product. This senior leader will be accountable for engineering execution, team performance, and delivery of the Merlin Pilot in alignment with our product roadmap, certification strategy, and customer commitments. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who thrives at the intersection of systems thinking, team execution, and product delivery. You’ll lead and grow a high-performance team across multiple engineering disciplines, working closely with the CTO and Chief Product Officer to ensure the Merlin Pilot is high performing, safe, modular, and ready for real-world operations.

About You:  

You are a seasoned engineering leader with a strong background in autonomous system development, especially in aviation or adjacent safety-critical domains. You understand the technical nuance of flight autonomy—from low-level control through to mission behavior—and how to bring these capabilities to life in software, hardware, and systems. You’ve built and scaled engineering teams, delivered complex integrated products, and know how to balance technical depth with cross-functional leadership. Flight experience is a plus, but your primary superpower is execution.

• Lead the end-to-end engineering execution of the Merlin Pilot product, manage, and grow a cross-functional organization that includes:
• Systems Engineering – translating capability needs into clear, actionable requirements and architectures.
• Autonomy Software – developing and integrating flight, mission, and future campaign-level autonomy logic and behaviors.
• Compute Platform Integration – porting and validating autonomy software on certifiable OS and hardware platforms.
• Custom Hardware Engineering – overseeing development of specialized components not available commercially.
• Modeling & Simulation – advancing a world-class simulation environment to accelerate autonomy development and validation.
• Cloud Infrastructure – enabling scalable test and training environments using modern cloud-native tools.
• Ensure the autonomy stack meets performance, safety, and certification goals across diverse aircraft and use cases.
• Drive rigorous product development practices—version control, continuous integration, simulation-in-the-loop testing, and traceable verification.
• Collaborate closely with the CTO and Chief Architect to ensure architectural alignment, scalability, and reuse across platforms.
• Interface with the Chief Product Officer to prioritize capabilities and features against the strategic roadmap.
• Build and sustain a high-performance, safety-first engineering culture that balances innovation with discipline.
• Represent engineering execution in internal reviews, customer meetings, and regulatory discussions as needed.

• BS/MS in Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• 15+ years of engineering experience, with 8+ years in leadership roles managing autonomy-focused product teams.
• Proven track record delivering autonomy systems in aerospace, defense, robotics, or high-assurance domains.
• Deep familiarity with autonomy software architectures, control theory, decision-making frameworks, and embedded systems.
• Strong grounding in certification practices for safety-critical systems (e.g., DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A/4761, MIL-HDBK-516).
• Experience managing cross-functional teams and shipping integrated software/hardware products.
• Strong technical program management skills, with the ability to drive execution across multiple concurrent efforts.
• Excellent communicator and collaborator, with experience aligning engineering with product, business, and regulatory goals.

• Flight experience (pilot, flight test, or operational).
• Familiarity with AI/ML safety and runtime assurance concepts.
• Prior experience in both commercial and defense aerospace product environments.
• Experience with ARINC 653, DDS, or partitioned autonomy frameworks.

This position is based on-site at Merlin HQ in Boston, MA. We offer flexible hybrid in office schedules.

We understand that relocating for a new role is a significant decision, and we’re here to support you every step of the way. That’s why we offer comprehensive relocation assistance to help make your transition as seamless as possible. From covering moving expenses to providing guidance on finding housing, we aim to ensure your relocation experience is stress-free.

Additionally, once you’re here, you’ll enjoy a variety of on-site perks designed to make your workday enjoyable and convenient. These include catered lunches featuring a rotating menu of delicious options, an assortment of snacks to keep you fueled throughout the day, and a selection of beverages, including coffee, tea, and other drinks, to keep you refreshed.

Our goal is to create an environment where you can thrive both professionally and personally

Merlin Labs offers an innovative, entrepreneurial, and team-focused startup environment. We also offer a top-notch benefits package (health, dental, life, unlimited vacation, and 401k with match) and work/life integration. Being part of the Merlin team allows you to become part of a small team that supports professional development while working together to achieve our mission.

Merlin Labs is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability

status. All job offers are contingent upon the candidate passing background, and reference checks. 

At this time, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship or consider candidates who require visa transfers. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future.

If you require reasonable accommodation in completing an application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct your inquiries to [email protected]

Merlin Labs does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from candidates.