About the roleLead a team developing next-generation digital engineering and systems engineering capabilities that support the design of complex defense systems. In this role, you'll manage a multidisciplinary engineering team, drive technical strategy, and help advance how the U.S. Navy evaluates and acquires future maritime capabilities. Candidates with systems engineering leadership experience from aerospace, energy, industrial automation, automotive, manufacturing, or other complex engineering domains are encouraged to apply.
Success in this role will come from leading a high-performing engineering team while providing technical guidance in systems engineering and digital engineering initiatives. As Engineering Manager of the Power System Optimization branch in our Digital Engineering directorate, you'll lead engineers who build digital tools to optimize power and energy systems for the next generation Navy and report to the Digital Engineering Director. The role is onsite in Columbia, SC. You'll supervise the team and serve as principal investigator on a program that needs systems engineering (SE) subject matter expertise.
What you'll do- Lead the branch
- Take over a successful team, develop its engineers, and keep it resourced across the program lifecycle.
- Set the SE standard. Write the policies, workflows, and guidance that research teams use to scale with consistency, traceability, and technical rigor.
- Speed up design decisions. Run research that produces SE tools and automation for the Navy design and acquisition community, aimed at informing design decisions through trade studies and requirements change analysis.
- Open up the design space. Deliver model-based decision support that lets design teams test power system options against operational mission performance.
- Move SE forward for naval ship design and acquisition. Prototype methods (e.g., model-based requirements management, digital thread integration, trade space analysis) that improve decisions from concept development through contract award.
- Lead the Team
- Manage and mentor a cross-functional engineering team, with regular 1-on-1s, formal reviews, and honest feedback.
- Work with the Digital Engineering Director on strategic plans, technical baselines, cost and schedule, and metrics.
- Collaborate with project leads, academic partners, government sponsors, and program managers to resolve issues quickly.
- Drive the Technical Work
- Direct research and development from use case analysis and requirements allocation through trade studies, architecture, integration, and verification and validation.
- Lead development of digital engineering, Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), and decision-support capabilities and workflows for complex defense systems.
- Guide research and engineering activities spanning requirements, architecture, trade studies, integration, verification, and digital engineering initiatives.
- Define data exchange and interoperability standards for digital twins of shipboard power systems and shape test and evaluation strategy, including planning, evaluation criteria, and data collection.
- Unite electrical, digital twin, and software engineers into one coordinated effort, and keep partner organizations aligned through clear communication.
- Grow the Mission
- Support business development with customer meetings, concept development, RFI responses, white papers, and program planning.
- Support capture activities by writing technical proposals and building program plans including cost estimates.
Required QualificationsWe recognize that no candidate is likely to meet every qualification listed above. If you're excited about the mission and believe your experience aligns with the role, we encourage you to apply.
- U.S. citizen able to obtain and maintain a DoW Secret Clearance, previous clearance not required
- Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Marine Engineering, Naval Architecture, Electrical Engineering, other Engineering, or a related technical field
- 8+ years of systems engineering experience in system design or operations
- 3+ years of people leadership, supervisory, or management experience
- 2+ years of MBSE experience in system design or operations
- Strong experience applying MBSE, SysML, or other computational architecture frameworks to complex engineering problems
- Clear writing and briefing skills, including senior military and executive audiences
Desired Qualifications- Existing DoW Secret Clearance
- Master's degree or doctorate in Systems Engineering, Marine Engineering, Naval Architecture, other Engineering, or a related technical field
- CSEP (Certified Systems Engineering Professional) or ESEP (Expert Systems Engineering Professional)
- OMG OCSMP (OMG Certified Systems Modeling Professional), DAU Digital Engineering, or DAU SPRDE (Systems Planning, Research, Development, & Engineering)
- Advanced knowledge of power generation, power conversion, energy storage, rotating machinery, or power system controls
- Experience improving SE processes, standards, or governance in a government or defense setting
- Hands-on experience designing, developing, or testing physical or machinery systems
- Experience with requirements elicitation, decomposition, traceability, and lifecycle management
- Experience building enterprise or system of systems models with the Unified Architecture Framework (UAF) or Mission Engineering frameworks
- Experience with design, development, or operation of navy sea, sub-sea, or seabed manned and unmanned platforms
- Familiarity with defense acquisition processes, systems engineering standards, MBSE frameworks, or related certifications.
- Experience with CONOPS and CONEMP design and mission modeling
- Experience with system budgets, SWAP-C, requirements tracking, and system level analyses for trade studies
- Experience using process management, knowledge management, or computational tools (e.g., Large Language Models) to improve efficiency, quality, or scale
