Senior Mission Engineering LeadHuntsville, AL
Job OverviewAurex is seeking a Senior Mission Engineering Lead with substantial experience conducting and leading missile defense modeling, simulation, and performance analysis. The lead will design and guide missile defense and hypersonic defense studies, define meaningful performance metrics, evaluate analysis products, and provide technical leadership to a multidisciplinary engineering team. This role also carries responsibility for technical planning, schedules, delivery, and customer communication for assigned efforts.
The role combines program leadership with the engineering judgment needed to plan studies, assess results, and explain their implications. The lead will serve as a primary technical interface with customers and contractors, guide the team through delivery, and communicate progress and decisions clearly. For reinforcement learning and other AI/ML autonomy efforts, the lead will coordinate execution in partnership with the designated AI technical lead.
Key Responsibilities- Translate customer objectives and available technical information into defined scope, study questions, work packages, deliverables, and acceptance criteria.
- Develop and maintain technical schedules, effort estimates, milestones, dependencies, and delivery plans. Identify risks and resolve or escalate issues affecting commitments.
- Work with the Director of AI, Modeling and Simulation to identify staffing needs and coordinate work plans across matrixed teams.
- Serve as the technical point of contact for assigned programs and studies. Coordinate customer and prime-contractor interfaces, technical reviews, decisions, and follow-through.
- Lead mission-oriented modeling and simulation study planning, including analysis objectives, assumptions, performance measures, required models and data, and review activities.
- Assess whether available models, data, and analysis methods support the intended study. Identify limitations, needed improvements, and uncertainties that affect conclusions.
- Review technical products and quantitative results with specialists. Ensure conclusions are supported and that study objectives, configurations, assumptions, and findings remain traceable.
- Coordinate aerospace modeling, analysis, software, AI, and other specialists through integration and delivery. Align AI work with the direction established by the designated AI technical lead.
- Prepare clear briefing slides, technical reports, schedules, and decision materials for customers and leadership. Explain findings, limitations, progress, and recommended next steps.
- Mentor engineers and analysts, establish effective review and handover practices, and improve repeatable approaches to technical planning and study delivery.
Basic Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in engineering, physics, applied mathematics, operations research, or a related technical discipline.
- Ten or more years of relevant engineering, mission analysis, modeling and simulation, or technical program experience, including substantial missile defense experience.
- Demonstrated technical leadership of missile defense studies or engineering efforts, with working knowledge of system functions and their relationships within an end-to-end mission.
- Experience delivering technical work through completion, including task breakdowns, schedules, effort estimates, dependencies, technical reviews, and coordination of contributors.
- Experience personally conducting quantitative missile defense or related analysis, performance comparisons, sensitivity studies, or related engineering evaluations.
- Ability to work with incomplete information, establish defensible assumptions, evaluate uncertainty, and communicate the limits of an analysis.
- Experience coordinating multidisciplinary teams and working directly with customers or external engineering organizations to resolve technical issues and maintain commitments.
- Demonstrated ability to produce clear technical reports and presentation materials and brief both technical audiences and program leadership.
Preferred Qualifications- Experience with hypersonic systems from a mission analysis or missile defense perspective.
- Experience supporting government or prime-contractor programs and coordinating delivery across organizational boundaries.
- Familiarity with aerospace vehicle models, trajectory analysis, or related simulations sufficient to assess applicability and coordinate effectively with specialists.
- Experience coordinating studies or software efforts involving AI, reinforcement learning, or autonomous decision systems.
- Experience developing technical approaches, staffing estimates, proposal inputs, or plans for transitioning research and prototype capabilities into supported program deliverables.
How You Will Be RewardedThe salary range for this role is $168,000-$200,000 annually. We offer a comprehensive total rewards approach to compensation, providing incentives and benefits that extend far beyond the base salary. Compensation is determined by the candidate's work experience, education, training, and relevant skills. We offer a competitive benefits package designed to support our employees' health, well-being, and professional growth.
The posted salary range represents Aurex's good-faith estimate of the anticipated hiring range for this position. The specific salary offered within this range will be determined based on the candidate's relevant experience, education, training, and job-related qualifications.
Location: Huntsville, AL
