Defense Survivability Engineer

Defense Mid-level (L4 equivalent) 2-5 years

✓ Which company are you aiming at?

To generate precise rejection-prevention feedback and application strategy, tell us where you're targeting.

RTX

Lockheed Martin

Northrop Grumman

Anduril

General Dynamics

BAE Systems

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The job description

Tech stack. vulnerability assessment, armor design, signature management, blast and fragmentation modeling, explicit dynamics FEA, live-fire test analysis, MATLAB

About the role

You will join a defense technology company that designs platforms meant to bring their crews home, treating survivability as a system property rather than a bolt-on feature. The survivability team works the full spectrum: avoid detection through signature management, avoid being hit through countermeasures and tactics, and withstand hits through armor and resilient design. Your analyses decide where armor goes, which signatures get reduced, and how much punishment a design can take, with every recommendation backed by quantified modeling and test correlation.

What you will achieve

Perform vulnerability assessments that identify the top five kill mechanisms against a platform, with quantified probability of kill for each.
Design armor and structural hardening that cuts penetration probability by 30 percent within the platform's mass budget.
Build signature models covering radar, infrared, and acoustic observables, guiding treatments that measurably reduce detection range.
Support live-fire test events from planning through data analysis, correlating model predictions to measured damage within expected bands.
Deliver survivability design guidelines that the broader engineering team applies without needing your review on every drawing.
Deliver a balanced survivability design that meets both susceptibility and vulnerability requirements within mass and cost budgets.

What you will bring

Must-haves

You bring 2 to 5 years of experience in survivability, vulnerability analysis, armor design, or related protection engineering.
You understand the kill chain from detection through engagement and how each link can be broken.
You have modeled blast, fragmentation, or penetration effects with analytical tools or FEA.
You grasp signature fundamentals across radar, infrared, and other observables, and the treatments that reduce them.
You are familiar with live-fire test planning, instrumentation, and post-shot analysis.
You balance protection against mass, cost, and performance with honest, quantified tradeoffs.
You have built or used engagement-level models that combine susceptibility and vulnerability into mission-level outcomes.

Nice-to-haves

You have designed composite or reactive armor solutions.
You bring experience with susceptibility versus vulnerability modeling tools.
You have supported operational survivability assessments or red teaming.
You hold an active security clearance or can obtain one.
You bring experience with active protection systems or soft-kill countermeasure concepts.