Senior Aerospace Engineer

Aerospace Senior (L5 equivalent) 5-8 years

Other levels: Aerospace Engineer Principal Aerospace Engineer Lead Aerospace Engineer Junior Aerospace Engineer

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SpaceX

Boeing

Lockheed Martin

Blue Origin

Northrop Grumman

Rocket Lab

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The job description

Tech stack. CATIA/NX, Nastran, CFD suites, MATLAB/Simulink, certification planning tools, supplier technical management, risk registers

About the role

You will join an aerospace company as a senior technical owner for an aircraft or spacecraft subsystem through a full development cycle. The team relies on you for the decisions that are expensive to reverse: architecture trades, supplier selections, and certification strategies. This role matters because your judgment gates program milestones, your reviews catch the flaws that become findings, and your mentorship builds the engineers who will own the next vehicle. You will be the engineer program managers call when a subsystem is in trouble: behind schedule, over mass, or failing test, with the path forward unclear. Your value compounds through judgment applied to ambiguous situations, knowing when analysis is sufficient and when only test will answer the question, and when to hold the line on requirements versus negotiate relief. You will build trusted relationships with customer technical counterparts and certification authority engineers, because programs move at the speed of those relationships. You will also shape hiring and staffing for your subsystem, identifying skill gaps and closing them through growth or recruiting before they become schedule risks.

What you will achieve

Lead a subsystem (structures, propulsion, avionics, or systems) from PDR through CDR to first flight, hitting all milestone deliverables on schedule
Cut late design changes by 40 percent through rigorous requirements, interface control, and early risk retirement
Own certification or qualification planning for your subsystem: test matrices, analysis substantiation, and finding-free reviews
Drive supplier technical performance: SOWs, design reviews, and recovery plans for 5 to 8 key suppliers
Mentor 3 to 4 engineers, growing their independence on complex multidisciplinary problems
Reduce program technical risk reserves by retiring the top subsystem risks early through targeted analysis, prototype testing, or focused demonstration

What you will bring

Must-haves

5 to 8 years of aerospace engineering experience with at least one full development program to flight or certification
Expert-level command of your technical domain with working fluency across adjacent aerospace disciplines
Track record of leading design reviews (PDR/CDR) and closing review actions decisively
Deep familiarity with certification processes: FAA/EASA type certification or military airworthiness as applicable
Strong supplier management: technical negotiations, design oversight, and quality issue resolution
Ability to make data-driven architecture trades under conflicting mass, cost, and schedule pressures
Mentorship experience with clear examples of engineers developed

Nice-to-haves

Experience across both aircraft and spacecraft programs
Knowledge of advanced manufacturing: additive, out-of-autoclave composites, or friction stir welding
Familiarity with model-based systems engineering (SysML/Cameo)
Involvement in industry standards committees (SAE, AIAA)
Experience with earned value management and program performance metrics