Lead Engineer - Navigation Systems

The Opportunity:

As a Lead Navigation Systems Engineer, you will be responsible for leading the innovation, pursuit, and execution of US Government and DoD technology development in Inertial Navigation Systems with an emphasis on driving growth of the IMU and INS business to support Safran Federal Systems and Safran’s long term sales goals.

Job Responsibilities:

• Establish test methods and procedures and execute the testing of inertial sensors, inertial navigation, and GNSS systems.
• Analyze data and use data to verify system requirements and to validate system performance.
• Leverage a strong technical background enabling interaction with customers’ systems engineers, hardware/electrical/software engineers, and other technical staff members.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to gather and analyze requirements, ensuring alignment with business goals and regulatory standards.
• Define and manage system requirements and specifications throughout the system lifecycle.
• Lead system design reviews, technical assessments, and risk analysis activities.
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for system design, verification and validation processes.
• Provide technical guidance and support to project teams throughout the development and deployment phases.
• Ensure compliance with industry standards, best practices, and regulatory requirements.
• Provide on-site technical expertise as needed.
• Prepare technical documentation and provide product/technical presentations to customers/partners and train customers on the delivered solution.
• Create streamlined technical documentation for our customized solutions for future utilization (i.e. manuals).
• Develop new Government and DoD business, directly with the Government and indirectly through large system integrators through a thorough understanding of the factors that are critical to success of the customer’s mission.
• Participate in industry working groups related to inertial and GNSS navigation.
• Write proposals, RFI responses, whitepapers, etc.
• Present technical material at professional conferences.
• Generate cost baselines and work breakdown structures to support internal cost and price reviews.

What You Bring to Safran Federal Systems:

• A minimum of 6 years of experience in navigation system design and development is required.
• Bachelors’ degree required preferably in in Engineering, Mathematics, or Physics, master’s degree is preferred.
• Technical expertise and application of inertial navigation principles, concepts, theory, and practice is required.
• Demonstrated experience with systems engineering concepts and processes.
• Working knowledge of U.S. Defense funding and acquisition process.
• Experience with military and civil qualification standards, including hardware and software qualification.
• Demonstrated ability to process, analyze, and present inertial test results.
• Technical writing skill and experience – academic thesis, peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, project reports; ability to support technical writing with high quality graphics/ charts/ schematics.
• Speaking/ Presentation/ Dialogue Skills – white board, small and large group presentations; high degree of comfort speaking senior military and staff personnel; ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical individuals; intuitive ability to pivot from presentation to dialogue as appropriate.
• Demonstrable strong customer focus, ownership, urgency and drive.
• Demonstrated ability to adapt to new technologies and learn quickly.
• Self-motivated, and ability to self-prioritize effectively to achieve goals, comfortable with ambiguity.
• High level of skill communicating effectively across internal and external organizations, both verbally and in writing.
• Experience in Sales Development, Prospecting, Qualifying, Negotiating, and understanding informal decision-making structures.
• Ability to travel within the United States to meet with customers up to 25% of the time, with a need to travel internationally a few times per calendar year.
• Secret level security clearance is preferred.
• French language skills are preferred.
• Proficient in Positioning, Navigation and Timing technologies or related high-tech industry preferred.
• Ability to reason logically and make sound decisions, to consider alternative and diverse perspectives, to communicate effectively both orally and in writing, to remain poised under all circumstances, and to interact effectively with people in a positive manner that engenders confidence and trust.
• Ability to work effectively and efficiently in high stress and conflict situations.
• Ability to simultaneously address multiple complex problems.
• Must be able to remain in a stationary position at least 50% of the time.
• Must have an ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations.

About Safran Federal Systems

Safran Federal Systems has been awarded as a Winner of the Rochester Metro Area Top Workplaces 2024 Award.

In 2022, Safran acquired Orolia, now Safran Trusted 4D, the world leader in Resilient PNT. At the intersection of critical infrastructure and national defense, Safran Trusted 4D solutions govern and protect the integrity of systems that shape the world. In early 2019, Orolia Defense & Security spun off as a separate entity from its parent company Orolia, with the mission of providing resilient Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) solutions and custom engineering services to U.S. Government agencies, U.S. Defense organizations, and their contractors.

In August of 2019, Safran Federal Systems acquired Talen-X, a U.S. company specializing in advanced GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Simulation solutions and Interference, Detection, and Mitigation (IDM) technologies. Talen-X's portfolio was an ideal fit and has helped to enhance Safran FS's overall offerings. The acquisition enabled Talen-X's existing resources, operations and capabilities to be scaled and accelerated to better support the warfighter. Read the press release here.

Safran Federal Systems operates as a proxy-regulated company, Free of Foreign Ownership, Control, or Influence (FOCI). As such, Safran FS Defense & Security is approved to work on the full spectrum of U.S. Government classified and unclassified projects and is positioned to support strategic partnerships in the development of key PNT technologies for the defense market.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Please note this description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.