Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Engineer

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You have been redirected to RTX’s career page as we have recently transitioned from RTX to become a standalone company, which provides us with greater autonomy and opportunities for growth. As a prospective employee of Nightwing, you’ll have the chance to contribute to our continued success and shape the future of our cybersecurity, intelligence, and services offerings.

Nightwing ensures our customers succeed when addressing the world’s biggest threats. Nightwing is looking for a Senior UAV Engineer to provide subject matter expertise and engineering support to a US Government program in the McLean, VA area. This person will join a multidisciplinary team composed of chemists, material scientists, mechanical/electrical engineers, aerospace, and cyber engineers. The work environment is a very collegial atmosphere with ever-changing technical challenges that elicits excitement and challenge with each new day.

The Senior UAV Engineer will serve as a member of a team responsible for monitoring and facilitating technical development and production projects being performed for a Government customer. Job duties include ensuring that system requirements and specifications are consistent with operational deployment environments, recommending innovative solutions for technical and operational problems, monitoring and documenting component and system tests, ensuring compliance with Government program management practices, supporting program control gates and engineering review boards, and authoring and reviewing project documentation.

The Senior Engineer will serve as a technical subject matter expert for a variety of UAV platform-based projects. Experience and support in the following areas is a necessity:

• UAV system design and Integration and Test (I&T)
• Electronics component design and I&T
• Guidance navigation and control, communication systems
• Hardware level firmware/software design and reverse-engineering
• Knowledge with composite structures including resin /adhesive chemicals
• Industry trends and standards in airframe fabrication, manufacturing, and assembly

Roles and responsibilities center around quickly responding to client knowledge gaps by educating oneself followed by training/briefing the government task managers, as well as internal customer departments, on the relevant technologies. The ultimate goal in the aerospace area is to help external contractors identify technical approaches and develop, test, and build capabilities to counter technical advances being made by foreign entities. Duties will include, but are not limited to:

• Provide technical expertise on electronic equipment and components
• Communicate complex technical topics effectively to an audience with a broad set of backgrounds
• Evaluate trends in UAV industry and supporting materials industry to propose strategic technology developments
• Provide customer training and technology transfer
• Review and evaluate relevant information and intelligence provided by client to identify technical vulnerabilities in UAV platforms, specifically focused on sub-systems, material composition or microelectronic components
• Collaborate with internal customers on defining research requirements and strategic mission objectives
• Identify/Eliminate system vulnerabilities
• Review external contractor/vendor technical proposals, experimental results, deliverables, and final reports
• Support customer test activities
• Review contractor test bed facility documentation and experimental test plans
• Prepare, and often deliver, briefing materials to mid-level and senior client management
• Perform troubleshooting
• Review technical specifications
• Conduct tests, perform quality assurance inspections, and assess test data
• Support Customer Review Board
• Anomaly resolution
• CONUS travel to government contractor facilities (one week per month)
• OCONUS travel (average 1-2x per year)
• Support installation and deployment opportunities

Required Skills:

• Minimum 5 years of related experience and Bachelor’s degree (preferably Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Physics)
• 5+ years of experience in electrical component design and/or system operations; hands-on field experience is highly desired.
• Knowledge of system test and validation processes
• Ability to reverse engineer
• Experience with root cause analysis and troubleshooting
• Experience with vulnerability assessment and risk management
• Excellent communication skills
• Team-oriented
• Willingness to become acquainted with new technology
• Configuration management experience

Desired Skills:

• Experience with project portfolio management to help balance strategic and quick reaction capabilities within budget constraints and windows of opportunity
• Ability to work under tight deadlines
• Understanding the global procurement supply chain of electrical components, equipment, and instrumentation
• Ability to predict system-level performance implications of minor technical modifications
• Flexibility to adjust technical direction as intelligence picture changes, or becomes more defined
• Help define initial scope and assess technical feasibility of proposed development efforts

Must have TS/SCI security clearance with Poly on day one and be eligible for crossover.

This requisition is eligible for an employee referral award.  ALL eligibility requirements must be met to receive the referral award.

About Nightwing:

Previously part of a leading Fortune 100 company and headquartered in Dulles, VA; Nightwing became independent in 2024 but continues to support the nation’s most mission impactful initiatives.

When we formed Nightwing, we brought a deep set of credentials and an unfaltering commitment to the mission. For over four decades, our team has been providing some of the world’s most technically advanced full-spectrum cyber, data operations, systems integration and intelligence support services to the U.S. government on its most important missions.

At Nightwing, we value collaboration and teamwork. You’ll have the opportunity to work alongside talented individuals who are passionate about what they do. Together, we’ll leverage our collective expertise to drive innovation, solve complex problems, and deliver exceptional results for our clients.

Thank you for considering joining us as we embark on this new journey and shape the future of cybersecurity and intelligence together as part of the Nightwing team.

The salary range for this role is 85,000 USD - 179,000 USD. The salary range provided is a good faith estimate representative of all experience levels. RTX considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the role, function and associated responsibilities, a candidate’s work experience, location, education/training, and key skills.

Hired applicants may be eligible for benefits, including but not limited to, medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, 401(k) match, flexible spending accounts, flexible work schedules, employee assistance program, Employee Scholar Program, parental leave, paid time off, and holidays. Specific benefits are dependent upon the specific business unit as well as whether or not the position is covered by a collective-bargaining agreement.

Hired applicants may be eligible for annual short-term and/or long-term incentive compensation programs depending on the level of the position and whether or not it is covered by a collective-bargaining agreement. Payments under these annual programs are not guaranteed and are dependent upon a variety of factors including, but not limited to, individual performance, business unit performance, and/or the company’s performance.

This role is a U.S.-based role. If the successful candidate resides in a U.S. territory, the appropriate pay structure and benefits will apply.

RTX anticipates the application window closing approximately 40 days from the date the notice was posted. However, factors such as candidate flow and business necessity may require RTX to shorten or extend the application window.

RTX is An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status, age or any other federally protected class.

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