Systems Engineering Lead

Are you looking for an exciting career with an industry leading turbomachinery/jet engine aerospace engineering company with cutting edge products, unique niche markets, and a highly skilled expert workforce? Then you have come to the right place!

Florida Turbine Technologies (FTT), a Kratos Turbine Technologies company, is a growing world-class turbomachinery company located in beautiful Jupiter, Florida USA, which employs 300+ engineers and technicians with over 4,000 combined years of aero engine (military and commercial), industrial, and space turbomachinery experience. With a deep bench of experience in each discipline, FTT has been growing steadily for 25 years. We specialize in next-generation technologies for aircraft engines, rocket turbopumps, and industrial power equipment, and focus on the development and production of small, affordable, high-performance jet engines for cruise missiles and unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

We provide a one-stop shop with capabilities in design, aerodynamics, performance, heat transfer and secondary flow, rotor dynamics and bearing design, structural analysis and life predictions, manufacturing, testing, and field support. Our Turbine Technologies division also provides engineering services, testing services, and material solutions for military and commercial engines, space propulsion, and industrial power-producing applications.

Additional offices in Derby, UK and Wildau, Germany extend FTT's reputation for engineering excellence to the European marketplace and provide access to a European supply chain and next generation manufacturing capabilities.

Our parent company, Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, leverages cross-industry capabilities to deliver innovative, cost-saving solutions for all its customers.

This role is restricted to U.S. persons (i.e., U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and other protected individuals under the Immigration and Naturalization Act,8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)) due to access to export-controlled technology. FTT will require proof of status prior to employment.

General Job Summary :

The Systems Engineering Lead will serve as a leader on advanced turbomachinery and power systems programs. This role is central to translating customer and program needs into clear, verifiable requirements and ensuring those requirements are successfully flowed, integrated, verified, and sustained across the full hardware product lifecycle - from concept through qualification, delivery, and fielded support.

As the technical interface between the Program Manager, customer, and multi-discipline engineering teams, this role requires knowledge and understanding of turbomachinery, strong systems engineering judgment, and the ability to lead cross-functional teams through complex design, fabrication, test, and delivery programs under aggressive schedules.

This is a technical leadership role focused on decision-making, risk management, and product integrity. We are looking for someone equally effective leading internal design reviews with discipline engineers and presenting program technical status to government and program stakeholders.

Essential Job Functions:

• Serve as the senior technical lead and decision authority across multidisciplinary turbomachinery design teams, ensuring system-level requirements, performance, safety, reliability, maintainability, and integration objectives are met.
• Lead technical decision-making and resolve cross-discipline design issues by understanding how requirements and design decisions propagate throughout the turbine engine or power system.
• Partner with the Program Manager and customer to interpret top-level requirements, performance metrics, and operational needs, translating them into actionable engineering direction.
• Lead development and maintenance of system architecture, functional allocation, requirements flowdown, and interface control documentation for internal and external system interfaces.
• Drive requirements verification and validation from definition through qualification and acceptance, including verification methods, success criteria, traceability, compliance, and closure of verification evidence.
• Lead hardware integration activities and resolve mechanical, thermal, fluid, electrical, data, and other system interfaces to achieve system-level performance and integration objectives.
• Direct technical assessment of design outputs, test plans, qualification and acceptance testing, supplier technical data, and test anomalies; determine technical disposition where required.
• Ensure rigorous application of Safety, Reliability & Maintainability processes and provide technical input to hazard analyses, FMEA/FMECA, reliability assessments, and safety-critical design decisions.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate technical risks; lead trade studies and technical decision analysis through design, development, qualification, and field support.
• Coordinate technical activities across internal engineering disciplines, suppliers, manufacturing/quality organizations, customers, and partner or associate contractor teams.
• Maintain clear traceability from customer needs and system requirements through design, analysis, test, qualification, and fielded configuration.
• Lead or significantly contribute to major technical reviews and customer-facing technical discussions, including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRR, and equivalent reviews.
• Mentor engineers and champion practical, disciplined systems engineering practices throughout the hardware lifecycle.
• Other job duties as assigned.

Keyword: Systems Engineering Lead
Required Experience:

• Deep understanding of turbine engine and turbomachinery design and how requirements interact across aerodynamics, structures, heat transfer, secondary air systems, controls, rotor dynamics, materials, manufacturing, and other disciplines.
• Proven ability to serve as the senior technical authority for multidisciplinary engineering teams, make sound technical decisions, resolve cross-discipline design conflicts, and drive technically sound solutions under schedule and cost constraints.
• Proven ability to interpret, decompose, and flow down complex system requirements into subsystem, component, and interface requirements from concept through qualification and fielded product.
• Strong working knowledge of systems engineering processes and the hardware product lifecycle, including requirements management, system architecture, functional allocation, interface control, verification and validation, configuration management, change control, and hardware integration.
• Demonstrated experience with Safety, Reliability & Maintainability engineering, including FMEA/FMECA, hazard analysis, reliability assessment, and identification of safety-critical or single-point failures.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical reviews and communicate complex technical issues and decisions to engineering teams, Program Managers, customers, and senior government or industry stakeholders.
• Proven ability to identify and mitigate technical risks and lead trade studies and decision analysis throughout concept, detailed design, development, qualification, and field support.
• Strong leadership and mentoring skills, with the ability to guide multidisciplinary teams and establish disciplined systems engineering practices without substituting process or tools for engineering judgment.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline; Master's degree preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in turbine engine, turbomachinery, propulsion, or power-system design and development within the aerospace or defense industry, with significant experience providing technical leadership.

Work Environment/Physical Requirements:

• Office and/or manufacturing environment.
• Ability to sit and stand for long periods of time.
• Ability to perform repetitive motion (keyboarding, mouse, phones, rotating wrist, using tools/equipment).

Travel Requirements: Yes, if applicable.

From: Kratos Defense