Chief Engineer

Chief Engineer

The Chief Engineer (CE) is the senior technical authority for their division's aircraft simulation programs, responsible for establishing, maintaining, and assuring the technical integrity, performance fidelity, and qualification readiness of full flight simulators (FFS), flight training devices (FTD), and associated modeling and simulation systems. The CE owns the technical roadmap for their division, driving strategic technology development to support next-generation simulation capabilities.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Serve as the design authority for system architectures, interface control documents, and program-level technical baselines.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards, configuration governance, model fidelity criteria, and verification & validation practices.
• Approve all product technical releases, waivers to engineering standards, and closure of major verification anomalies.
• Act as the technical signatory for qualification and compliance artifacts submitted to regulators and customers.
• Interface with Program Management, Software Engineering, Systems Integration, Test Engineering, Hardware Design, Supply/OEM, Regulatory Affairs, and Customer Technical Representatives.
• Provide escalated technical recommendations to the VP Engineering and the Program Executive Committee as needed.
• Develop and maintain a prioritized technical roadmap and advocate for critical tools, laboratory assets, and flight test data resources needed for fidelity and verification.
• Provide Input to the Configuration Control Board (CCB) and ensure comprehensive, traceable configuration management across the program lifecycle.
• Mentor lead project engineers and technical leads.
• Drive continuous improvement in modeling fidelity, test methods, and digital engineering practices.
• Promote rigorous engineering discipline, root-cause analysis, and transparent decision-making across technical teams.
• Participate in industry working groups, standards bodies, and technical conferences to maintain awareness of emerging technologies and best practices.
• Ensure handling of OEM and customer reference data follows contractual, export control, and IP protection obligations.
• Ensure access to sensitive data is controlled and logged.
• Approve system architecture and partitioning across mechanical, electrical, and software domains.
• Review requirements decomposition, MBSE models, and interface control documentation at each review milestone.
• Oversee integration plans, system-level test plans, correlation activities, and verification campaigns.
• Support design reviews, acceptance events, and regulatory audits as the division's senior technical representative.
• Deliver configuration baseline, technical release notes, and waiver/deviation documentation.
• Deliver technical minutes from reviews (TRRs, PDRs, CDRs) and key technical decisions.
• Identify, track, and mitigate technical risks.
• Maintain the program technical baseline and manage change through the CCB process.
• Ensure change proposals include impact assessments (performance, schedule, cost, qualification risk) and updated verification plans.
• Ensure adherence to quality standards, proper documentation, and complete technical traceability.
• Drive root-cause analysis and resolution of complex technical issues discovered during integration, testing, or customer operations.
• Support bid and proposal activity with technical assessments, feasibility reviews, preliminary architectures, and risk assessments.
• Approve proposal artifacts including Requirements Traceability Matrices (RTM/RTVM), Compliance Matrices, Preliminary Systems Models, and Initial Design Documents.
• Approve engineering bids.
• Ensure that proposal commitments are achievable and aligned with engineering standards and technical capabilities.

Minimum Education: Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related technical field. Advanced degree preferred.

Minimum Experience: 10+ years in flight simulation, aerospace systems engineering, real-time simulation frameworks, or comparable technical systems. Experience interacting with regulators (FAA/EASA/military) and leading qualification or compliance activities. Demonstrated leadership in system architecture, modeling & simulation, or simulator integration. Experience with configuration control, integrated test planning, and technical governance. Experience with MBSE and digital engineering preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

• Experience with MBSE, requirements decomposition, system partitioning, and multi-domain architectural reasoning.
• Technical experience in flight simulation for pilot training.
• Knowledge of Part 60, CS-FSTD, military qualification standards, QTG processes, and flight model correlation methodologies.
• Proficiency in real-time simulation architectures, software frameworks, hardware I/O, and/or DevSecOps.
• Understanding of OEM datasets, aircraft system data packages, and validation processes.
• Ability to serve as authoritative technical decision-maker and chair governance forums.
• Experience with risk management, configuration control, and technical review leadership.
• Skilled in mentoring senior engineers and developing technical competencies across the organization.
• Experience in communicating with regulators, OEMs, customers, and internal engineering teams.
• Ability to produce and defend technical artifacts, qualification packages, and architecture decisions.
• Effective collaborator with cross-functional teams in a matrix organization.

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those that must be met and/or encountered by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand; walk and reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus. While performing the duties of the Job, the employee is occasionally exposed to moving mechanical parts and vibration. The noise level in the work is usually moderate.

FlightSafety is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Vet/Disabled. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or disability.