FAA ARD Senior Systems Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

A3 Technology, Inc. has an immediate opening for a Senior Systems Engineer to join our Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) team. The position will provide engineering and technical expertise in support of the development and evolution of enterprise-level strategies for the National Airspace System (NAS).

The successful candidate will support FAA engineering organizations responsible for defining future NAS capabilities across multiple operational and technical domains, including communications and infrastructure, navigation, surveillance, weather and aeronautical information, flight processing and traffic flow, new entrants, and flight deck systems.

This position requires broad knowledge of the existing NAS, its operational and technical architecture, and the relationships among major NAS systems and services. The engineer will apply systems and enterprise engineering principles to assess current capabilities, develop baseline and future-state engineering artifacts, identify dependencies and gaps, and support development of strategies, roadmaps, requirements, models, and investment priorities that guide the evolution of the NAS.

The specific organizational assignment may evolve based on FAA priorities. The engineer may provide support at the division level, to individual engineering domains, or across multiple branches and technical areas.

Responsibilities:

• Provide senior systems engineering and subject matter expertise supporting the development of future engineering strategies for NAS operational and technical domains.
• Assess existing NAS systems, services, capabilities, interfaces, and infrastructure to establish and maintain accurate baseline engineering representations of the current environment.
• Apply knowledge of NAS enterprise architecture, including the FAA's current enterprise architecture framework and associated models, to evaluate the relationship between current-state capabilities and planned future-state concepts.
• Develop and maintain engineering artifacts supporting current-state and future-state architectures, operational concepts, system relationships, interfaces, dependencies, and capability evolution.
• Support development and refinement of enterprise roadmaps, engineering requirements, architecture models, and transition strategies based on approved engineering objectives.
• Analyze proposed changes to NAS systems and services to identify technical dependencies, integration challenges, capability gaps, risks, and opportunities.
• Evaluate the implications of emerging technologies, new operational concepts, and modernization initiatives across multiple NAS domains.
• Support engineering assessments of alternatives and provide technically supported recommendations to FAA leadership regarding future NAS capabilities and modernization approaches.
• Collaborate with FAA organizations and Lines of Business, including acquisition, operational, safety, research, and engineering organizations, to promote consistency among enterprise engineering strategies and implementation activities.
• Coordinate with industry stakeholders to understand emerging aviation technologies, standards, architectures, and engineering approaches that may affect future NAS evolution.
• Support FAA participation in industry, standards-development, and international technical forums, which may include organizations such as RTCA, ICAO, and AEEC.
• Provide engineering input to development of enterprise roadmaps, requirements, architecture models, investment and funding priorities, and research or prototype activities.
• Evaluate operational and technical performance information from implemented NAS capabilities to identify lessons learned and inform future engineering strategies.
• Prepare technical analyses, briefings, white papers, engineering recommendations, and decision-support materials for FAA technical and management audiences.
• Facilitate coordination among engineering disciplines and technical domains to identify cross-domain impacts and ensure that proposed strategies consider the NAS as an integrated enterprise.

Skills Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering from ABET accredited college or university and 15-20 years of relevant experience or master’s degree in a related field and 12-17 years of relevant experience.
• Extensive knowledge of the National Airspace System, including major operational capabilities, systems, services, infrastructure, and the relationships among NAS technical domains.
• Demonstrated experience applying systems engineering principles to complex, highly integrated systems or systems-of-systems.
• Demonstrated experience interpreting and applying ATMSP enterprise architecture products to analyze NAS current-state and future-state capabilities, system relationships, dependencies, and modernization strategies.
• Experience interpreting and applying FAA enterprise architecture information, models, frameworks, or equivalent enterprise-level engineering artifacts.
• Knowledge of the FAA's current NAS enterprise architecture and modernization environment, including the ability to use architecture information to understand current-state capabilities, future-state objectives, system relationships, and transition dependencies.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate As-Is and To-Be architectures and identify capability gaps, technical dependencies, integration issues, risks, and transition considerations.
• Experience developing or contributing to engineering strategies, enterprise roadmaps, architecture products, requirements, operational concepts, or other technical planning artifacts.
• Ability to perform engineering analysis across organizational and technical boundaries rather than focusing exclusively on a single system or engineering discipline.
• Ability to evaluate complex technical information and translate findings into clear recommendations for both engineering and management audiences.
• Strong technical writing skills, including preparation of engineering analyses, technical papers, briefings, recommendations, and decision-support documentation.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with engineers, operational personnel, program managers, acquisition organizations, and senior technical stakeholders.
• Strong verbal communication and facilitation skills, including the ability to lead or support technical discussions involving multiple organizations and engineering disciplines.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications used to develop technical analyses, briefings, and engineering documentation.

Skills Preferred:

• Direct experience supporting FAA NAS engineering, enterprise architecture, modernization, or strategic planning activities.
• Broad technical experience spanning more than one NAS domain, such as communications, navigation, surveillance, automation/flight processing, traffic flow management, weather, aeronautical information, flight deck systems, or emerging/new entrant operations.
• Experience supporting FAA NextGen initiatives, NAS modernization programs, or development of future NAS concepts and capabilities.
• Experience developing or evaluating enterprise-level requirements and tracing relationships among operational needs, capabilities, systems, services, and architecture elements.
• Experience with Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), architecture modeling, digital engineering, or systems modeling tools and methodologies.
• Experience supporting technology assessments, alternatives analyses, research initiatives, demonstrations, prototypes, or concept maturation activities.
• Familiarity with FAA acquisition and investment planning processes and the relationship between engineering strategies, program requirements, research activities, and funding priorities.
• Experience working with multiple FAA Lines of Business or organizations, particularly in roles requiring coordination between engineering, operations, acquisition, safety, and research stakeholders.
• Familiarity with aviation standards-development and international organizations such as RTCA, ICAO, AEEC, or similar technical forums.
• Knowledge of emerging aviation technologies and operational concepts, including information-centric services, advanced automation, new entrants, increasingly integrated air-ground systems, and other technologies affecting future NAS architecture.

Additionally, US Citizenship or documented proof of eligibility to work in the US is a must. Upon receiving a conditional offer of employment, candidates will undergo a Government investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for Government clearance. Verification of past employment, education and references is also required. It is imperative that candidates be either a US citizen or a current green card holder with the last 3 consecutive years as a resident of the US.

The salary range for positions is $50,000 to $175,000. This range is provided as a general guideline and should not be interpreted as a guarantee of compensation. Actual salary offers will be determined based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the specific responsibilities of the position, the candidate’s education, experience, location, knowledge, skills, and abilities. In addition, compensation may be influenced by applicable Federal Government contract labor categories and established contract wage rates.

At A3 Technology, Inc., we take pride in being an Equal Opportunity Employer (EEO) and Affirmative Action (AA) employer. We're committed to considering all qualified candidates for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, protected veteran status, disability, national origin, genetic information or any other protected status.