Lab & Integration Lead

About the Team
Platform Engineering & Integration (PEI) is the Chief Engineering integration function that brings strong subsystems together into a deployable platform. PEI owns the seams: platform architecture coherence, cross-domain interfaces, integration risk, verification strategy, configuration maturity and readiness evidence across multiple autonomous airpower programs. The Platform Integration pillar owns the integration roadmap and its sequencing, the integration environments, the integrated build, and readiness for test and flight. We treat laboratories and rigs as capacity, not only as usage, and the most valuable thing we can say about any environment is what it actually proves and, explicitly, what it does not.

About the Role
You will be the technical lead for the integration lab fleet behind our flagship autonomous air vehicle: software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop rigs for vehicle management, flight controls and mission systems, plus an iron bird with hydraulics, loaded actuation and power. The fleet is being built and brought up now, on dates the first-flight path depends on, and it will carry every software release through production lots.

This is a player-coach role with design authority. You will spend real time at the bench, hold the design bar for every rig, and lead a small team of lab and integration engineers. Rig build, operation and sustainment teams execute the hardware; software V&V runs qualification tests; Test owns test execution; functional teams own their LRUs. You own the lab as a system: its architecture, its configuration, its capacity and its readiness. What you build on this program becomes the lab playbook the next program inherits.

What You’ll Do

• Own the lab architecture and rig design. Define and baseline the lab architecture: rig block diagrams, lab network, HITL host and simulation, data recording, and the rig interfaces (rig-to-LRU, rig-to-sim, rig-to-ground-station). Provide design oversight of every rig build, reviewing chassis, rack, power, harness and hydraulic interface designs before material is released, so rigs are built to an architecture rather than assembled one at a time.
• Lead bring-up at the bench. Be hands-on through first light of each rig: safe-to-mate, power-on and BIT, LRU checkout, and host/sim reference-scenario runs. Debug across hardware, harness, network and software boundaries, and teach the team to do the same.
• Define what “operational” means. Own a single rig operational-readiness checklist, agreed with the build team, and run the readiness review before any rig is declared operational. Pre-define fallback configurations (engineering LRUs, predecessor rigs) and the trigger for using them when a dependency slips.
• Keep every rig under configuration control. Baseline each rig’s configuration (LRU part and serial numbers, software and firmware versions, harness revisions, sim and model versions) with Configuration Management, audit it before the first for-record run, and record as-tested configuration for every formal run. Problems are discussed against a named build, not against someone’s bench.
• Own lab capacity and the integrated lab schedule. Model rig-hours demanded against rig-hours available by month. Build and run the integrated, rig-by-week schedule across software qualification, mission systems integration, iron bird integration and flight-test support, and run the weekly Lab & Integration board that resolves conflicts and closes decisions.
• Allocate hardware to rigs. Own the LRU allocation plan, assigning engineering, qualification and flight LRUs to each rig, agreed with the avionics and mission systems teams, and keep it current as deliveries move.
• Say what each environment proves. Set rig fidelity, the simulation and model validation approach, and test data capture standards. With Platform Verification & Readiness, allocate verification between lab, aircraft and analysis so lab evidence is traceable to requirements and its limits are stated.
• Run integration on the rigs. Set integration entry and exit criteria for each software release, run daily integration triage across software, avionics, mission systems and lab issues, drive discrepancy reports to closure, and require regression after every hardware or software change. Feed the Master Integrated Test Plan and per-release integration test plans.
• Make the lab safe and accredited. Own the lab hazard analysis (hydraulics, high power, rotating machinery) with System Safety, the lab network and cyber accreditation path with Product Security, and classified lab space and accreditation with Security.
• Plan for the lots, not just first flight. Assess the rig delta for each new hardware lot, and own the sustainment, spares, calibration, obsolescence and retirement plan. Reset the capacity model at each production-lot gate.
• Lead and grow the team. Hire, mentor and lead lab and integration engineers and technicians. Set standards, work instructions and on-call norms, and build a culture of engineering ownership rather than process administration.
• Make it portable. Turn what works here into the PEI lab and integration playbook (strategy, architecture, build, bring-up, integration, closure and sustainment gates) so the next program starts from a running model instead of a cold start.

Required Qualifications

• B.S. in electrical, computer, aerospace or mechanical engineering, or a similar technical field.
• 7+ years designing, building, operating or integrating SIL, HIL, iron-bird or avionics integration labs for aircraft, missiles or space systems, including at least 2 years as the technical lead for a lab or rig team.
• Hands-on avionics and electrical integration: reading and reviewing harness drawings and pin-to-pins, MIL-DTL-38999-class connectors, safe-to-mate, aircraft power distribution, and bench instrumentation (oscilloscopes, DMMs, breakout boxes, bus analyzers).
• Working knowledge of avionics data buses and networks such as Ethernet, MIL-STD-1553, ARINC 429, RS-422/485 and CAN, and time synchronization (PTP, IRIG).
• Experience with real-time HITL host and simulation environments, plant models, I/O and data-acquisition hardware, and data recording.
• Experience running configuration control of test assets and producing as-run records for formal qualification or for-record testing.
• Proficiency in Linux and in Python or similar scripting for lab automation and data analysis.
• Ability to plan lab capacity, track long-lead procurement against an integrated master schedule, and bring problems forward while there is still time to act.
• Clear, direct communication with software, hardware, test and program leads, including running a working forum that closes decisions.
• Currently holds an active U.S. Secret security clearance and is able to obtain and maintain Top Secret.

Preferred Qualifications

• Iron bird experience, including hydraulic systems, loaded actuation, flight controls or starter-generator / power loading.
• Mission systems integration experience: EO/IR, electronic warfare, datalinks, crypto and key management, and C2 ground segments.
• Classified lab accreditation experience (RMF / ATO, JSIG) and familiarity with TEMPEST and secure lab design.
• Experience standing up a multi-rig lab from scratch with several builds in flight at once.
• Lab automation and continuous integration on HIL rigs: automated regression, test frameworks and results dashboards.
• Familiarity with MIL-STD-704, MIL-STD-461, and linking verification evidence to a system model.
• Flight test or ground test support experience on a developmental aircraft program.