Systems Engineer

Department: Aircraft

Location: California

Compensation: $140K – $200K • Offers Equity

Employment Type: FullTime

Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results.

The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic.

Our aircraft will operate in non-segregated airspace, over populated areas, and in proximity to civilian aircraft, other swarming assets, terrain, and airborne intruders including threats. We need someone who can support the architecture that holds it all together, from requirements through integration and flight.

What You'll Do

• Maintain and refine the system architecture, translating mission and operational requirements into clear technical specifications

• Focus in one of several domains including avionics, flight controls, propulsion, landing, software, mission systems, and separation from traffic, terrain, or weather

• Develop and maintain system requirements, interface control documents (ICDs), and functional decomposition across aircraft subsystems

• Lead cross-discipline integration to ensure that subsystem interfaces are well-defined and validated

• Develop and implement the digital thread that supports configuration management

• Perform system-level trade studies and participate in design reviews to drive architecture decisions that balance performance, risk, schedule, and mass constraints

• Support hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) integration testing including investigation and resolution of anomalies

• Coordinate with ground and flight test teams to define system verification plans and close requirements through analysis and test artifacts

• Identify, track, and mitigate technical risk across the program lifecycle, escalating issues with data-driven recommendations

• Contribute to airworthiness and flight authorization documentation

What We're Looking For

• 7+ years of systems engineering experience on aerospace, defense, or UAS platforms

• Familiarity with authoring, negotiating, managing, and maintaining system requirements using modern digital tools (e.g. Jama, Polarion, JIRA, etc.) for software and hardware

• Ability to write clear, verifiable, and testable system requirements using industry-standard patterns

• Strong command of model-based systems engineering (MBSE) principles including modeling, analysis, and simulation with digital connections to requirements

• Deep experience with systems modeling using SysML (e.g. Cameo)

• Hands-on experience driving integration across multi-disciplinary hardware and software teams

• Experience maintaining configuration control and digital continuity across models, requirements, and verification artifacts

• Familiarity with systems verification and validation methodologies (test, analysis, inspection, demonstration) including digital traceability to requirements

• Ability to define, validate, refine, and verify requirements and system architectures

• US person status required

Nice to Have

• Background in flight control, avionics, or propulsion subsystem integration

• Experience with ARP4754 in a vehicle or platform development program

• Exposure to defense programs, military airworthiness, or flight authorization processes including MIL-HDBK-516

• Active security clearance

ITAR requirement

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability.

What We Offer

• Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company

• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience

• Medical, dental, vision, and 401k

• PTO and paid sick leave

• Monthly wellness stipend

• Daily catered lunch (office)

• Paid parental leave

• Direct impact on a critical national security mission

• A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems