{"schemaVersion":"jobsearcher.job.v1","id":"36a913ea0b27a24a65243131","url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/36a913ea0b27a24a65243131","canonicalUrl":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/36a913ea0b27a24a65243131","title":"Program Chief Engineer","description":"Position Title: Program Chief Engineer\nRequisition ID: 1836\nPosition Location: Fairfax, VA OR Sterling, VA\nPosition Reports To: Technical Fellow\nSupervises Others: No\n\nAt Trident Systems Space Electronic Systems (SES) division, we believe in the power of using strong engineering principles to drive innovation and solve complex problems. We foster a culture of rigorous engineering and continuous improvement, leveraging the full knowledge of our organization through collaborative product development processes that include design and peer reviews. We combine our expertise in space electronics with right-sized development processes to create innovative, high-performance space-based electronic systems that meet our customers' evolving needs.\n\nWe are a mission partner supporting DoD, Intelligence Community, and Civil space customers. We develop complex, radiation effects mitigated, designs that balance competing requirements in modern space programs, delivering cutting-edge solutions that enable our customers to achieve more in space.\n\nPosition Summary\n\nThe Program Chief Engineer is the program’s technical leader, responsible for ensuring the system is designed, integrated, tested, and delivered to meet all technical, cost, and schedule commitments. This role provides day to day engineering direction, drives key technical decisions, and ensures alignment with product strategy and engineering standards. Success in this role is reflected in predictable engineering execution, early and proactive risk management, strong cross team alignment, and delivery of a fully verified, technically compliant solution that meets customer and program objectives for mission critical space software defined systems.\n\nDuties and Responsibilities\n\nLead all technical aspects of the program and serve as the primary technical point of contact.\nDrive requirements development, system integration, and verification activities.\nManage technical risks and issues with timely, actionable mitigation plans.\nPrepare and conduct engineering reviews and support customer technical discussions.\nLead customer-facing Program Reviews including System Requirement Review (SRR), Preliminary Design Review (PDR), and Critical Design Reviews (CDR).\nEnsure engineering execution supports overall program cost, schedule, and performance goals.\nCoordinate with engineering functional teams on staffing, standards, and engineering processes.\nProvide clear communication of technical status to program and engineering leadership.\nAbility to support travel or off-site work, as needed.\nPerform other duties as assigned.\n\nRequired Qualifications\n\nBachelor’s degree in engineering or a related field; advanced degree preferred.\n12+ years of engineering experience (OR 10+ years with a graduate degree) with demonstrated technical leadership.\nExperience in delivering aerospace, defense, communications, or other mission critical hardware systems.\nBackground in project engineering, systems engineering, integration, and verification.\nExperience supporting or leading complex development programs.\nStrong communication, planning, and problem-solving skills.\n\nPreferred Qualifications\n\nExperience delivering radiation mitigated and fault tolerant software-defined or reconfigurable processing architectures.\nExperience in high-rate production operations enterprises.\nBackground in rad-hard processors, FPGA architectures, GPUs, or SDRs.\nBackground in cyber security including secure boot, cryptography, or hardened OS.\n\nPay Information\n\nFull-Time Salary Range: $129,000 - $240,000\n\nPlease Note: Actual compensation offered will be determined based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience, skills, education, certifications, internal equity, business considerations, and geographic location where applicable.\n\nBenefits\n\nHired applicants may be eligible for benefits including but not limited to:\n\nHealth benefits\nMedical\nDental\nVision\nBasic life with AD&D\nShort term disability\nLong term disability\nAncillary (Voluntary life with AD&D, accident, critical illness, hospital, and pet)\nSpending accounts (HSA, FSA, and DCFSA)\nPaid time off\nHolidays\n401(k) (including company match)\nTuition reimbursement\nLeaves (Parental, maternity, and military)\nAnnual discretionary bonus (for eligible roles)\n\nTrident Systems reserves the right to change or assign other duties to this position.\n\nTrident Solutions is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. To request reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact recruiting@tridsys.com.\n\nPay Transparency: The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information.","company":"Trident Systems","rawCompany":"trident systems","city":"Sterling","state":"VA","isRemote":false,"isActive":false,"createdAt":"2026-09-10T10:43:02.685Z","occupations":[{"code":"11-9041.00","title":"Architectural and Engineering Managers","slug":"architectural-and-engineering-managers"},{"code":"17-2199.00","title":"Engineers, All Other","slug":"engineers-all-other"},{"code":"17-2072.00","title":"Electronics Engineers, Except Computer","slug":"electronics-engineers-except-computer"}],"industries":[{"code":"927110","title":"Space Research and Technology","slug":"space-research-and-technology"},{"code":"336414","title":"Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing","slug":"guided-missile-and-space-vehicle-manufacturing"},{"code":"334511","title":"Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing","slug":"search-detection-navigation-guidance-aeronautical-and-nautical-system-and-instrument-manufacturing"}],"jobPosting":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"JobPosting","title":"Program Chief Engineer","description":"Position Title: Program Chief Engineer\nRequisition ID: 1836\nPosition Location: Fairfax, VA OR Sterling, VA\nPosition Reports To: Technical Fellow\nSupervises Others: No\n\nAt Trident Systems Space Electronic Systems (SES) division, we believe in the power of using strong engineering principles to drive innovation and solve complex problems. We foster a culture of rigorous engineering and continuous improvement, leveraging the full knowledge of our organization through collaborative product development processes that include design and peer reviews. We combine our expertise in space electronics with right-sized development processes to create innovative, high-performance space-based electronic systems that meet our customers' evolving needs.\n\nWe are a mission partner supporting DoD, Intelligence Community, and Civil space customers. We develop complex, radiation effects mitigated, designs that balance competing requirements in modern space programs, delivering cutting-edge solutions that enable our customers to achieve more in space.\n\nPosition Summary\n\nThe Program Chief Engineer is the program’s technical leader, responsible for ensuring the system is designed, integrated, tested, and delivered to meet all technical, cost, and schedule commitments. This role provides day to day engineering direction, drives key technical decisions, and ensures alignment with product strategy and engineering standards. Success in this role is reflected in predictable engineering execution, early and proactive risk management, strong cross team alignment, and delivery of a fully verified, technically compliant solution that meets customer and program objectives for mission critical space software defined systems.\n\nDuties and Responsibilities\n\nLead all technical aspects of the program and serve as the primary technical point of contact.\nDrive requirements development, system integration, and verification activities.\nManage technical risks and issues with timely, actionable mitigation plans.\nPrepare and conduct engineering reviews and support customer technical discussions.\nLead customer-facing Program Reviews including System Requirement Review (SRR), Preliminary Design Review (PDR), and Critical Design Reviews (CDR).\nEnsure engineering execution supports overall program cost, schedule, and performance goals.\nCoordinate with engineering functional teams on staffing, standards, and engineering processes.\nProvide clear communication of technical status to program and engineering leadership.\nAbility to support travel or off-site work, as needed.\nPerform other duties as assigned.\n\nRequired Qualifications\n\nBachelor’s degree in engineering or a related field; advanced degree preferred.\n12+ years of engineering experience (OR 10+ years with a graduate degree) with demonstrated technical leadership.\nExperience in delivering aerospace, defense, communications, or other mission critical hardware systems.\nBackground in project engineering, systems engineering, integration, and verification.\nExperience supporting or leading complex development programs.\nStrong communication, planning, and problem-solving skills.\n\nPreferred Qualifications\n\nExperience delivering radiation mitigated and fault tolerant software-defined or reconfigurable processing architectures.\nExperience in high-rate production operations enterprises.\nBackground in rad-hard processors, FPGA architectures, GPUs, or SDRs.\nBackground in cyber security including secure boot, cryptography, or hardened OS.\n\nPay Information\n\nFull-Time Salary Range: $129,000 - $240,000\n\nPlease Note: Actual compensation offered will be determined based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience, skills, education, certifications, internal equity, business considerations, and geographic location where applicable.\n\nBenefits\n\nHired applicants may be eligible for benefits including but not limited to:\n\nHealth benefits\nMedical\nDental\nVision\nBasic life with AD&D\nShort term disability\nLong term disability\nAncillary (Voluntary life with AD&D, accident, critical illness, hospital, and pet)\nSpending accounts (HSA, FSA, and DCFSA)\nPaid time off\nHolidays\n401(k) (including company match)\nTuition reimbursement\nLeaves (Parental, maternity, and military)\nAnnual discretionary bonus (for eligible roles)\n\nTrident Systems reserves the right to change or assign other duties to this position.\n\nTrident Solutions is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. To request reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact recruiting@tridsys.com.\n\nPay Transparency: The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information.","datePosted":"2026-09-10T10:43:02.685Z","dateModified":"2026-09-10T10:43:02.685Z","hiringOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Trident Systems","sameAs":"https://jobsearcher.com"},"jobLocation":{"@type":"Place","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressLocality":"Sterling","addressRegion":"VA","addressCountry":"US"}},"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"JobSearcher","value":"36a913ea0b27a24a65243131"},"url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/36a913ea0b27a24a65243131"}}