Description
AcqCentric is seeking a highly skilled Principal Engineering to provide engineering oversight for target system payloads and countermeasure development. In this role, you will act as a trusted advisor to the program office, delivering critical assessments of prime contractor designs, technical plans, and target instrumentation layouts. You will serve as a technical anchor during major program milestones—from System Requirements through Product Acceptance—while seamlessly collaborating across multiple organizations, modeling teams, cost analysts, and schedulers to ensure items are delivered accurately and on time.
What You'll Be Doing:
Engineering Oversight & Design Assessment
Expert Advisory: Serve as the technical expert on payload and countermeasure requirements development, analysis, design, qualification, and fielding.
Independent Evaluation: Review and provide assessments of prime contractor designs, plans, reports, and technical procedures.
Instrumentation Analysis: Evaluate target instrumentation requirements, physical layouts, component selection, and testing methodologies
Program Milestone & Lifecycle Support
Milestone Reviews: Provide technical evaluation and engineering support during all major program milestones (including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRB, MRB, and PAR).
Cross-Agency Coordination: Answer technical inquiries from external MDA organizations and lead multi-disciplinary Technical Interchange Meetings (TIMs).
Program Management & Operations Collaboration
Cost Estimation: Provide technical assessments to the cost analysis team to ensure accurate program management budget estimates.
Schedule Alignment: Partner with the program scheduler to track delivery deadlines and proactively keep leadership advised of status.
Requirements
What Required Skills You'll Bring:
- Security Clearance: Active DoD Secret clearance
- Education & Experience: Master's degree in STEM and 12+ years supporting missile defense or large-scale, complex DoD programs.
- Program Execution: Experience managing end-to-end program lifecycles, including the development, testing, and fielding of complex systems.
- Adaptability: Thrive in a fast-paced environment where priorities change quickly.
- Multitasking: Handle multiple urgent tasks at once without losing focus.
- Travel: Able to support travel request up to 20% of the time.
What Desired Skills You'll Bring:
- Understanding of IR/RCS signatures for flight objects and countermeasures.
- Experience with material properties and material property measurements.
- Knowledge of real-world threat systems and how they impact target designs.
- Have an understanding of MDA flight test requirements and apply that to the payload hardware development.
- Technical proposal development and evaluation.
Skills Required
- Active DoD Secret security clearance
- Master's degree in STEM
- 12+ years supporting missile defense or large-scale, complex DoD programs
- Experience managing end-to-end program lifecycles, including development, testing, and fielding of complex systems
- Ability to adapt in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities
- Ability to manage multiple urgent tasks simultaneously
- Ability to travel up to 20% of the time
- Understanding of IR/RCS signatures for flight objects and countermeasures
- Experience with material properties and material property measurements
- Knowledge of real-world threat systems and their impact on target designs
- Understanding of MDA flight-test requirements applied to payload hardware development
- Technical proposal development and evaluation experience
What We Do
AcqCentric is a Huntsville-based, woman- and veteran-owned small business that supports U.S. defense agencies and federal mission partners. Its work spans systems and software engineering, cybersecurity, acquisition and program management, warfighter support, and life-cycle sustainment. The company helps customers develop, test, field, and sustain critical equipment and services, with a focus on missile defense, systems integration, and operational readiness across demanding national-security environments.
