Project Engineer

Description

Position Description

Position Title: Project Engineer

Job Location: In person in Curtis Bay, MD 

Job Type: Full Time

Salary Range: $108,160 - $156,000

Position Description:

At BlackSea Technologies, we don't just innovate; we revolutionize.  

We are a close-knit team of creative and innovative thinkers specializing in full lifecycle development of cutting-edge maritime technology. At BlackSea, you won't just find a job; you'll find a community of experts who aspire to solve diverse and complex challenges. Be part of a company where your ideas matter, your expertise is valued, and your contributions make a real impact. Together, we are not just sailing; we are charting a course to push boundaries of what's possible.

BlackSea is hiring multiple Project Engineers to lead and technically own multidisciplinary engineering projects. The Project Engineer is responsible for translating project objectives and requirements into an executable technical approach and carrying that effort from initial definition through design, procurement, integration, testing, and delivery. The Project Engineer may personally perform substantial portions of the engineering work on smaller projects, or lead and coordinate a multidisciplinary team on larger efforts.

List of responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

Duties required for the Project Engineer include coordinating and technically leading work involving some combination of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Autonomy & Controls Engineering, Software Engineering, Platform Systems Integration, Naval Architecture, Manufacturing, testing, and possibly including supply chain vendors and subcontractors.

Project Engineers will translate a project into an actionable engineering plan. Responsibilities include:

 • Defining the engineering scope of work

 • Breaking the work into technical tasks

 • Identifying required engineering disciplines

 • Estimating engineering effort with input from functional leads

 • Identifying required skills and resources 

 • Defining technical milestones

 • Identifying procurement and long-lead requirements

 • Establishing engineering dependencies

 • Identifying critical technical decisions

 • Supporting development and maintenance of the engineering schedule

 • Tracking engineering progress

 • Identifying technical schedule risks

 • Representing the project as a customer-facing technical representative when appropriate

 • Shepherding the project through fabrication, assembly, installation, hardware/software integration, troubleshooting, validation, field testing, customer demonstrations, and technical acceptance

 • Adjusting the technical plan as project conditions change

The Project Engineer will "own" the engineering schedule, while the Program Manager owns the overall program schedule.

Project Engineers will make or recommend decisions involving topics such as weight versus strength, power availability versus payload capability, performance versus cost, schedule versus design complexity, standard-product modification versus payload modification, commercial component versus custom design, redundancy versus weight/cost, thermal performance versus packaging, mechanical packaging versus maintainability, software solution versus hardware solution, vendor capability versus internal development, and technical risk versus schedule. 

Project Engineers own the integrated system solution, including the technical baseline and any cross-disciplinary trade-offs, along with the technical execution, project engineering schedule, and technical risk, but can rely on functional engineering personnel as needed, including Mechanical, Electrical, Software, and Integration Engineers, to provide deep technical competency, methods, technical practices, discipline standards, reusable standards and lessons-learned, and discipline-specific reviews.

Project Engineers do not need to perform as the deepest technical expert in every discipline. They should instead possess enough technical breadth to understand the major issues in each discipline, recognize when specialist expertise is required, ask appropriate technical questions, evaluate the impact of decisions across disciplines, identify interface problems, resolve competing technical requirements, and understand enough of specialists' recommendations to make system-level decisions.

Travel Required

Up to 3 trips a year/3-5 days a trip.

Requirements

Required Skills/Education

•  Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, Ocean Engineering, Systems Engineering, or another relevant engineering discipline.
•  5+ years of experience leading or owning multidisciplinary engineering efforts involving the design, integration, test, and delivery of complex electromechanical systems.

 • Strong engineering fundamentals in at least one discipline. 

 • Demonstrated ability to work across multiple engineering disciplines. 

 • Ability to understand mechanical, electrical, controls, software, and system-interface issues sufficiently to lead integrated technical work. 

 • Experience leading projects from requirements through design, integration, test, and delivery. 

 • Strong technical decision-making and problem-solving skills. 

 • Ability to make engineering tradeoffs involving performance, cost, schedule, weight, power, reliability, and risk. 

 • Ability to develop and manage engineering plans and technical schedules. 

 • Ability to estimate resource requirements. 

 • Strong technical communication skills. 

 • Strong ownership characteristics and a technical curiosity to understand adjacent disciplines rather than treat them as someone else's problem.

 • Good judgment, to distinguish what requires deep analysis, what can leverage standard practice, what is sufficiently low-risk to move quickly, and what requires escalation.

 • Decisiveness to be able to make technical decisions with incomplete but adequate information.

 • Ability to work directly with customers, vendors, and suppliers. 

 • Ability to lead engineers without necessarily having direct supervisory authority. 

 • Ability to operate effectively in a matrix organization. 

 • Strong written documentation and technical-review skills. 

Desired Skills/Education (but not required to be considered for hire)

Experience with:

 • Marine or unmanned systems; 

 • Electrical power systems; 

 • Networking and communications; 

 • Sensors and payload integration; 

 • Embedded controls; 

 • Autonomous systems; 

 • Mechanical packaging; 

 • Environmental qualification; 

 • Field testing; 

 • Customer technical reviews

 • Requirements management; 

 • Configuration management; 

 • Engineering-change processes; 

 • Supplier technical management; 

 • Government/defense programs;