At Areté, we are on the forefront of utilizing innovative solutions, with great minds from all backgrounds, to help solve the nation’s most complex security challenges. We strive for an inclusive, collaborative team environment that approaches differences as opportunities for innovation and excellence. As an employee-owned company, we foster an atmosphere that propels diverse career opportunities and professional growth.
Discover your future with us.
We are seeking a dynamic Sr. Project Engineer with a passion for bringing products to life in a customer useable configuration. We are looking for a Technical Principal Project Engineer to act as a critical bridge between design engineering, production and Program management. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a cutting-edge team at a new facility. Areté is seeking a Project Engineer to support the Maritime Airborne Systems Sector, providing integrated technical, programmatic, schedule, and risk management across complex defense programs. This role operates at the intersection of engineering execution and program management, ensuring alignment between technical performance, cost, and schedule objectives. The selected candidate will contribute across the full program lifecycle, including program execution, integrated master scheduling, risk and opportunity management, manpower planning, and proposal development. The role requires familiarity with the Department of Defense acquisition framework, including BAA, RFI, and RFP processes, as well as experience supporting DoD contracts and procurement activities. This position requires strong communication skills and the ability to prepare and deliver technical and programmatic briefings to both internal leadership and external stakeholders, including customers and government representatives. This position will be based at our Healdsburg, CA office and is classified as a full-time, exempt, non-supervisory position.
Key Responsibilities:
Technical & Program Execution
- Drive planning, execution, and delivery of engineering programs across design, development, and production teams
- Collaborate with technical leads to define scope, requirements, deliverables, and success criteria
- Lead cross-functional execution to meet cost, schedule, and technical performance objectives
- Support New Product Introduction (NPI) and production build activities
Schedule & Cost Management
- Develop and maintain Integrated Master Schedules (IMS) using MS Project
- Support Estimate-to-Complete (ETC) development and ongoing financial tracking
- Utilize financial and labor tracking tools (e.g., Cognos, Costpoint) to monitor program performance
Risk & Opportunity Management
- Identify, track, and mitigate program risks, issues, and opportunities
- Develop and maintain risk registers, mitigation plans, and supporting analysis (e.g., risk cubes, burn-down/waterfall views)
Technical Leadership & Reviews
- Provide technical direction to engineering teams
- Lead and support internal and external gate reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, etc.)
- Prepare and deliver program reviews, audits, and customer briefings (PowerPoint-based)
Business Development & Proposals
- Support technical and cost proposal development
- Contribute to capture efforts, including requirements shaping and solution definition
Process Improvement
- Champion continuous improvement across program execution processes, tools, and team collaboration
We have an impressive range of benefits, programs, and perks that we offer:
Generous PTO and Leave Times
- Flextime Scheduling
- Bereavement
- Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Paid Parental Leave
Financial Benefits
- Company-funded 5% contribution to your 401(k) retirement plan
- Company-funded 5% contribution to your Employee Stock Ownership Plan
- Continuing Education Assistance
Health, Medical, and Wellness Benefits
- Medical Insurance
- Dental & Vision Insurance
- Life Insurance and Long-Term Disability (LTD)
- Vision Reimbursement
What We Value:
- Creativity and innovation in solving challenges
- Integrity and responsibility in all actions
- Collaboration across teams and specialties
- Responsiveness in fast-paced environments
- Passion for national security and excellence
Experiences and background we look for (Required Skills):
- Experience running an engineering technical team
- Technical direction to the engineering team
- Lead engineering team through design reviews both internal and external customers
- Schedule creation and maintenance
- Work with team to create an estimate to complete
- Risk creation and updates
- New production Introduction or production build experience
- Documentation of the product and process
- Ability to get secret clearance
Nice to have (Preferred Skills):
- Bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering, or related field. Or 10 years of project engineering for a technical engineering team.
- Proven experience in design development for electro-optical systems and gimbals.
- Currently hold a Secret or Top Secret clearance
- Proficiency in tools and practices.
- Microsoft Project
- Microsoft Excel, Outlook
- Jira
- CostPoint MES
The salary range for this role is $195,000 to $215,000; however, Arete considers several factors when extending an offer of employment, including but not limited to: the position and associated responsibilities, a candidate’s work experience, education/training, and key skills.
Other Considerations
Areté is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity and nondiscrimination, and we believe every person has the right to be treated with fairness, dignity, and equal consideration.
Areté is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.
U.S. citizenship is required to meet position eligibility.
Successful passage of a criminal background screen is required to meet position eligibility.
Selected applicants will be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.
Areté will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring.
Successful passage of a Department of Transportation (DOT) drug test is required to meet position eligibility.
If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran, you have the right to request an accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our website because of your
Skills Required
- Experience running an engineering technical team
- Experience providing technical direction to an engineering team
- Experience leading engineering teams through internal and external design reviews
- Experience creating and maintaining schedules
- Experience developing estimates to complete with engineering teams
- Experience creating and updating risk management documentation
- New Product Introduction or production build experience
- Experience documenting products and processes
- Ability to obtain a Secret security clearance
- Bachelor's or master's degree in engineering or a related field, or 10 years of project engineering experience
- Experience with electro-optical systems and gimbals design development
- Currently hold a Secret or Top Secret security clearance
- Proficiency with Microsoft Project, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Jira, and CostPoint MES
What We Do
Areté, an employee-owned company, is an advanced science and engineering company that provides innovative solutions to the most challenging technical problems faced by the United States Defense and Intelligence agencies. Areté is derived from the Greek word “ἀρέτη”, meaning the pursuit of excellence and the achievement of maximum performance. Areté was founded in 1976 by five scientists, tasked by the DoD to help solve the challenge of detecting weak signals in heavy clutter over very wide areas. The signatures involved in this work were so weak that any advancement in signal processing algorithms demanded a new approach and understanding of the underlying fundamentals affecting the sensors and signal phenomena in the environments of interest. This first-principles-of-physics approach has been a hallmark of Areté’s development programs for the past 40 years Areté now works across the electromagnetic spectrum. We develop sensors and the associated signal processing algorithms necessary for the extraction and interpretation of data for systems operating under water, in the atmosphere, and in space. With our emphasis on enhanced signal processing and real-time executable software, Areté is able to improve the performance of existing sensor systems at fractions of the cost and time to operations of replacement systems. We work directly with customers and partners seeking maximum performance. Building on our expertise in detection theory we will continue to exploit the contextual, spatial, spectral, and temporal characteristics of data, incorporating them into our signal processing algorithms. These robust algorithms will continue to enable Areté to rapidly deliver innovative solutions to the ever evolving challenges of our customers.
