Lead Systems Engineer (Supporting NASA at Johnson Space Center)

Title: Lead Systems Engineer (Supporting NASA at Johnson Space Center)

BELONG. CONNECT. GROW. with KBR.

Around here, we define the future. We are a company of innovators, thinkers, creators, explorers, volunteers, and dreamers. But we all share one goal: to improve the world responsibly and safely.

The purpose of this position is to provide critical systems engineering leadership as NASA continues to evolve systems for exploration missions including Gateway, lunar surface, Mars transit, and Mars surface missions. This position will support projects as a lead systems engineer guiding teams to create development life cycle artifacts and exceptional systems. This position will develop and implement systems engineering management plans, identify necessary artifacts to support development maturation and milestone reviews, prioritize technical work for team members, and develop systems engineering team operational practices. This position must have proven experience in building cohesive teams and will guide and implement systems engineering principles and practices across projects, contributing experience and leadership to develop organizational capability for systems engineering, including mentoring, training, and process development. This position will work closely with stakeholders including customers, team leads, and team members, and therefore must possess solid human spaceflight engineering technical knowledge and experience, along with excellent communication skills. This position will guide technical activities throughout the life cycle phases of systems, from early concept development, trade studies, design, integration, testing, verification and validation, operations, and through sustainment. This position will guide, implement, and manage project team activities including defining system stakeholder needs, decomposing system functions, developing technical requirements, negotiating and capturing system interfaces, performing design analyses, supporting the planning and execution of system verification and validation activities, and supporting system testing and operations. Requires leadership experience with NASA, DoD and/or industry systems engineering and project management processes and practices. Experience in seeking out and successfully obtaining new work is desired. Awareness of spaceflight impacts to human physiology, behavior, and medical state is desired. Other duties will be assigned as required.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

• Responsible for developing and implementing systems engineering management plans.
• Responsible for identifying and leading development of necessary artifacts to support development maturation and milestone reviews.
• Responsible for prioritization and quality of technical work of team members.
• Responsible for developing systems engineering team operational practices. This position must have proven experience in building and leading cohesive, effective teams.
• Responsible for guiding team members to create systems engineering artifacts such as Concepts of Operations, requirements, traces, allocations, system architectures and design solutions, trade studies, interface definitions, verification and validation planning and execution.
• Responsible for developing and training Systems Engineers in the use of systems engineering principles, practices and tools.
• Responsible for systems engineering project planning and estimating.
• Excellent skills in both written and verbal communication.

Education/Experience:

Required:

• A BS degree in engineering or a related field.
• 15 years of applicable professional experience which has led to increasing levels of technical and leadership responsibilities.
• Technical, functional, and/or project lead experience in systems engineering or a related technical field.

Desired:

• MS Degree in engineering plus 13 years of applicable experience.
• Systems engineering certification and/or formal training.
• Project management certification and/or formal training.
• Experience in model-based systems engineering and mentoring others in its application.
• Background in bioastronautics.
• Background in human spaceflight mission full life cycle activities.
• NASA experience in human systems integration.

Skills/Training:

Required:

• Proven ability to lead a highly skilled technical workforce to produce products that meet quality, safety, performance, cost, and schedule requirements.
• Working knowledge of the NASA/JSC flight hardware development process.
• Hands-on experience utilizing/applying a systems engineering process.
• Excellent leadership and interpersonal skills. Ability to lead and motivate personnel to high standards of performance and increase efficiency.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills. Ability to communicate effectively with project managers, project leads, customers, and with contract colleagues is essential.
• Understanding of Model-Based Systems Engineering.
• Ability to attain and maintain respect and confidence of the customer and contract personnel. A close, cooperative customer interface is essential.
• The desire and ability to seek and capture new business opportunities. Must be open-minded to new ideas and new ways of doing business, willing to aggressively pursue new opportunities, and flexible enough to adapt to a rapidly changing technical environment.
• Mature, professional judgment in establishing objectives, milestones, and priorities.
• Reliable and dependable work habits and the dedication to get the job done.
• Ability to translate concepts across multiple disciplines.

Desired:

• Experience with NASA or DoD Work Instructions and MBSE practices.
• Prior experience with the NASA flight hardware development process.
• Solid working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

KBR Benefits:

KBR offers a selection of competitive lifestyle benefits which could include 401K plan with company match, medical, dental, vision, life insurance, AD&D, flexible spending