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# Principal Chief Engineer & System Architect

- **Company:** FIRESTORM
- **Location:** San Diego, CA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $212,000 - $247,000
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Systems Engineering, Design of User Interfaces, Integrated Architecture Framework, Software Systems, Systems Modeling Language, Systems Architecture, Systems Integration, Build Management
- **Published:** November 8, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.careerbuilder.com/job-details/principal-chief-engineer-system-architect-san-diego-ca--9dd67eb8-65c1-4b78-89b9-5f1224f07772

## About the Role

System Architecture, Systems Engineering, Risk, Technical/Engineering Design, Product Design, Architectural Services, Risk Analysis, Product Reviews, System Architecture, Trade Studies, * 10+ years building complex integrated hardware/software systems, including substantial system architecture ownership.

 * Experience acting as a product Chief Engineer, lead Systems Architect, or equivalent final integrated technical authority.
 * Demonstrated experience mentoring or managing senior technical leaders and influencing multidisciplinary engineering teams.
 * Hands-on expertise in architectural trade studies, interface design, system integration, risk management, and technical readiness.
 * Ability to make evidence-based decisions amid uncertainty and balance speed, reliability, cost, and manufacturability., * UAS, autonomy, aerospace/defense, robotics, or expeditionary manufacturing experience.
 * Experience across multiple products or common-platform architectures.
 * Familiarity with MBSE/SysML and requirements/verification traceability as enabling tools, not ends in themselves.
 * Experience moving prototypes into manufacturing and field operations.

## Description

Own the capability for integrated architecture, cross-disciplinary technical decisions, design maturity, and product-level technical risk for a single platform. Partner with functional engineering leaders rather than replacing their subsystem ownership., Chief Engineer Leadership:

 * Define delegated technical decision rights, architecture ownership, design maturity expectations, and escalation thresholds.
 * Review and challenge product technical risk assessments, readiness recommendations, and architectural decisions; resolve cross-product conflicts.

Systems Architecture and Technical Integration:

 * Guide system decomposition, hardware/software/autonomy partitioning, interfaces, performance budgets, trade studies, and architecture baselines.
 * Drive modular, reusable platform architectures while allowing product-specific tradeoffs.
 * Work with Hardware, Software, and Aero and Autonomy leaders to resolve integration issues and maintain discipline-level design ownership.

Technical Maturity and Portfolio Leadership:

 * Establish lightweight, evidence-based design reviews (e.g., PDR/CDR where appropriate), technical baselines, and risk registers.
 * Lead cross-product technical health reviews and provide concise readiness/risk recommendations to the VP of Engineering.
 * Partner with Product Management on technical realization of customer needs and Program Management on schedule/technical tradeoffs.

AI-native engineering and builder mindset

 * Personally use approved AI tools to accelerate architecture exploration, trade-study preparation, interface analysis, technical research, design-review preparation, and engineering knowledge retrieval. Know when to question and validate AI-driven results.
 * Build and deploy practical AI-enabled workflows and lightweight internal tools that help product teams work faster, improve traceability, surface technical risk, and reduce administrative burden., * 90 days: named technical authority for every active product; initial Chief Engineer operating cadence and readiness criteria.
 * 6 months: Chief Engineers independently drive architecture and product technical risk with fewer routine escalations to SVP.
 * 12 months: measurable reduction in recurring design/integration issues and stronger reuse of platform architectures.