Weapon Systems Architect

The Weapon System Architect serves as technical authority for the Long Range Weapon, owning the thread from requirement through fielded configuration. This role decomposes operational requirements into system and subsystem specifications, maintains the functional and physical architecture across a family of weapon variants, and holds interface definition and control for weapon-to-host-platform integration across the bomber and fighter fleet. The architect establishes verification criteria at the point requirements are written, preserves traceability through modeling, integration, and test, and maintains configuration control so that the specified article, the tested article, and the delivered article remain the same article. Where emerging threats drive change, the architect determines what moves in the baseline, what regresses, what must be re-verified, and whether the change can be qualified and produced inside the window the threat allows.

Because a long range weapon spends most of its life in production and sustainment, this role carries substantial production and lifecycle weight. The architect works the manufacturing baseline alongside the technical one — assessing producibility of design changes, evaluating supplier submittals against specification, supporting qualification of alternate sources, and analyzing cost and schedule consequences of insertion timing against lot cut-in points. The role owns technologies across the lifecycle: DMSMS and obsolescence exposure planning, procurement of parts decisions, component refresh sequencing, and qualification cost for each candidate insertion as well as what candidates to carry through EMD into production. The architect supports engineering change proposals and VECPs, contributes the engineering basis for pricing and negotiation positions, and provides the technical foundation for production readiness and milestone decisions.

Requirements

• U.S. citizenship required
• Active TS clearance required; SCI eligibility preferred
• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline; advanced degree preferred
• Engineering background in weapon or missile systems — RF, seeker, guidance, propulsion, structures, or low observable
• Demonstrated production and lifecycle experience on a fielded system
  
• Production configuration management, supply chain risk, and obsolescence management
• On-site at Eglin AFB, FL