Senior Test and Systems Engineer

Technology Advancement Group (TAG) is a veteran-owned systems integrator in Ashburn, Virginia. We design, build and integrate assured positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) hardware and software for the Department of Defense and the companies that build for it. Our products include anti-jam CRPA antennas, horizon-nulling antennas and a miniature M-code GPS receiver. All of them are shipping today, with test data behind them, and our engineers integrate them into the systems our customers already run. We're hiring a Senior Test and Systems Engineer to lead systems engineering and test on our PNT products and to build the team that does it. You'll report to our [Technical Director], manage our Junior Systems Engineer, and work in a matrixed organization alongside hardware, software and production engineers. You'll own the path from a customer's technical requirements to the test result that proves we met them: requirements, architecture, verification and validation, and the procedures production uses to build and test every unit. There's no large engineering department behind you here, so you'll set how TAG does systems engineering and test, and you'll give input directly to Engineering, Manufacturing, Configuration Management, Quality and executive leadership. On an average day you'll handle some combination of the following. You'll turn customer requirements into requirements documents and performance specifications, lead architecture design and documentation, and own configuration management and Contract Data Requirements Lists (CDRLs) for your programs. You'll write and approve test plans, design verification procedures, functional test procedures and assembly procedures, and run system and integration testing in the lab and in the field, including on customer platforms. You'll lead design reviews, troubleshoot hardware, software and system issues to root cause, and support failure reporting, analysis and corrective action. You'll evaluate Engineering Change Requests (ECRs), design test fixtures and keep test documentation under revision control. You'll also assign, review and coach the Junior Systems Engineer's work so it meets the same standard as yours.

You're a senior engineer who still wants the hardware on your bench, and you want to build the team and the process around you. You lead by doing. You set the standard by working to it. You'll write procedures, run tests and debug units alongside the engineer you manage, and you'd rather show than tell. You develop people. You give clear assignments, review work honestly and explain the why behind your feedback. You measure yourself partly by how fast the engineers around you grow. You think in requirements. When a customer says what they need, you're already working out how you'll verify it. You won't call something done until a test proves it. You don't stop at the symptom. When a test fails, you chase it to the root cause, prove it, and make sure the fix shows up in the design, the procedure or the process. You own it at small scale. There's no test department or process group to lean on here. When a procedure is missing, you write it. When a process is slowing the team down, you say so and fix it. You care who's on the other end. Our products go to warfighters who need to know where they are when GPS is jammed or spoofed. A test you sign off on is a promise to them. You take that seriously, and it shows in your work.

Systems engineering across the lifecycle. You've taken electronic products from customer requirements through design, verification and production. You've decomposed requirements, written performance specifications and worked to an interface control document (ICD). Pick a requirement and you can walk us through it from the customer's words to the test result. Test and verification. You've written and run test plans, design verification procedures and functional test procedures for hardware and software, and built the fixtures to run them. You can show us a procedure you wrote that someone else ran without having to ask you what you meant. Hands-on integration and troubleshooting. You've integrated hardware and software in the lab and in the field, and traced failures to root cause with oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, signal generators and test data. You can describe a failure that took more than a day to find and how you proved the cause. Configuration and change control. You've kept configuration management, revision-controlled documentation and engineering changes in order on a program. You know what a test record has to show to hold up with a customer or an auditor. Leading engineers. You've led or mentored at least one engineer: assigned the work, reviewed it and helped them grow. You can tell us about someone you developed and what changed for them. Communication. You brief test results and technical issues clearly, in writing and in person, to engineers, program managers and customers, including at design reviews. U.S. person status. This position requires access to technical data controlled under U.S. export control laws. Applicants must be U.S. persons as defined in the ITAR (22 CFR 120.62): U.S. citizens and nationals, lawful permanent residents, and persons admitted as refugees or granted asylum. Clearance eligibility. You must be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance, which requires U.S. citizenship.

GNSS and PNT. You've worked with GNSS receivers, CRPA or anti-jam antennas, GNSS simulators or inertial systems, and you understand what jamming and spoofing do to a navigation solution. Military platform integration. You've integrated and tested equipment on military vehicles, aircraft or ships, or supported customer test events. Quality systems. You've worked in an ISO 9001 or AS9100 quality system and supported failure reporting, analysis and corrective action (FRACAS). Linux and test automation. You're comfortable on the Linux command line and script your own test automation. Active clearance. You already hold a current U.S. government security clearance, at any level.