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Long Wall Company, founded in 2024, is accelerating missile defense technology for the U.S. and allies. The company specializes in ballistic missile defense and is developing Cyclops, a low-cost, mass-producible interceptor, along with containerized launchers and low-cost targets for threat replication.
The Program Chief Engineer for Cyclops serves as the ultimate technical authority for Long Wall's major interceptor product. This role owns the technical baseline, architecture, requirements, configuration, verification strategy, and overall technical mission success. The chief engineer operates as a peer to program management, jointly leading the program while ensuring technical integrity is never compromised by schedule pressure or external commitments.
Key responsibilities include:
- Serving as technical authority for the Cyclops product, owning system architecture, requirements, technical baseline, and verification strategy
- Defining and maintaining system technical configuration, ensuring all design changes follow disciplined evaluation
- Leading technical decision-making across propulsion, avionics, structures, mechanisms, GNC, software, materials, manufacturing engineering, and integration
- Coordinating with systems engineering to maintain requirements traceability, ICDs, architecture, and verification planning
- Partnering with mission assurance to evaluate reliability, safety, and readiness
- Working as a peer leader with project management to protect technical integrity while ensuring realistic schedule and resource alignment
- Leading technical reviews (architecture, design, integration, verification planning, readiness reviews)
- Guiding cross-discipline engineering teams to ensure development, integration, and test work remains aligned with technical baseline
- Resolving cross-functional technical issues, adjudicating design trades, and maintaining system-level coherence
- Representing technical state of Cyclops to executive leadership, external stakeholders, and government customers
- Mentoring engineering discipline leads and establishing standards, processes, and review discipline
- Supporting expansion of chief engineering function as the company scales
The role integrates the work of systems engineering, mission assurance, engineering disciplines, and project management into a coherent, defensible technical execution plan. The chief engineer ensures all technical decisions are traceable, analytically supported, and aligned with customer expectations and mission needs.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, Systems Engineering, or related engineering discipline
- 12+ years of experience in complex aerospace or defense system development, with significant ownership over system-level design, integration, or technical leadership
- Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams and owning technical baselines in mission-critical environments
- Experience supporting government customers, milestone reviews, and structured engineering documentation
- Deep technical fluency across aerospace subsystems (structures, propulsion, avionics, mechanisms, GNC, software, manufacturing)
- Proven ability to define requirements, architecture, ICDs, verification plans, and configuration control structures
- Strong analytical foundation and ability to challenge designs, analyses, and technical assumptions
- Demonstrated capability to lead technical teams through ambiguity, rapid development, shifting priorities, and fast-paced integration cycles
- Excellent communication skills for briefing executive leadership, engineering teams, and government customers on technical status, risks, and decisions
- Strong understanding of reliability, safety, and mission assurance principles for flight-critical systems
- US person status required (US citizens, permanent residents, individuals granted asylum or refugee status)
- Ability to sit or stand for extended periods, use computer for assignments, and communicate effectively in person, telepresence, and phone
- Ability to travel between customer and company sites as required
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Prior experience as a system chief engineer, technical director, principal engineer, or equivalent leadership role for missile, interceptor, launch vehicle, or military systems
- Experience working with the Missile Defense Agency, DoD, or other government customers on technical baseline management
- Familiarity with government test readiness processes, hazard analyses, and mission assurance frameworks
- Experience scaling engineering governance from prototype development into rate production or multiple program environments
- Active or recent security clearance (Secret or above)
