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Long Wall Company, founded in 2024, accelerates missile defense technology for the U.S. and allies, specializing in ballistic missile defense. The company 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 RSX serves as the ultimate technical authority for Long Wall's target vehicle product. This role owns the technical baseline, architecture, requirements, configuration, verification strategy, and overall technical mission success of interceptor products. The chief engineer operates as a peer to program management, jointly leading the program while ensuring that technical integrity is never compromised by schedule pressure or external commitments.
Key responsibilities include:
- Serve as technical authority for RSX, owning system architecture, requirements, technical baseline, and verification strategy
- Define and maintain system technical configuration, ensuring all design changes follow disciplined evaluation
- Lead technical decision-making across propulsion, avionics, structures, mechanisms, GNC, software, materials, manufacturing engineering, and integration
- Coordinate with systems engineering to maintain requirements traceability, ICDs, architecture, and verification planning
- Partner with mission assurance to evaluate reliability, safety, and readiness
- Work as peer leader with project management, protecting technical integrity while ensuring realistic schedule and resource alignment
- Lead technical reviews (architecture, design, integration, verification planning, readiness reviews)
- Guide cross-discipline engineering teams to maintain alignment with technical baseline
- Resolve cross-functional technical issues, adjudicate design trades, and maintain system-level coherence
- Represent technical state of RSX to executive leadership, external stakeholders, and government customers
- Mentor engineering discipline leads and establish standards, processes, and review discipline
- Support expansion of chief engineering function as company scales
The role integrates systems engineering, mission assurance, engineering disciplines, and project management into a coherent, defensible technical execution plan. All technical decisions must be 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
- 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 citizen, permanent resident, granted asylum, or admitted as refugee) due to ITAR export control requirements
PREFERRED EXPERIENCE:
- Prior experience as system chief engineer, technical director, principal engineer, or equivalent leadership role for missile, interceptor, launch vehicle, or military systems
- Experience with 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)
