Staff Systems Engineer, Vehicle Systems Architecture

Boston or Remote DRONES Full-time $165k to $215k Posted Jul 7, 2026
Apply on Merlin Labs (opens in a new tab) Sourced via jobs.lever.co · Posted 2026-07-07

About this role

Merlin Labs is hiring a Staff Systems Engineer, Vehicle Systems Architecture, full-time, remote, in the DRONES sector.

Merlin (NASDAQ: MRLN) is a publicly traded aerospace and defense company building a non-human pilot to deliver full-stack autonomy for any aircraft from takeoff to touchdown. The Merlin Pilot autonomy system powers a growing range of aircraft and mission profiles and has been proven through hundreds of autonomous flights from Merlin's global flight test facilities, including Kerikeri, New Zealand; Smithfield, Rhode Island; and soon, Bedford, Massachusetts. Headquartered in Boston, Merlin is expanding its organization to accelerate the development and deployment of its autonomy platform, helping customers solve some of aviation's most pressing challenges, from pilot shortages to improving flight safety. Backed by some of the world's leading investors prior to its public listing, Merlin continues to advance the certification and commercialization of autonomous flight across commercial and defense aviation.
About You: You are a very experienced systems engineer involved in systems integration, requirements management, system design, and testing in civil-certified or military safety-critical avionics and mission systems. You have a passion for new development and have a proven record of navigating the challenges in new product integration. You’ve worked in an experimental R&D flight test environment with general civil certified or commercial derivative aircraft and know how to keep safety at the forefront while still moving quickly. You also have experience in interfacing with a wide array of engineering domains, customers, suppliers, and partners.

Responsibilities:

  • Guide system development and traceability from system requirements capture, through design decision making, to final demonstration for systems being implemented on various aircraft.
  • Facilitate the development of concepts of operation, system architecture (including functional and physical architectures), system requirements, measures of performance, certification planning and execution from requirements through to demonstration for Merlin product integrations.
  • Work across the safety, hardware, simulation, and software teams to capture, document, and communicate requirements and interfaces.
  • Host design reviews of architectures for senior leadership and review artifacts as the primary technical stakeholder across all supporting functional disciplines.
  • Managing systems engineering tasking and aligning disciplines to support their successful and timely completion.
  • Participate in the development of systems engineering development plans and processes as needed.
  • Participate in reviews of artifacts with customers, suppliers, and regulatory authorities as required.

Qualifications:

  • BS in Electrical/Aerospace/Systems Engineering or a related subject, MS preferred.
  • 10+ years of experience conducting systems engineering in FAA/EASA/Military certification programs (8+ years with MS degree).
  • Demonstrated ability to lead as a Systems Engineer in solving complex architectural and systems engineering-related problems across aircraft integration and software.
  • Demonstrated experience facilitating design across multi-disciplined functional groups: hardware, software, electrical, mechanical, and test engineering.
  • Experience with requirements management tools and processes.
  • Hands-on experience in integrating avionics and/or avionics integrated mission equipment using civil and/or military standards for flight safety, equipment qualification, and airworthiness
  • Demonstrated ability to develop system-level requirements, architecture, and interfaces, and perform requirements validation and verification.
  • Demonstrated familiarity with general aviation aircraft and integration.

Nice to Have:

  • Specific experience with general aviation aircraft integration, including Cessna Caravan.
  • Specific experience in the area of Automatic Flight Controls, Flight Management, or Display Systems.
  • Specific experience in developing software requirements and performing software verification.
  • Working knowledge of FAA/EASA/Military regulations and standards is a plus.
  • Familiarity with Simulink, Cameo, IADS, Jama, JIRA.

Logistics:

  • We welcome remote applicants for this role, with a preference for candidates based in or willing to relocate to Boston, MA for a hybrid work schedule at our HQ.

Description from Merlin Labs's official posting. Always confirm details on the company careers page.

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About Merlin Labs

Merlin Labs

Company in the mobility sector tracked nightly on the Mobility Jobs board.

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Curated by Larry Sherwood Jr. on the free Mobility Jobs board. Pulled nightly from company applicant tracking systems. Apply directly on the source link above to be considered.