Jobs Companies Parsons Principal Engineer

About this Principal Engineer role at Parsons

Parsons · Onsite · US - AL, Huntsville
In a world of possibilities, pursue one with endless opportunities. Imagine Next!

 

At Parsons, you can imagine a career where you thrive, work with exceptional people, and be yourself. Guided by our leadership vision of valuing people, embracing agility, and fostering growth, we cultivate an innovative culture that empowers you to achieve your full potential. Unleash your talent and redefine what’s possible.

 

Job Description:

Parsons is seeking a highly skilled Principal Engineering to provide engineering oversight for target system payloads and countermeasure development. In this role, you will act as a trusted advisor to the program office, delivering critical assessments of prime contractor designs, technical plans, and target instrumentation layouts. You will serve as a technical anchor during major program milestones—from System Requirements through Product Acceptance—while seamlessly collaborating across multiple organizations, modeling teams, cost analysts, and schedulers to ensure items are delivered accurately and on time.

What You'll Be Doing:

Engineering Oversight & Design Assessment

  • Expert Advisory: Serve as the technical expert on payload and countermeasure requirements development, analysis, design, qualification, and fielding.

  • Independent Evaluation: Review and provide assessments of prime contractor designs, plans, reports, and technical procedures.

  • Instrumentation Analysis: Evaluate target instrumentation requirements, physical layouts, component selection, and testing methodologies

Program Milestone & Lifecycle Support

  • Milestone Reviews: Provide technical evaluation and engineering support during all major program milestones (including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRB, MRB, and PAR).

  • Cross-Agency Coordination: Answer technical inquiries from external MDA organizations and lead multi-disciplinary Technical Interchange Meetings (TIMs).

Program Management & Operations Collaboration

  • Cost Estimation: Provide technical assessments to the cost analysis team to ensure accurate program management budget estimates.

  • Schedule Alignment: Partner with the program scheduler to track delivery deadlines and proactively keep leadership advised of status.

What Required Skills You'll Bring:

  • Security Clearance: Active DoD Secret clearance

  • Education & Experience: Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or an equivalent technical/scientific discipline specifically related to area of specialty and an Advanced degree may be preferred at this level
    and 10+ years of related professional experience

  • Program Execution: Experience managing end-to-end program lifecycles, including the development, testing, and fielding of complex systems.

  • Adaptability: Thrive in a fast-paced environment where priorities change quickly.

  • Multitasking: Handle multiple urgent tasks at once without losing focus.

  • Travel: Able to support travel request up to 20% of the time.


What Desired Skills You'll Bring:

  • Master's degree in STEM and 12+ years supporting missile defense or large-scale, complex DoD programs.

  • Understanding of IR/RCS signatures for flight objects and countermeasures.

  • Experience with material properties and material property measurements.

  • Knowledge of real-world threat systems and how they impact target designs.

  • Have an understanding of MDA flight test requirements and apply that to the payload hardware development.

  • Technical proposal development and evaluation.

Security Clearance Requirement:

An active Secret security clearance is required for this position.​

This position is part of our Federal Solutions team.

The Federal Solutions segment delivers resources to our US government customers that ensure the success of missions around the globe. Our intelligent employees drive the state of the art as they provide services and solutions in the areas of defense, security, intelligence, infrastructure, and environmental. We promote a culture of excellence and close-knit teams that take pride in delivering, protecting, and sustaining our nation's most critical assets, from Earth to cyberspace. Throughout the company, our people are anticipating what’s next to deliver the solutions our customers need now.

Salary Range: $134,100.00 - $241,400.00

We value our employees and want our employees to take care of their overall wellbeing, which is why we offer best-in-class benefits such as medical, dental, vision, paid time off, Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), 401(k), life insurance, flexible work schedules, and holidays to fit your busy lifestyle!

Parsons is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other protected status.

We truly invest and care about our employee’s wellbeing and provide endless growth opportunities as the sky is the limit, so aim for the stars! Imagine next and join the Parsons quest—APPLY TODAY!

Parsons is aware of fraudulent recruitment practices. To learn more about recruitment fraud and how to report it, please refer to https://www.parsons.com/fraudulent-recruitment/.

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How this Principal Engineer salary compares

This role pays $187,750/yrin line with the typical range for Principal Engineer roles.

$111,800 median $168,275 $275,000

Typical range $133,200–$215,000/yr, from 3,018 comparable Principal Engineer listings on JobsRadar (pay annualized to USD). See Principal Engineer salary insights →

About Parsons

Founded in 1944, Parsons Corporation, a digitally enabled solutions provider, is focused on creating the future of the defense, intelligence, and critical infrastructure markets. From Earth to outer space, we deliver tomorrow’s solutions today. Equipped with the capabilities required to take on any defense, intelligence, or critical infrastructure challenge, our agile, innovative, and disruptive approach enables us to deliver solutions at the speed of relevance. Our people are our greatest asset. We strive to be an employer of choice that engages employees in the community and creates rewarding career paths to cultivate a resilient workforce that is ready for the future. For more about Parso

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