Chief Engineer

Chief Engineer

Tiberius Aerospace Inc.

Location: Newport Beach, California Team: Engineering Commitment: Full-time Reports to: To be confirmed Equity: Offered Target salary range: 190,000–190,000–260,000 annual base salary, commensurate with experience and qualifications, plus annual bonus and equity

About Tiberius Aerospace

Tiberius Aerospace builds next-generation weapon systems for the United States, the United Kingdom and their allies. We design, test and validate, then license production to qualified manufacturers and allied nations so they can build sovereign capacity. We call it Defense as a Service: tight hardware and software integration, fast iteration, and systems that keep improving after they’re fielded.

Our portfolio spans SCEPTRE, a ramjet-powered 155mm artillery round; INVICTUS, a ramjet strike missile; VAULT, a containerized launch system for ground, maritime and air platforms; and GRAIL, our AI platform connecting buyers, OEMs, suppliers and capital across the defense industrial base. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California.

Location

Based in Newport Beach, California, working closely with engineering leadership, development teams and manufacturing partners. Expect regular on-site collaboration and travel to company facilities, suppliers, customer locations and test ranges as program needs require.

Position Overview

We’re looking for a Chief Engineer to serve as the senior technical authority for assigned Tiberius programs and lead complex aerospace and defense systems from requirements and architecture through development, integration, qualification and production transition.

Candidates must bring a technical background in missile or missile-defense development, with experience integrating complex flight hardware and leading multidisciplinary engineering efforts. We’re looking for someone who understands the engineering rigor, operational environments and verification demands of these programs and can apply that experience across Tiberius’s product portfolio.

You’ll connect the work across aerodynamics, propulsion, mechanical design, structural and thermal analysis, electrical hardware, embedded software, guidance, navigation and control, manufacturing and test. Your responsibility is to ensure these disciplines deliver an integrated system that meets its requirements - not simply a collection of individually successful components.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You’ll make and document engineering decisions, challenge assumptions, resolve cross-disciplinary issues and establish the evidence needed to move programs forward. Working alongside program leadership, you’ll balance performance, reliability, manufacturability, cost and schedule without compromising safety or technical integrity.

Decision rights: You own the technical baseline and engineering recommendations for assigned programs within delegated authority, including architecture, interfaces, technical trade-offs and verification strategy. Program management owns integrated program execution and commercial commitments. Safety approvals, contractual changes and commitments outside delegated authority remain subject to the appropriate company and customer approval processes.

What You’ll Do

• Establish and maintain technical direction across assigned aerospace and defense programs.
• Apply missile and missile-defense engineering experience to system architecture, integration and technical decision-making.
• Translate customer and mission needs into achievable system requirements.
• Lead multidisciplinary engineering decisions and resolve integration issues.
• Own technical risk identification, mitigation and communication.
• Lead design reviews and establish clear readiness criteria for major development milestones.
• Ensure analysis, simulation and test provide credible evidence of system performance.
• Partner with program management to align engineering scope, resources and execution plans.
• Drive engineering readiness for manufacturing and transfer to qualified production partners.
• Support production and field issues through disciplined root-cause investigation and corrective action.
• Develop engineering leaders and strengthen technical practices as Tiberius grows.

Core Responsibilities

Technical Architecture and Systems Engineering

• Define system architectures, subsystem boundaries and interface requirements.
• Establish traceable requirements with clear verification methods and acceptance criteria.
• Lead trade studies balancing performance, mass, power, thermal demands, reliability, cost and production constraints.
• Apply lessons from missile or missile-defense programs to requirements development, interface management and risk reduction.
• Identify dependencies across disciplines and resolve conflicting requirements early.
• Maintain visibility into technical budgets, assumptions and design margins.
• Ensure changes are evaluated for system-level consequences before implementation.

Multidisciplinary Engineering Leadership

• Coordinate technical work across propulsion, aerodynamics, structures, thermal, mechanical, electrical, software and flight controls teams.
• Apply sufficient technical depth to challenge methods and results while drawing on specialists where needed.
• Resolve disagreements through documented engineering evidence and clear decision-making.
• Review analysis assumptions, model limitations and validation plans.
• Ensure subsystem analyses and simulations use consistent configurations and interface definitions.
• Ensure design teams account for assembly, inspection, maintenance and manufacturing requirements.
• Establish clear ownership for technical deliverables and interfaces.

Engineering Execution and Program Partnership

• Work with program leadership to define engineering work packages, milestones and resource needs.
• Assess technical feasibility and readiness before committing to program objectives.
• Identify schedule-driving technical risks and establish practical mitigation plans.
• Coordinate internal teams, contractors and external engineering partners.
• Communicate technical status, decisions and unresolved issues clearly to leadership and customers.
• Recommend changes in scope or sequencing when evidence shows the current plan is not credible.

Integration, Verification and Test

• Establish verification and validation strategies tied to system requirements.
• Lead technical readiness assessments for integration, ground testing and flight testing, as applicable.
• Apply experience from missile or missile-defense qualification programs to test planning and readiness decisions.
• Ensure test plans address critical risks, measurable acceptance criteria and configuration traceability.
• Review discrepancies between analysis and test and direct appropriate investigation.
• Ensure failures produce documented root causes, corrective actions and verification of effectiveness.
• Confirm that readiness recommendations reflect the actual evidence and remaining uncertainty.

Safety, Reliability and Technical Risk

• Integrate safety and reliability considerations throughout development.
• Ensure hazards and failure modes are identified, reviewed and tracked with appropriate specialists.
• Maintain a technical risk register with owners, mitigation actions and closure criteria.
• Escalate conditions that could affect personnel safety, system integrity or operational performance.
• Challenge unsupported assumptions and prevent unresolved technical issues from being obscured by schedule pressure.
• Coordinate with quality, safety, security and compliance personnel on applicable requirements.

Manufacturing Readiness and Production Transfer

• Incorporate repeatable manufacturing, assembly, inspection and acceptance testing into development.
• Lead engineering preparation for manufacturing readiness reviews.
• Ensure drawings, specifications, bills of materials and interface documentation support a controlled production baseline.
• Work with manufacturing partners to resolve process limitations and supplier risks.
• Support the transfer of technical data and engineering knowledge to licensed production partners.
• Evaluate proposed production changes for their effects on performance, reliability and qualification status.

Configuration, Reviews and Engineering Standards

• Establish practical standards for analysis documentation, technical reviews and design release.
• Maintain configuration discipline across hardware, software, models and test articles.
• Chair major technical reviews and track actions through closure.
• Ensure engineering changes include appropriate impact assessments and approvals.
• Build reusable methods and lessons learned without creating unnecessary process burden.

Technical Leadership and Team Development

• Mentor senior engineers, technical leads and emerging engineering leaders.
• Help identify capability gaps and support engineering hiring.
• Set expectations for technical ownership, review quality and communication.
• Foster a culture where engineers surface concerns early and challenge results constructively.
• Represent Tiberius in technical discussions with customers, suppliers and partners.
• Coordinate with security and export-compliance teams on appropriate handling and transfer of technical information.

What You’ll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace Engineering required.
• 10+ years of progressive aerospace or defense engineering experience, including substantial senior technical leadership.
• A technical background in missile or missile-defense programs, with direct responsibility for complex hardware development, subsystem integration or system-level engineering.
• Demonstrated experience serving as a chief engineer, technical authority, lead systems engineer or comparable senior technical leader.
• A record of taking complex hardware through development, integration and test, with experience supporting qualification or production transition.
• Technical depth in at least one major engineering discipline and the breadth to make informed decisions across others.
• Experience integrating mechanical hardware with propulsion, avionics, sensing or flight-control functions.
• Experience defining requirements, managing interfaces and leading system-level trade studies.
• Experience leading technical reviews and making evidence-based readiness recommendations.
• Demonstrated ability to identify and resolve cross-disciplinary engineering problems.
• Experience partnering with program management on cost, schedule, scope and resource planning.
• Working knowledge of verification, validation, configuration management and engineering change control.
• Experience collaborating with suppliers and manufacturing teams.
• Clear technical communication with engineers, executives and customers.
• Sound judgment under uncertainty and a willingness to challenge commitments that lack technical support.

Preferred

• Master’s or doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace Engineering.
• Experience with interceptors, guided munitions, precision-strike systems or related defense flight hardware.
• Experience with air-breathing propulsion, ramjet systems or supersonic flight vehicles.
• Experience integrating aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, avionics and flight controls.
• Experience supporting ground and flight-test campaigns.
• Familiarity with hardware-in-the-loop testing and integrated flight simulation.
• Experience with high-temperature, high-vibration, shock or high-acceleration environments.
• Experience with launch-system or platform integration.
• Experience moving a development program into repeatable production.
• Experience working with licensed manufacturing partners or distributed production teams.
• Familiarity with applicable defense development, qualification and environmental standards.
• Experience in a high-growth company or a small team with broad technical ownership.
• Active U.S. government security clearance or willingness to undergo the clearance process if required for assigned programs.

What We’re Looking For

• A technical leader with missile or missile-defense experience who takes responsibility for the integrated product.
• An engineer who can move between architecture, detailed analysis, hardware and test evidence.
• Someone who makes clear decisions, documents the reasoning and follows through.
• A practical leader who builds enough process to protect technical integrity without slowing useful work.
• A mentor who develops strong technical owners rather than becoming the bottleneck for every decision.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, demanding schedules and candid technical debate.
• Mission first. Focused on reliable systems that meet operational needs.

Growth Opportunity

You’ll help shape Tiberius’s technical direction and engineering practices as programs mature from development into production. The role offers the opportunity to influence system architectures, strengthen multidisciplinary teams and establish repeatable approaches to developing and transferring advanced aerospace and defense technology.

How We Support You

• 190,000–190,000–260,000 annual base salary, commensurate with experience and qualifications
• Annual bonus and equity
• Medical, dental and vision, fully employer-paid for you and your family
• Short- and long-term disability and life insurance, employer-paid
• HSA, FSA and dependent care FSA
• 401(k), standard and Roth
• Unlimited PTO, sick leave, paid holidays and paid parental leave

Equal Opportunity Employer

Tiberius Aerospace is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to maintaining a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, sex, age, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, medical condition, genetic information, military or veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other status protected by applicable law.

Applicants who require a reasonable accommodation during the application process may contact kburchstead@tiberius.com.

Tiberius Aerospace participates in E-Verify. This role may require U.S. person status under applicable export-control requirements. Additional eligibility requirements may apply to work requiring a U.S. government security clearance.