Chief Engineer, Product Engineering (Aerospace & Defense)

Purpose

Divergent is seeking a Chief Engineer – Munitions Systems to lead the development of next-generation munitions architectures. This is a unique opportunity to redefine how aerostructures and munition systems are designed, built, and fielded — and to leverage our Digital Adaptive Production System (DAPS) to transform how responsive the Defense Industrial Base can be to the warfighter's needs.

As Chief Engineer, you will serve as the technical authority for Divergent's munitions portfolio, responsible for translating mission needs into qualifiable vehicles. You'll be accountable for the businesses approach to system-level trades, design process, and qualification campaigns which ensuring that performance, cost, and producibility are optimized from concept through production.

This role demands both technical depth and program maturity: the ability to engage government and industry partners to refine requirements for advanced air-launched, surface-launched, and loitering systems for both new and legacy systems, while fostering internal alignment across internal engineering teams. You will be called on to derive system requirements in the absence of written specifications and are expected to challenge and shape requirements when appropriate — ensuring that the final product meets mission intent.

The Role

• Serve as technical lead and design authority for Divergent's munitions and precision-strike systems.
• Define, negotiate, and validate system requirements with government and industry customers.
• Develop operational strategies and lead internal trade studies with direct impact on results at the company level.
• Identify and communicate capability gaps, risks, and dependencies between application and platform teams, and coordinate mitigation and validation plans.
• Guide the system design review process and establish standardized technical maturity milestones and qualification tests across the munitions portfolio.
• Accountable for comprehensive qualification and verification planning, including environmental, structural, and flight test correlation.
• Collaborates with senior technical experts to establish technical standards, and models technical excellence inside and outside the organization including government customers and prime contractors.
• Maintain technical documentation, including best practices and lesson learned.
• Support vehicle builds and product development testing and troubleshooting.

Basic Qualifications

• Ability to lawfully access information and technology that is subject to US export controls.
• Bachelor's degree in, Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent technical discipline.
• Minimum 8 years of experience in a relevant technical discipline.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to synthesize complex, inputs to simple terms and find alignment across multifunctional stakeholders including government customers and prime contractors.
• Strong systems-thinking mindset—comfortable navigating ambiguity and driving structured clarity across technology and program boundaries.
• Demonstrated excellence performing requirements decomposition, validation planning, interface control and risk management across defense products and multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience interfacing with engineering, testing, and manufacturing groups to understand system designs and the associated constraints.
• Demonstrated excellence in structural design and analysis throughout the design, build, and test phases of a development cycle.
• Proficiency with CAD software, PLM systems, and finite element analysis.
• U.S. citizen eligible for DoD security clearance (Secret or higher preferred).

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in missile, precision-strike, or air-launched system development and qualification.
• Familiarity with DoD acquisition frameworks and relevant MIL-STDs (e.g., 810, 1797, 516).
• Proven record of cross functional collaboration across engineering, manufacturing, and software organizations.
• Demonstrated excellence in developing products and systems for aerospace and defense applications.
• Experience with additive manufacturing, automation systems, or materials development.
• Expert understanding of linear/nonlinear behaviors of various material systems (composites, adhesives, metals)

Work Environment

• Requires frequent standing, walking, and interaction across production and R&D work areas.
• May occasionally require extended or weekend hours to meet production deadlines.
• Work is performed in an office environment and requires the ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards.

Compensation

At Divergent, our pay range is based on the level of the job. For this role, we will consider candidates at levels E07 - E08 as evaluated through our interview process.

• Principal / E07: $179,630 - $247,005
  
• Senior Principal / E08: $207,460 - $285,230