What are the responsibilities and job description for the Mission Systems Architect, Airborne Systems position at Hermeus?
Hermeus is a high-speed aircraft manufacturer focused on the rapid design, build, and test of high-Mach and hypersonic aircraft for the national interest. Working directly with the Department of Defense, Hermeus delivers capabilities that will ensure that our nation, and our allies, maintain an asymmetric advantage over any and all potential adversaries.
The Mission Systems Architect serves as the technical authority for all mission systems downstream of the aircraft’s Interface Control Document (ICD), responsible for defining the mission services model, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), data flows, message catalogs, subsystem integration patterns, and the overall interoperability framework across autonomy, weapons, ground control interfaces, debrief/data systems, and simulation environments. This role translates aircraft-level requirements and interfaces into coherent subsystem specifications, ensures interface compliance, and drives integration execution from architecture through verification.
Responsibilities:
- Own the mission systems architecture: define the end-to-end architecture for all ICD-downstream mission systems including mission service definitions, APIs, data schemas, message catalogs, subsystem-to-subsystem data flows, and capability segmentation; establish the Mission Capability Map and ensure every capability increment is architected for modularity, traceability, and supportability across autonomy, weapons, ground control, debrief, and simulation.
- Translate aircraft-level interfaces into subsystem specifications: decompose the aircraft ICD, technical orders, system drawings, and mission requirements into clear subsystem engineering specifications; resolve ambiguities, close interface gaps, and negotiate interface changes with Advanced Development to ensure downstream alignment.
- Define and govern OMS and UCI service models: develop and maintain all Open Mission Systems (OMS) and Universal Command and Control Interface (UCI) services, schemas, and exchange patterns required for autonomy behaviors, mission planning outputs, operator commands, telemetry flows, and debrief data; standardize service contracts and data models across all mission system subsystems.
- Develop and execute subsystem integration strategies: plan the sequencing, dependencies, and technical approach for integrating autonomy, weapons and pylons, ground control, debrief/data, and simulation systems; ensure all subsystems remain coherent with the mission architecture and aircraft-level interface definitions.
- Ensure ICD conformance across all mission systems: maintain ICD conformance matrices, automated schema validation, API harnesses, OMS and UCI message catalogs, and interface diff tools; enforce backward compatibility and version discipline at every integration event.
- Define mission data and control flows: model how mission planning outputs, autonomy cues, sensor data, operator tasking inputs, status telemetry, and post-mission logs move through the system; ensure data flows are time-synchronized, schema compliant, and suitable for verification, operator use, and debrief.
- Support autonomy behavior modeling and safety envelopes: collaborate with the Autonomy and Vehicle Management System Integration Engineer to define autonomy behavior libraries, allowable envelopes, contingency modes, and operator override semantics; ensure behaviors align with mission system architecture and safety constraints.
- Lead cross-functional design and integration reviews: run or contribute to architecture reviews, subsystem integration reviews, and program milestone events including System Requirements Review (SRR), System Functional Review (SFR), Preliminary Design Review (PDR), Critical Design Review (CDR), and Test Readiness Review (TRR); document integration decisions and ensure closure of architecture-related actions.
- Develop integration test strategies: define integration test plans spanning API contract testing, ICD conformance validation, simulation-based integration, Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) environments, and Joint Simulation Environment (JSE) test scenarios; ensure integration testing supports capability release requirements.
- Coordinate interface evolution with Advanced Development: manage and negotiate changes to aircraft-level interfaces as platform capabilities mature; evaluate downstream impacts, update system architecture accordingly, and ensure subsystem teams maintain synchronized interface interpretations.
- Provide technical leadership across subsystem teams: guide autonomy, weapons, mission systems, ground control, debrief, and simulation engineers in applying architectural intent, interpreting interfaces, and implementing subsystem integrations; serve as the primary technical point of contact for partner teams and external vendors requiring mission system integration.
- Communicate architecture and integration status: present the mission architecture, interface changes, integration risks, mitigation strategies, and readiness assessments to program leadership and customer stakeholders; ensure consistent communication and shared understanding of the mission system design.
- Generate end-product deliverables for internal and external customers: produce high-quality, traceable, and review-ready engineering artifacts including documentation, reports, data packages, analysis outputs, integrations, and configuration updates that meet program requirements, support design reviews, and satisfy customer or partner expectations.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field.
- 10 years of experience in mission systems, subsystem integration, or aircraft systems engineering for manned or unmanned platforms.
- Demonstrated expertise with Interface Control Documents (ICDs), Open Mission Systems (OMS), Universal Command and Control Interface (UCI), military standards and government reference architectures.
- Strong background in defining mission architectures, modeling data flows, designing APIs, and architecting distributed mission systems.
- Experience developing and maintaining ICD conformance tools, schema validators, API harnesses, and automated integration checks.
- Hands-on experience coordinating integration across autonomy stacks, weapons and pylons, operator interfaces, data systems, and simulation environments.
- Proficiency with Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools such as SysML/Cameo and requirements management tools such as DOORS or Jama.
- Proficiency with engineering backlogs and workflows using Jira or Azure DevOps.
- Experience with Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL), Software-in-the-Loop (SITL), and Joint Simulation Environment (JSE) integration and test environments.
- Strong communication and technical leadership skills with the ability to guide multidisciplinary engineering teams.
- Active Secret clearance required; Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance preferred.
The salary information provided is a general guideline only. Hermeus takes various factors into account, including, but not limited to, the position's scope and responsibilities, the candidate's professional background, education and training, essential skills, and market and business considerations, when presenting a job offer.
Salary is only one part of our total compensation and benefits package. Hermeus offers competitive salary and equity, unlimited PTO policy, paid parental leave, potential for year-end bonuses, and more!
100% employer-paid health care
401k & Retirement Plans
Unlimited PTO
Weekly Paid Office Lunches
Fully stocked breakrooms
Stock Options
Paid Parental Leave
U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS
The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. US persons include U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
Hermeus is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions at Hermeus are based solely on merit, competence, and qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.