Chief Engineer
General Atomics
Huntsville, AL · Posted September 25, 2026
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Where Huntsville, AL ranks
Where Huntsville, AL placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for aerospace and defense jobs555 openings · of 67
- #2Best cities for pay after cost of living in the Southeast$164k · of 33
- #2Best cities for software and engineering jobs in the Southeast701 openings · of 65
- #3Best all-round cities for mid-career professionals in the Southeast74 / 100 · of 33
- #6Best cities for aerospace and defense pay after cost of living$151k · of 19
- #12Best all-round cities for AI careers in the Southeast61 / 100 · of 33
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 81 open chief engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $122,500 to $237,500 and the median is $175,000.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
How AI is used in this kind of work
AI use among architectural and engineering managers is little observed so far. Measured exposure for architectural and engineering managers: 3% (little observed).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
About the job
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) is a supplier of advanced electromagnetic systems, related power equipment and other high technology products for a variety of government and commercial applications. These include products such as the design and fabrication of linear motors, superconducting and conventional rotating motors, power inverters, high-energy capacitors, radiation monitoring systems, high-voltage direct current power distribution systems, and numerous other products. We have an exciting opportunity in our Aerospace Systems Engineering directorate for a full-time Chief Engineer to lead the design and development of one or more new weapon systems such as cruise missiles, air defense missiles, dispensing submunitions, gun-launched projectiles, and hypersonic glide weapons. The successful candidate will provide technical expertise to multi-disciplinary teams that may be geographically distributed between Huntsville, AL, Centennial, CO, Fredericksburg, VA, Oxford, MS, and San Diego, CA. The work location for this position is in Huntsville, AL at our office in Cummings Research Park. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Provide weapon systems expertise to guide systems engineering; design engineering (electrical, mechanical, flight software, RF, EO/IR, warhead/lethality); guidance, navigation and control; modeling and simulation; and Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT) efforts for the development of missile/weapon system prototypes. Collaborate daily with GA and customer engineering and program management teams Collaborate with subcontractor teams to guide and monitor their progress during the weapon system development effort Elicit stakeholder needs from government and industry customers and define Concept of Operations and System Architecture to meet those needs Collaborate with Lead Systems Engineer to define systems engineering approach to be used for the weapon system development With the assistance of a master scheduler and in coordination with subsystem leads, develop Integrated Milestone Schedules (IMS) to complete the weapon system program scope of work, milestones and deliverables within the allocated budget and timeline Review and refine system, subsystem, and component level requirements for hardware and software configuration items Review and refine verification cross-reference matrices, Master Test Plan, acceptance criteria, and test objectives Review and refine mechanical, electrical, and logical Interface Control Documents (ICDs) for weapon system applications Define system and subsystem level trade studies to be completed to refine the weapon system design; review trade study results and make informed technical design decisions based on trade study and analysis results Lead weekly weapon system level engineering working groups to capture status of design, development, integration and testing activities; resolve complex technical problems facing the engineering team; and ensure risks are being mitigated in accordance with program risk and opportunity management plans Support the planning, development and execution of major program technical reviews including System Requirements Reviews, System Functional Reviews, Preliminary Design Reviews, Critical Design Reviews, Integration Readiness Reviews, Test Readiness Reviews, and Pre-Ship Readiness Reviews to include reviewing and tailoring entrance and exit criteria; reviewing objective evidence; and developing, reviewing, and presenting briefing materials. Lead definition of Key Performance Parameters, Technical Performance Metrics and other similar technical measures of health/progress for weapon system projects Support definition of failure modes, effects and criticality for weapon systems, subsystems, and components Support development and review of weapon system design and development content for proposals, Request For Information (RFI) responses, and other technical white papers Demonstrate strong communication skills with and between customers, team members, task leads, functional managers, and program management to facilitate rapid resolution of technical and program issues Serve as the technical lead on one or more development projects Make technical presentations during working groups and peer reviews, or to senior management or customers, as required Mentor less experienced engineers in weapon system design best practices; socialize and ingrain sound engineering processes into the local engineering team culture and project execution Perform other duties as required. We recognize and appreciate the value and contributions of individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences and welcome all qualified individuals to apply.