Chief Engineer

General Atomics Integrated Intelligence Inc. (GA-Intelligence) develops cutting-edge software solutions that transform raw data into actionable intelligence. We specialize in real-time global situational awareness and battle management, processing petabytes of data from hundreds of sources across air, land, and sea. Our systems—including the widely used THRESHER and DRAGONSPELL platforms—support tens of thousands of users at all levels of the DoD and Intelligence Community and enable critical decision-making for national security missions. We process hundreds of thousands of observations per minute, operating at the scale of global sensor networks and battlefield telemetry. Our backend architecture leverages technologies like Kafka, AWS, NiFi, and GeoMesa—the latter of which we designed and open-sourced—to deliver high-throughput, mission-resilient systems that turn streaming data into real-time intelligence. GA-Intelligence is seeking a Chief Engineer to help lead the technical direction of one of our commercial and international software programs. This individual will initially act as the Deputy Chief Engineer and will work in close partnership with the current Chief Engineer to learn the system, build trust across the organization, and progressively assume broader technical leadership responsibilities. Over time (approximately six months) , this person will transition into the Chief Engineer role. This is a senior technical leadership role for a large-scale operational software environment supporting commercial and international missions. The system is a complex, real-time platform focused on global situational awareness, tracking, data fusion, geospatial workflows, and operational decision support. It serves a large user base, integrates with numerous internal and external systems, and must operate with high reliability in demanding mission contexts. The right candidate is a strong systems thinker, an experienced software and architecture leader, and a credible technical authority who will own the system. This person must be proactive, exercise sound engineering judgment, and have the confidence to make bold but disciplined technical decisions. Additionally, they should have experience and skill gaining concurrence for both technical and programmatic solutions with partners and customers. They should be comfortable setting direction, driving clarity, and taking accountability for outcomes without creating unnecessary risk in a mission-critical environment. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Partner with the current Chief Engineer to understand the architecture, technical roadmap, dependencies, operational context, and major risks across the program. Help define and maintain the overall technical direction of a complex software ecosystem involving real-time data ingest, tracking, fusion, geospatial capabilities, analytics, and external integrations. Provide technical leadership across multiple teams, subsystems, and engineering disciplines. Guide major architectural decisions and evaluate tradeoffs among performance, resiliency, maintainability, scalability, delivery speed, and long-term system health. Take ownership of end-to-end system integrity and help ensure the program is making sound technical decisions across teams. Proactively identify technical risks, architectural friction points, and integration challenges before they become larger issues. Help ensure strong engineering rigor in system design, integration planning, testing strategy, and technical execution. Work closely with program management, engineering managers, product leadership, and technical leads to align architecture and delivery. Support technical planning, modernization efforts, risk reduction, release readiness, and cross-team coordination. Manage disparate or competing needs among multiple business partners and customers, gaining acceptance for proposed solutions and timelines. Mentor technical leaders and help strengthen the engineering bench across the organization. Represent the program as a senior technical leader in customer and stakeholder engagements when needed, being comfortable and effective briefing both customers and partners. Progressively take on broader technical ownership in preparation for transition into the Chief Engineer role. We recognize and appreciate the value and contributions of individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences and welcome all qualified individuals to apply.