Scientific Applications & Research Associates, Inc. (SARA) is a world-class Defense Research and Development enterprise, with a charter to create new and emerging technological innovations in support of Commercial & Government organizations. We have expertise in RF, EMP, Pulsed Power, Acoustics, and Threat Warning Systems, and we prioritize partnering with our customers to address real-world problems with cost-effective solutions… that work.

The SARA High Power Electromagnetics Division (HPEM) is looking for a remarkably talented, motivated, and imaginative Project Engineer to support research and development activities and transition innovative technologies to the DoD, DoE, and their contractors in Colorado Springs, CO. The candidate will have the opportunity to grow and learn with talented engineers, physicists, and technicians on long-standing programs and new programs supporting our customers. Our small group will allow the candidate to experience, contribute, and collaborate in a multidisciplinary nature from conception all the way through to operation.

Position Summary:

The Project Engineer will own technical execution across multidisciplinary engineering projects. This role is responsible for taking high-level direction from senior leadership, customers, contracts, purchase orders, statements of work, and proposed efforts, then translating that direction into clear, tactical engineering plans that working teams can execute.

The Project Engineer will lead multidisciplinary teams across engineering domains such as electrical, mechanical, software, systems, manufacturing, test, and quality. While this role does not require deep subject-matter expertise in every discipline, the successful candidate must have a strong engineering foundation, sound technical judgment, and the ability to engage credibly with engineers across multiple domains.

This person must be able to understand technical tradeoffs, ask disciplined engineering questions, identify weak assumptions, recognize when technical risks are being understated, and distinguish between real engineering progress and superficial status reporting.

The Project Engineer will decompose ambiguous objectives into actionable work packages, define tasks and deliverables, assign ownership, identify dependencies, lead technical reviews, manage technical risk, and drive engineering teams toward successful completion of project objectives.

This is a technical engineering leadership role, not a purely administrative project coordination role. Candidates must demonstrate a strong engineering foundation and the ability to make, evaluate, and defend technical decisions across multidisciplinary engineering efforts.

Core Responsibilities:

• Lead technical execution of assigned projects, subsystems, or work packages from initial direction through delivery, including ownership of engineering scope, technical progress, risks, deliverables, and execution outcomes
• Translate high-level direction from senior leadership, customers, contracts, purchase orders, statements of work, and proposed efforts into executable engineering plans for multidisciplinary teams
• Decompose ambiguous technical or program direction into actionable work packages, including tasks, owners, dependencies, milestones, assumptions, acceptance criteria, and required deliverables
• Lead multidisciplinary engineering teams across systems, electrical, mechanical, software, manufacturing, quality, test, and production-support functions
• Apply engineering judgment to evaluate technical plans, design approaches, test strategies, integration plans, risks, tradeoffs, dependencies, and proposed solutions
• Drive technical progress against schedule, budget, requirements, and performance objectives, while ensuring engineering plans are technically coherent and executable
• Identify gaps, ambiguities, conflicts, missing information, unsupported assumptions, weak risk burn-down plans, and unclear acceptance criteria
• Lead design reviews, test readiness reviews, customer reviews, technical interchange meetings, and internal program reviews
• Work with senior leadership, program/project management, customers, suppliers, subcontractors, and technical stakeholders to clarify scope, resolve ambiguity, and drive execution issues to closure
• Maintain project documentation, action items, engineering metrics, decision records, execution plans, risk registers, and technical status reporting
• Lead technical change management activities related to scope, requirements, configuration control, technical trade studies, verification, validation, and integration
• Serve as the technical point of contact for assigned projects