Systems Integration and Requirements Engineer

Position Overview

NIRA Inc. is seeking a Systems Integration and Requirements Engineer to support Federal Aviation Administration programs involving ground-based air traffic management and airport operational systems.

Working alongside a Lead Systems Engineer, the selected candidate will translate operational needs into measurable requirements, document system interfaces, analyze real-time performance, and develop the technical evidence needed to support integration, testing, and operational readiness.

This position requires practical experience with integrated hardware, software, communications networks, field sensors or surveillance equipment, and operator-facing systems. The successful candidate must be comfortable reviewing technical documentation, identifying inconsistencies, investigating system behavior, and developing clear engineering recommendations.

This is a hands-on engineering position focused on requirements, integration, and verification-not an enterprise IT administration, helpdesk, or project-coordination role.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop requirements and maintain traceability. Draft and refine functional, performance, interface, and supportability requirements. Maintain requirements traceability matrices linking operational needs to system requirements, design information, verification methods, and test evidence. Identify ambiguous, conflicting, missing, or untestable requirements and support their resolution.
• Document and analyze system interfaces. Develop interface control documents, data-flow diagrams, equipment/interface inventories, and integration specifications. Document communication protocols, data formats, timing and synchronization, system boundaries, and dependencies among field equipment, processing platforms, operational displays, recording functions, and external systems.
• Evaluate real-time performance and resilience. Analyze end-to-end latency, bandwidth, jitter, packet loss, data quality, synchronization, redundancy, and failure recovery. Review technical assumptions and supporting calculations. Assess how component or interface failures affect the required operational functions, including degraded modes and restoration.
• Review technical documentation and control engineering changes. Evaluate supplier specifications, architecture documents, interface descriptions, configuration records, and test reports against the applicable requirements. Maintain technical issue logs and document the effects of proposed changes on interfaces, performance, safety, security, testing, and supportability.
• Support deployment and multidisciplinary coordination. Prepare technical inputs to site-readiness assessments, implementation plans, and transition-to-service documentation. Coordinate with systems engineering, operations, safety, cybersecurity, human-factors, maintenance, and test personnel. Provide engineering assumptions and dependencies to program, cost, and schedule teams.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, or a closely related technical discipline, consistent with applicable contract requirements.
• At least five years of relevant engineering experience, including at least three years supporting integration, requirements development, or verification of ground-based air traffic management, airport operational systems, aviation surveillance or communications, or comparable real-time aviation systems.
• Demonstrated experience developing engineering work products, including system requirements, requirements traceability matrices, interface specifications, technical diagrams, test procedures, or verification reports. Candidates must be able to explain their personal contribution to these products.
• Practical understanding of integrated operational systems that combine field equipment or sensors, network transport, processing software, and operator interfaces. Experience must extend beyond standalone application development or routine office-network support.
• Working knowledge of IP-based communications and real-time system performance, including TCP/UDP, network segmentation, multicast or comparable data-distribution methods, quality of service, timing and synchronization, and redundancy. Ability to relate these concepts to operational performance and integration requirements.
• Hands-on integration and testing experience, including use of logs, packet captures, measurements, or other technical evidence to investigate issues. Experience developing or applying pass/fail criteria, documenting defects, and verifying corrective actions.
• Strong technical-writing and analytical skills, attention to configuration and version control, and the ability to manage assigned engineering tasks with limited day-to-day supervision.
• Ability to meet applicable government background-investigation and facility or system-access requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience supporting FAA or National Airspace System engineering programs, including technical reviews, operational testing, site acceptance, or transition to service.
• Experience with sensor-based situational awareness, surveillance-data processing, operational displays, or real-time audio/video systems, including assessment of information quality, latency, synchronization, and operator-interface behavior.
• Familiarity with system-safety, cybersecurity, human-factors, reliability, or maintainability activities and how those disciplines affect requirements, interfaces, and verification.
• Experience using requirements-management tools, network-analysis tools, scripting, or data-analysis tools to maintain traceability, investigate system behavior, and summarize test results.