Senior Sales Engineer - Mission Systems Integration
EXPANSIA· enterprise· Defense & Space· Oct 22, 2026 · 6d ago
Pax River, MD
Hybrid
Full-time
Senior
$180K–$240K
10+ years exp
Job description
Start Date: January 2027
JHNA, CTSi, and EXPANSIA have come together to form a Defense Technology platform named Aether Aerospace focused on delivering high-impact technologies, technology-enabled services and advanced manufacturing solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense and related national security customers. Backed by Falfurrias Management Partners, the platform brings together deep domain expertise across Army, Navy, and Air Force and Space Force programs, digital engineering, systems integration, and specialized manufacturing capabilities.
The combined organization operates as a multi-entity aerospace and defense technology and tech-enabled services and manufacturing enterprise positioned for scalable growth, operational excellence, and long-term value creation.
OVERVIEW
Full-time/Permanent Employee
Location: Onsite Huntsville, AL
Aether Aerospace is currently seeking a Senior Sales Engineer to serve as Aether's customer-facing technical sales specialist for priority differentiated products and mission-systems integration solutions. Working closely with Product Sales & Commercialization, Growth, Capture Leads, and Engineering, this position combines technical expertise with customer engagement to qualify product applications, demonstrate Aether's capabilities, develop technically credible solution approaches, and support the conversion of customer interest into funded business.
The role is responsible for technically qualifying customer opportunities, demonstrating product applicability, addressing technical barriers to adoption, and helping advance qualified opportunities toward funded integration and fielding. A central objective is to support Aether's strategy of accelerating priority product opportunities from non-recurring engineering (NRE) to fielding, targeting approximately 24 months where technically and commercially feasible.
This is a hands-on, highly customer-facing role for an experienced avionics or mission-systems engineer who can move comfortably between technical discovery, solution development, demonstrations, and capture support. The successful candidate does not need to be the engineer who performs every integration task but must have the technical depth and judgment to establish credibility with Government and OEM engineering teams, develop an initial integration approach, and know when to bring in additional Aether subject-matter experts.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Customer Technical Engagement & Discovery
• Lead technical discovery with Government customers, OEMs, primes, and mission-system providers to understand platform architecture, interfaces, integration constraints, mission needs, and desired outcomes.
• Represent Aether's priority products and differentiated solutions in customer meetings, technical interchange meetings (TIMs), demonstrations, industry events, and partner discussions.
• Identify and technically qualify customer use cases across aircraft platforms, mission systems, weapons/stores, sensors, avionics, autonomy, and related integration environments, assessing product applicability, feasibility, and potential for reuse.
• Communicate Aether's technical capabilities clearly and credibly to technical and non-technical audiences without overpromising performance or applicability.
Technical Solution Development & Feasibility
• Develop initial solution concepts, integration approaches, system/interface architectures, demonstration plans, and prototype concepts based on customer requirements.
• Assess technical feasibility, key interfaces, dependencies, risks, test needs, and integration constraints associated with prospective applications.
• Support technical discussions involving avionics interfaces and data buses, mission computers, weapons/stores integration, software hosting, SIL/HWIL environments, open architectures, and aircraft integration/test.
• Work with Aether engineering teams to translate customer needs into executable technical scope and repeatable, technically supportable solutions.
Technical Sales & Opportunity Conversion
• Lead the technical planning, preparation, and execution of customer-facing product demonstrations and technical engagement plans, coordinating with Product and Engineering to align activities with customer use cases and decision milestones.
• Translate customer technical requirements into clear product configurations, integration approaches, and technical recommendations that support customer purchasing decisions and funded opportunities.
• Partner with the Product Sales & Commercialization and Capture Leads to advance priority opportunities from technical discovery through customer validation, solution development, proposal preparation, and funding decisions.
• Identify technical barriers to customer adoption and recommend actions to improve product readiness, integration efficiency, and fielding potential.
Capture, Proposal & Growth Support
• Coordinate with Capture Leads to align technical solutions, demonstrations, and prototype strategies with customer requirements, capture strategies, and acquisition timelines.
• Develop or contribute technical content for capability briefs, white papers, RFIs/RFQs, proposals, statements of work, technical volumes, and rough-order-of-magnitude (ROM) estimates.
• Help define technical scope, assumptions, labor/skill mix, schedule, hardware/software needs, and risks needed for ROMs and proposals.
• Support teaming and partner discussions by defining Aether's technical role, interfaces, dependencies, and value within proposed solutions.
Product & Market Feedback
• Identify recurring customer requirements, integration patterns, and lessons learned across engagements and pursuits to inform product roadmaps, investment priorities, and solution development.
• Help distinguish reusable product capabilities from customer-specific engineering to support scalable delivery and avoid unnecessary one-off solutions.
• Maintain awareness of relevant platform modernization, MOSA/open architecture, avionics, weapons integration, autonomy, and mission-system trends that may create new applications for Aether's differentiated offerings
KEY QUALIFICATIONS
Clearance: Ability to obtain a Secret Clearance (Active Secret with TS eligibility preferred)
Education & Years of Experience: Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Systems, Aerospace, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline; equivalent highly relevant experience may be considered. 10+ years of relevant experience in defense systems engineering, mission systems integration, avionics, aircraft integration, weapons/stores integration, or related technical disciplines.
Demonstrated experience with avionics and mission-system architectures, interfaces, integration, verification/test, and laboratory or aircraft integration environments.
Working knowledge of MOSA and open architecture concepts; ability to apply those concepts to real integration problems.
Experience participating in customer-facing technical discussions and translating operational or engineering needs into solution concepts and executable technical scope.
Experience supporting technical capture, solution selling, demonstrations, white papers, ROM development, and proposals in the DoD market.
Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly in meetings, briefings, demonstrations, white papers, and proposal content.
Ability to work across Growth, Engineering, Program Management, Contracts, Pricing, and external partner teams in a fast-moving capture environment.
Ability to travel regularly for customer meetings, demonstrations, technical interchanges, and industry events.
PREFERRED ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Hands-on experience with aircraft avionics interfaces/data buses, mission computers, weapons integration, software integration, or embedded mission systems.
Experience with SIL/HWIL environments, integration laboratories, flight-test support, or rapid prototyping.
Familiarity with FACE, SOSA, Time-Sensitive Networking, OMS/UCI, or other relevant open architecture standards and approaches.
Experience supporting Army Aviation, Air Force, NAVAIR, weapon-system OEMs, or major defense primes in a technical integration role.
Experience working across multiple aircraft platforms or adapting a common integration approach to different platform architectures.
Existing relationships within Army Aviation, Air Force aviation/armament, NAVAIR, or relevant OEM/prime contractor communities.
Aether Aerospace is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected characteristic.
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