Principal Systems Engineer

About Us

At Quartermaster AI, we believe the ocean should be a safe and sustainably managed resource for all. By leveraging cutting-edge AI and robotics, we unlock capabilities that were only recently impossible. Our distributed open-ocean systems enable every vessel to sense, compute, and communicate, enhancing maritime domain awareness for those who need it most.

Job Description

Quartermaster AI is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer to own the end-to-end technical architecture of our rapidly growing RF capability - from antenna through edge processing to cloud. You will decompose product and customer requirements into hardware and software specifications, own major design and architectural decisions, and set interface standards across subsystems, ensuring the system meets technical requirements and is built for scale, flexibility, and reliability.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end system architecture: From antenna, to analog components, to integration with software defined radio (SDR) and edge computing hardware, to data transport, to the cloud, and all the interfaces between.
• Develop and maintain system design documentation: System requirements specifications, ICDs, architecture descriptions, and future concepts.
• Resolve cross-functional technical conflicts, ensuring RF, embedded systems, compute/algorithm, and cloud development efforts are aligned to key design and performance objectives.
• Set and refine system technical requirements by evaluating tradeoffs between COTS, modified COTS, and custom developments
• Ensure timing accuracy and synchronization across distributed systems.
• Understand best practices in characterizing and managing system-level time and frequency biases.
• Manage requirements traceability from customer mission needs through verification and validation.
• Lead technical risk identification and mitigation at the system level.
• Oversee and define the test and evaluation architecture; ensure lab test infrastructure aligns to greatest system risks to maximize durability and lifespan.

Qualifications (Preferred)

• 15+ years in systems engineering, RF-centric payload design, or distributed sensor system architecture.
• Demonstrated design leadership and ownership with fielded RF sensing systems.
• Experience with distributed sensor network architectures: edge compute, multiple transport paths, and cloud-based processing pipelines.
• High precision systems: time and frequency bias characterization, calibration methodologies, accuracy budgeting.
• Strong systems engineering process discipline: requirements decomposition, ICD development, PDR/CDR ownership.
• Experience with SDR and FPGA hardware integration: wideband acquisition, digitization, and digital back-end interfaces.
• Active Secret clearance, or demonstrated ability to obtain one.

Strongly Preferred

• Experience with systems deployed to harsh operational environments and/or cluttered spectral environments.
• Experience technically managing hardware subcontractors and vendors producing customized technical solutions.