Lead Systems Engineer

About this role

Lead Systems Engineer at Arête Glacier Initiative

Arête Glacier Initiative

Lead Systems Engineer

• Washington, DC - Remote (any location)
• Full-Time
• $175,000 – $230,000 / year
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**Overview**

Climate change is destabilizing marine ice sheets, creating a risk of catastrophic sea-level rise over the next century. Arête Glacier Initiative is a nonprofit dedicated to improving forecasts of ice-sheet change and rigorously evaluating potential options to reduce that risk. Our work includes assessing whether proposed interventions are effective, safe, environmentally responsible, technically feasible, economically viable, and socially legitimate. We follow a staged research and technology development process, and advancing to later stages depends on evidence demonstrating that these criteria can be met.

This is a program leadership role for an experienced systems engineer. As Lead Systems Engineer, you will own a major pillar of our technical work, including its roadmap, budget, and team, while staying closely involved in the engineering itself. The program covers early-stage concept development, laboratory validation, field testing, and development of potential field-deployable hardware for glacier intervention technologies, such as subglacial water extraction systems, thermosiphons, and monitoring instrumentation for Antarctic field conditions. Whether any intervention is needed or would work has not yet been established, and development at each stage depends on scientific evidence of efficacy and safety. You will build and lead the team executing the engineering work, starting mainly with external contractors and vendors and potentially adding internal hires as the organization grows over the coming years. This role reports to the CTO.

**Minimum Qualifications**

• BS/MS in mechanical, electrical, systems, aerospace, or a closely related engineering discipline (or equivalent experience)
• 10+ years of engineering experience, including leading the design and delivery of complex electromechanical or field-deployed hardware systems from concept through operational deployment
• Demonstrated experience translating an early-stage technical concept (TRL 1–3) into a validated, fieldable system (TRL 6+), including defining test plans, success criteria, and exit conditions at each stage
• Experience building and leading distributed engineering teams, through a combination of an internal team, external contractors and vendors.
• Experience owning technical budgets and vendor/contractor relationships
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, resource-constrained environments typical of an early-stage organization
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in cross-functional, multi-disciplinary teams alongside scientists and researchers

**Preferred Qualifications**

• Experience with systems deployed in extreme, remote, or logistically constrained environments (polar fieldwork, offshore, subsea or aerospace)
• Familiarity with techno-economic analysis (TEA), including CAPEX/OPEX modeling for multi-unit or multi-site deployments through different phases of development.
• Experience working alongside or within academic/research institutions or national labs
• Familiarity with systems engineering practices (requirements management, verification & validation planning, risk/FMEA) in a low-volume, high-reliability hardware context
• Experience with pumping, drilling, fluid handling, or subsurface access systems
• Experience standing up or scaling an engineering function inside a growing startup or nonprofit

**Role and Responsibilities**

• Define and own a staged technical roadmap that incorporates explicit technical, environmental, safety and scientific decision gates.
• Ensure progression through TRL-stage research and technoeconomic analysis into an executable systems design, test, and deployment plan, supported by scientific evidence and predefined success criteria.
• Build the hiring plan and budget for your area, and manage external engineers, technicians, and contractors and potential internal hires needed to execute it.
• Lead component and vendor selection and manage external vendor and contractor relationships
• Design and oversee laboratory and field validation campaigns, from analog test sites through single-site field demonstrations and multi-well analog deployments
• Own systems-level risk management, including identification of technical, environmental, operational and societal risks. Identify failure modes (e.g., technical failure, subsurface reconfiguration, logistics/disposal risk) and drive mitigation into the design
• Collaborate closely with the science and research engineering teams to ensure hardware and field systems are grounded in, and responsive to, the underlying glaciological and hydrological models
• Represent the engineering program to funders, partners, and the board as needed, including reporting on technical progress against roadmap milestones
• Contribute to organization-wide engineering practices and hiring as the team scales
• Participate in regular team research and engineering reviews, contributing to and receiving feedback on approach and results
• Partner with scientific leadership to determine/evaluate whether to advance, modify or discontinue program based on scientific results at each stage
• Adapt to a changing environment typical for early stage programs.

**Additional Notes**

This position is fully remote, with periodic in-person meetings and occasional field travel (including potentially to remote locations) as needed to fulfill the responsibilities of the role. This role will need to maintain core working hours of 9am-3pm ET.

**Other Duties**

Please note that this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Arête Glacier Initiative is a newly launched nonprofit initiative, and as such, we are in the early stages of building our programs and team. This role requires a high degree of flexibility, adaptability, and a willingness to take on diverse tasks as we develop and grow.

We encourage anyone who is interested in this role to apply, regardless of whether you feel you meet 100% of the qualifications. The top candidates will bring their own unique perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds from a variety of industries along with many but not necessarily all of the skills listed above.

**Our Approach**

Arête does not begin with the assumption that glacier interventions should be deployed. Our mission is to generate the evidence needed to determine whether proposed approaches are technically effective, environmentally responsible, economically viable, and societally acceptable. Some concepts may advance through successive research stages; others may be redesigned or discontinued if the evidence does not support continued development.