Lead Engineer, Systems at Beehive Industries in Knoxville, TN

Beehive Industries is dedicated to Powering American Defense by revolutionizing the design, development, and delivery of jet propulsion systems to support the warfighter. Through the integration of additive manufacturing, the company aims to meet the growing and urgent needs for unmanned aerial defense by dramatically improving a jet engine’s speed to market, fuel efficiency, and cost.

Founded in 2020, the company is headquartered in Centennial, Colorado, with additional facilities in Knoxville, Tennessee, Loveland Ohio, and Mount Vernon, Ohio. Beehive is committed to grow and advance the defense industrial base while manufacturing exclusively in the USA. This role will be located at our Knoxville, Tennessee facility.

Role Overview

The Systems Engineer within Sustaining Engineering is responsible for maintaining the technical integrity and performance of products as they transition into and operate within production. This role serves as a cross-functional technical integrator, working across Design Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Test, Supply Chain, and Operations to resolve issues affecting production, product performance, reliability, and configuration.

The Systems Engineer evaluates problems at the system level, ensuring that proposed dispositions, design changes, and process improvements account for requirements, interfaces, downstream impacts, and overall engine performance. This role will support rapid resolution of production and test issues while helping mature existing products for repeatable, reliable production. The successful candidate will be comfortable navigating complex technical problems, bringing the right engineering disciplines together, and driving issues from initial identification through verified resolution.

What You’ll Do...

• Lead system-level investigation and resolution of technical issues affecting production, assembly, test, quality, and product performance.

• Evaluate non-conformances, test anomalies, and production issues to understand potential impacts to system requirements, performance, interfaces, reliability, and product integrity.

• Serve as a technical integrator across engineering disciplines, including mechanical design, aerothermal, controls and accessories, electrical, test, manufacturing, and quality.

• Coordinate root cause investigations and corrective actions for complex issues that span multiple components, subsystems, or engineering disciplines.

• Assess proposed engineering dispositions and design changes for potential system-level impacts and unintended consequences.

• Maintain a strong understanding of product requirements, subsystem interfaces, operating conditions, and critical technical characteristics.

• Support requirements management, traceability, verification, and validation activities associated with sustaining engineering changes.

• Partner with design and manufacturing teams to identify opportunities to improve product producibility, reliability, maintainability, and repeatability.

• Support engineering change activities by helping define technical requirements, coordinating cross-functional reviews, and ensuring changes are appropriately verified before implementation.

• Review production and test data to identify trends, recurring issues, and opportunities for product or process improvement.

• Support failure investigations, including development of problem statements, fault trees, causal analyses, corrective actions, and verification plans.

• Participate in material review, configuration control, design reviews, production readiness reviews, and other technical decision-making forums.

• Ensure sustaining engineering decisions are appropriately documented and aligned with product requirements and configuration.

• Communicate technical issues, risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations clearly to engineering teams, program leadership, operations, and other stakeholders.

• Help establish tools, processes, and engineering practices that improve the efficiency and rigor of sustaining engineering activities.

• Support knowledge transfer between product development teams and sustaining, manufacturing, quality, and test organizations.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

You have...

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or another technical discipline from an accredited university or college.

Desired Experience

• 10 years of experience supporting aerospace products or systems.

• Demonstrated history of providing direct engineering support to manufacturing operations and quality inspections.

• Hands-on experience collaborating across integrated supply chains, including manufacturing, quality, operations, and design engineering teams.

• Proficiency with additive manufacturing methods, process optimization, and design for manufacturability.

• Familiarity with critical features unique to jet engine design.

• Proven track record participating in root cause analyses, corrective actions, and continuous improvement initiatives on the shop floor.

• Experience interpreting complex engineering drawings, specifications, and GD&T for aerospace parts.

• Exposure to production quality systems, audits, and process control in a high-compliance environment.

• Excellent communication, problem-solving, and teamwork skills demonstrated in fast-paced manufacturing settings.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong knowledge of engineering support within manufacturing and assembly environments.

• Demonstrated expertise in identifying, analyzing, and resolving non-conformances in highly engineered parts.

• Proficient with additive manufacturing processes, methods, and design for additive guidelines.

• Familiarity with jet engine design principles and experience with turbomachinery components is highly desirable.

• Ability to interpret mechanical drawings, specifications, and Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T).

• Experience collaborating with vertically integrated supply chains.

• Problem-solving and root cause analysis capabilities in a production context.

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills for cross-functional teamwork.

• Proactive approach to process and product improvement.

• Comfort working in a dynamic, fast-paced manufacturing setting.

• Experience with production quality systems and process control is a plus.

• Continuous learning mindset and adaptability to new technologies and methods.

• Demonstrated problem-solving ability and strong program leadership and execution skills.

• Proven ability to work independently, learn quickly, and operate effectively in fast-paced, cross-functional teams.

• The ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government-issued security clearance is required. U.S. citizenship is required, as only U.S. citizens are eligible for a security clearance

If this sounds like you, please submit an application with your resume. This could be the opportunity you are looking for to expand your skills, contribute to a winning team, and work with talented people who love what they do and take pride in

Beehive Industries offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes group Medical, Dental, Life, and Short and Long-Term disability coverage from day one. We also offer a generous 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan with a Company match. Every role at Beehive Industries is bonus eligible and will also receive equity in the company.

Beehive Industries is committed to full compliance with applicable anti-discrimination laws. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We strive to create an inclusive work environment and will not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.