Senior Development Assurance Engineer

Team: Airworthiness & Certification

Location: Boston or Remote

Commitment: Full Time

Workplace Type: remote

Responsibilities:

●Assess existing processes and tools against ARP4754B to identify gaps and drive improvements.
● Own the refinement, maintenance, and continuous improvement of Development Assurance process
documentation compliant with SAE ARP4754B, scaled to different levels of rigor across program types.
● Partner closely with Merlins technology organization to advance the following focus areas:
○ Assist Systems Engineering in developing robust requirements sets spanning prototype through
full production configurations.
○ Define the path toward a common requirements database usable across multiple software versions
and aircraft deployments.
○ Cross-train in development assurance compliance for DO-178C and DO-254 to extend audit and
process support beyond the systems level.
○ Assist in standardizing and strengthening Merlins problem reporting system.
○ Support general Part 25 certification process development.
○ Support and cross train in military airworthiness process improvements aligned with MIL-HDBK-516
● Build the Development Assurance plans, audit plans, and process control plans Merlin will need for future
certification programs that carry ARP4754B in their certification basis.
● Lead cross-functional teams through complex development assurance solutions on challenging program
schedules.
●Integrate development assurance processes into Merlins institutional knowledge, partnering with
engineering teams across Autonomy, Air Vehicle Integration, and Flight Test & Operations.
● Serve as a trainer, teacher, and mentor to engineering teams, building organization-wide fluency in
development assurance standards, expectations, and workflows — not just documenting them.
● Conduct independent audits confirming engineering teams are following established Development
Assurance processes, ahead of and during programs that require ARP4754B compliance.
● Collaborate with Engineering to keep process specifications current as programs, tools, and regulatory
guidance evolve.

Qualifications:

●6-9 years of experience in Development Assurance with a Bachelors degree, 4-6 years with a Masters degree, or 2-3 years with a PhD, in Engineering, Quality Assurance, or a related field
● Direct, hands-on experience developing, implementing, or auditing engineering processes under SAE ARP4754A/B and SAE ARP4761/A
● Experience partnering with Systems Engineering to develop and mature requirements sets across prototype through full production configurations
● Strong audit, technical writing, and communication skills, including experience training or mentoring engineers on process and compliance topics
● Experience working with regulatory agencies (FAA or equivalent) on Part 23, 25, or 29 certification projects, including Part 25 Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) experience
● Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams through complex development assurance solutions on challenging schedules
● Demonstrated independence in decision-making, with the judgment to apply the right level of rigor to different projects rather than a single standard to everything

Nice to Haves:

●Development Assurance experience applied to avionics or autonomous flight systems
● Experience with Software Quality Assurance
● Start-to-finish Supplemental or Amended Type Certificate (STC/ATC) experience
● Experience standing up or scaling development assurance processes from scratch at a growing company
● Working familiarity with DO-178C / DO-254, or a demonstrated ability to cross-train into
software/hardware development assurance compliance alongside systems-level ARP4754B work
● Experience with common requirements management tools (e.g., Jama, DOORS) across multiple software baselines or product configurations