Direct Hire

System Integration & Labs Manager

Merlin Labs · Boston

Metro: Boston, MA
Craft: eVTOL
Job Type: Flight Operations

About the role

About Merlin:

Merlin is a venture backed aerospace startup building a non-human pilot to enable both reduced crew and uncrewed flight. Backed by some of the world’s leading investors, Merlin is scaling alongside our customers to begin leveraging autonomy today to solve some of aviation’s biggest challenges.

About you:

We are seeking a Systems Integration & Labs Manager to lead the design, build, and operation of HIL, AIR and SIL environments that support flight controls development, autonomy validation, and multi-aircraft integration.

This role owns the physical integration layer of the simulation ecosystem — ensuring stable, repeatable, and scalable deployment of hardware-in-the-loop and lab-based validation environments across multiple aircraft platforms.

Responsibilities:

1. Test Environment Leadership

Lead the design, build, and lifecycle management of HIL, AIR, and SIL environments

Establish configuration control standards for hardware, networking, and physical integration

Ensure lab infrastructure scales cleanly across multiple aircraft platforms

2. Integration Stability & Discipline

Implement structured integration processes

Define and enforce bench configuration versioning and compatibility practices

Partner with the Simulation Platform pillar to ensure clean deployment of platform-defined topologies

3. Team Leadership

Manage and grow a team of integration engineers

Set technical standards for hardware integration, signal integrity, and deployment

Provide escalation support during integration and validation events

4. Cross-Functional Coordination

Collaborate with Flight Dynamics and Simulation Platform teams

Support flight test preparation and remote integration events

Interface with Systems, Autonomy, and Compute Platform teams to align integration timelines

Qualifications:

8+ years of experience in systems integration, HIL/SIL environments, or complex hardware/software integration

Experience leading integration efforts across evolving system configurations
Strong understanding of real-time I/O, embedded interfaces, and hardware-in-the-loop validation

Experience managing technical teams in a multidisciplinary engineering environment

Demonstrated ability to bring structure and discipline to evolving integration workflows

Nice to Have:

Experience with aerospace or autonomy systems

Experience deploying virtualized compute infrastructure in lab environments

Familiarity with configuration management and compatibility versioning strategies

This position is based on-site at Merlin HQ in Boston, MA.

Once you’re here, you’ll enjoy a variety of on-site perks designed to make your workday enjoyable and convenient. These include catered lunches featuring a rotating menu of delicious options, an assortment of snacks to keep you fueled throughout the day, and a selection of beverages, including coffee, tea, and other drinks, to keep you refreshed.

Our goal is to create an environment where you can thrive both professionally and personally

Merlin Labs offers an innovative, entrepreneurial, and team-focused startup environment. We also offer a top-notch benefits package (health, dental, life, unlimited vacation, and 401k with match) and work/life integration. Being part of the Merlin team allows you to become part of a small team that supports professional development while working together to achieve our mission.