Are there any system safety folks here? Just got a position recommended but I have never heard of this before. How does the long term career potential look like? How is the pay potential?

Sorry if this is the wrong sub to ask this question but it’s in the same department as systems engineers so I assumed they were somewhat related.

I’m really proud of my career and I’ve spent the past five years loving a majority of the various Aerospace/Systems Engineering roles I have had.

I love being an engineer I really do, but I’ve started to question at what cost is it all worth it.

The past 8 months I’ve worked for a company that has taught me so much. I’m young so I figure hell why not spend a majority of my days focusing on work, I figured I’d have more time in my 20s then any other point in my life.

But 8 months later I find myself stuck in 12 hour days, only focusing on work, pushing other fun hobbies to the side, etc. My work is pretty extreme. Harsh deadlines, intense management, complexity of working in the space industry and poor PM leadership.

I guess I just don’t really know if it’s all worth it for me. I’m so burnt out and I’m so so tired but there’s no escape. It just feels like I’m drowning and it’s quickly gone from enjoyable to just purely unmanageable.

Does anyone have any advice?

Anyone here successfully moved from defense systems engineering into commercial tech or space? Trying to figure out what I'm missing.

Background is 10 years in systems engineering, Air Force, then Northrop Grumman, then GE Healthcare, currently at a defense contractor. I've stripped every bit of defense language off my resume. No program names, no military acronyms, no mission coded terms, nothing. Bullets read as pure enterprise systems work, architecture, requirements management, cross functional delivery, translated into normal commercial language on purpose.

It hasn't mattered. I'm still only getting inbound from defense recruiters, most of them lowballing on comp. Enterprise tech and commercial space aren't biting even when the resume in front of them doesn't say defense anywhere on it.

My guess at this point is that it's not actually the bullet language doing the damage, it's the employer names themselves. Four employers in a row where two are literally named defense primes probably tells an ATS or a recruiter everything it needs to know regardless of how the work is described underneath. Curious if that tracks with anyone else's experience, or if there's something else going on I'm not seeing. Did networking end up mattering more than the resume for anyone who actually made this jump?

Hello Reddit, I’m currently exploring the possibility of pursuing a PhD in North America, Europe, or elsewhere, and I’d really value some perspectives from people working in Systems Engineering, MBSE, AI, or adjacent research areas.

My background is somewhat unconventional for SE. I completed my bachelor’s in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, then moved into Computer Science with a focus on AI for my master’s. Since then, I’ve spent the past few years working professionally in AI, Natural Language Processing, Automatic Speech Recognition and Engineering/Software with my current work being closely related to Systems Engineering and MBSE. This exposure to the SE/MBSE space has gradually made me interested in making it a potential long-term specialization.

What particularly interests me is the intersection of AI × Systems Engineering × MBSE — for example, using AI to assist with requirements, system architecture, modeling, traceability, verification/validation, and other parts of the systems lifecycle.

At this point, I’m considering whether a PhD would be the right next step and would appreciate some honest perspectives from people who have been in the field for a while.

A few things I’m particularly curious about:

1. How valuable is a PhD for building a long-term career in Systems Engineering/MBSE research and practice?

2. Would an interdisciplinary profile combining engineering + AI + MBSE, along with some practical exposure to the SE/MBSE industry, be useful for Systems Engineering research groups?

3. Which areas at the AI–SE/MBSE intersection have genuine research potential beyond simply applying LLMs to existing workflows?

4. Would you recommend a PhD specifically in Systems Engineering, or pursuing one through Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace, etc. with a Systems Engineering/MBSE-focused research topic?

5. How important are SysML/SysML v2, requirements engineering, system architecture, formal methods, and MBSE fundamentals for someone coming from an AI background? I know the basics of SysML and SysML v2 and am still learning and practicing them.

6. More importantly, how do experienced systems engineers view the long-term resilience and career prospects of SE/MBSE as engineering workflows become increasingly AI-enabled? Which parts of systems engineering are likely to become more valuable, and which parts may become increasingly automated?

7. For those already in academia or industry, what would you consider a strong profile for someone with an AI/engineering background trying to deepen their involvement in Systems Engineering?

I’d also be interested in hearing from professors or research groups working on AI-assisted systems engineering, intelligent MBSE, AI for engineering design, or related topics. If you’re working in this area, I’d be genuinely interested in learning about your research.

I’m still at the exploration stage regarding the PhD itself, but I already have some practical exposure to the SE/MBSE ecosystem. I’m particularly interested in perspectives based on actual experience rather than generic career advice.

Interested to hear if/how people using AI for Systems Engineering tasks....

Are you strictly using it for documentation formatting and basic admin, or are you pushing it into design / analysis tasks? If so, what checks and balances have you established?

Seems inevitable that AI is going to grow in our sector but due to the lack of determinism inherent in many AI tools it feels like there is a limit to its use.

Curious to hear if anyone has had any success stories.

Hey everyone!

I’m a beginner trying to learn System Design from scratch, but I’m already running short on time.

There are so many YouTube channels, playlists, courses, and blogs that I don’t want to waste the limited time I have trying out 10–20 different channels just to figure out which ones are actually worth following.
So I’d really appreciate recommendations for the best resources you personally trust and would recommend to a beginner.

I've been working with requirements and V&V workflows, and there are a few repetitive tasks I keep finding frustrating:

• figuring out what requirements/tests are impacted after a change
• reviewing whether requirements are actually well written and testable
• checking whether requirements are properly covered by test cases
• finding gaps or inconsistencies in requirement → test traceability

I'm thinking about building a small open-source plugin around one of these problems, mostly as a side project and to contribute something useful to the community.

For those working with DOORS, Polarion, Codebeamer, Jama, etc.: which of these is the most painful in practice?

Or is there another boring/manual task in your day-to-day workflow that you'd automate before any of these?

I'm especially curious about the things you currently solve with Excel, scripts, manual reviews, or just lots of clicking.

Is it a bad career idea to jump different domains in systems engineering from your experience? I’ve done automotive -> aerospace -> audio

Is this something looked down upon or good due to the varying engineering experiences gained

Does implementation of MBSE in FSAE teams truly help in overall management of iterations , failure analyses, risk management etc. Or is it an unnecessary added complexity ?

Im currently a Project Manager for industrial manufacturing. Ive been handling a ton of DoD and Space projects. The more I work with them, the more I want to pivot to that industry. I am just not sure that I want to do it as a Project Manager.

I work hand and hand with engineering and making sure we stay in compliance with the spec and program requirements. Lately I have been doing alot of the preliminary calcs for quoting.

Do you think that a MS in Systems Engineering will allow me to pivot easier into the Defense or Space sector as a Systems engineer / Program Manager? With a long term goal of a director level position. I have time on my GI bill left to knock it out.

I have a bit of a generalist background. Ive always been the guy who figures it out when my boss has an issue.

BA Criminal Justice

MBA in Finance

4 years Army Infantry

2.5 years Patriot Missile System (TCA)

3 years Automation Project Manager

2.5 years Industrial Manufacturing Project Manager

$69 million portfolio of active and completed projects. Executive level reporting and customer facing roles. I wear many hats from planning, compliance, to financial reconciliation.

End game goal is make the Defense or Space pivot. Im thinking that this is the way to do it. I would appreciate any input.

I am a recent engineering graduate, trying to land my first Junior MBSE/System engineering role.

I can afford only one certification right now :
INCOSE ASEP or OMG SysML

I already have good hands and experience with Catia Magic/ Cameo and SysML / MBSE , and my long-term goal is CSEP.

I have been getting rejected from some interviews, because recruiters/interviews ask whether I have recognised/valid certification.

For people working in MBSE/systems engineering:
Which certification would actually help more when applying for entry-level jobs?

Hi,

I work for the Human Factors team in a large engineering company.

We've been working on trying to identify the specific steps involved in various large scale operational scenarios (e.g. initiation of and response to a fire in a control room, or simply manoeuvring a vehicle) so that we can apply detailed HF analysis to each of the steps. The purpose of this is to draw out design requirements for the systems (and/or physical environments) that will increase the likelihood of task success, particularly in safety-critical scenarios.

We have been capturing these scenarios in custom flowcharts which very closely resemble a hybrid between Activity Diagrams and Sequence Diagrams, and we will continue to use those due to their value in representing task and process flows etc.

However, I've now been tasked with looking into the potential for using actual SysML more broadly in the work, and what I'm struggling most with is how the diagrams relate to each other in terms of how they fit together in a sort of jigsaw?

Like, are there any diagram types that have to be developed before you develop the next type of diagram (e.g. you have to develop a Block Definition Diagram before you develop an Internal Block Diagram)?

Can I apply the systems engineering approach and 'Human Factorise' it? E.g. do a State Machine diagram but instead of system states it could be states of different individuals or teams?

I am totally new to SysEng and SysML and so don't really know if what I'm asking makes sense...

I guess what I'm asking is, if you were doing the job I described above, how would you approach using SysML to capture task procedures and track / manage the various information that could be collected throughout?

Hello all,

I almost a year ago took a SE position where essentially I am working the life cycle development of a complex system however we’re more overseeing another entity performing the technical work while we make sure with our respective domain SMEs and engineers that they are doing the job right. During my interview I asked about MBSE which I’m really interested in doing digital engineering centered work with an MBSE effort. The reply essentially was what is MBSE and we don’t really do that much at all. I should’ve probably took that as a big sign however this was my first SE position and starting my career. I have completed my masters this year in SE and am half way through with the ocsmp MBSE course that deligatti offers which I’ll finish this weekend. What I’m getting at now is that I want to do more MBSE work which I’ve mentioned to my PM early this year but see no way in the position I’m in now (wishful thinking on my part due to culture changes etc). Two positions that call out MBSE under my same Pm have posted. They don’t seem to be my niche but still not sure. I’m planning on talking with my PM about it however they are taking a higher position within the company and my old PM from my previous job will be my new PM (great PM btw so no issue other than they may think I hate them since I chasing more MBSE work). If trying to move internal doesn’t seem great, would it be frowned upon looking at other opportunities with just being here for a year? Maybe sticking it out for another year would be best but not sure if I would want to once getting the OCSMP cert. Any thoughts?

Little edit: the work is great but there’s a lot of PowerPoint engineering which is typical in the DoD space but MBSE is where I want to head. Also my initial manger before begins hired after I expressed the lack of MBSE mentioned that I can try and see if I like it and after a year and some change look within and see what pops up.

I have experience in automotive software across HMI/application development, ADAS, and currently software architecture & development for a braking ECU using AUTOSAR Classic.
I’m looking to understand how engineers with a similar background can move towards **Adaptive AUTOSAR, SDV, automotive SoCs and AI/ADAS platforms**, especially the kind of work happening around next-gen semiconductor/compute platforms.
For people already working in this space, what resources would you recommend for learning the architecture and technologies? Also, are there any good **open-source projects, GitHub repositories, blogs, creators or practical projects** that can help build a portfolio and demonstrate these skills to recruiters?
I’d also be interested in understanding the **interview patterns and preparation strategy** for SDV / automotive compute / semiconductor roles.
Basically, if you were starting from a strong AUTOSAR Classic + automotive software architecture background, **what would your 6–12 month strategy look like to get into SDV / Adaptive AUTOSAR / next-gen automotive compute?**
Would really appreciate insights from people working in this space.

Hi all, looking for some online resources to keep sharp and learn more. For context I’ll be a systems engineer integration and testing, I graduated with a BS in industrial and systems engineering. I’ve come across the NASA Systems engineering handbook but I’m just looking for more things in general.

Just graduated in BS in Computer Science and currently working a job as a Systems Engineer for a defense contractor. They're willing to pay for my masters. Would love some input on people that have done their masters. Also want to know if I'll be a strong candidate for a masters program.

I have 2 years of research for a defense contractor during my undergrad.

6 months of internship with a local small defense contractor.

GPA for undergrad is 3.5