Subject Matter Expert (SME) - System Requirements Management

United States·Auburn Hillsmid

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OtherSubject Matter Expert

We’re ALTEN Technology USA, an engineering company helping clients bring groundbreaking ideas to life—from advancing space exploration and life-saving medical devices to building autonomous electric vehicles. With 3,000+ experts across North America, we partner with leading companies in aerospace, medical devices, robotics, automotive, commercial vehicles, EVs, rail, and more.

As part of the global ALTEN Group—57,000+ engineers in 30 countries—we deliver across the entire product development cycle, from consulting to full project outsourcing.

When you join ALTEN Technology USA, you’ll collaborate on some of the world’s toughest engineering challenges, supported by mentorship, career growth opportunities, and comprehensive benefits. We take pride in fostering a culture where employees feel valued, supported, and inspired to grow.

The Subject Matter Expert (SME) – System Requirements Management is responsible for technical leadership of system requirements activities supporting vehicle feature development across multiple engineering domains.
Operating upstream of product design and verification activities, the SME evaluates the impact of new features, feature modifications, and carry-over content on existing vehicle system requirements.
The role serves as the authoritative voice for requirements management, ensuring that technical changes are properly assessed, documented, justified, and released before product design and validation activities begin.
The SME acts as a key interface between Vehicle Feature Owners, Systems Engineering, Architecture, Design Engineering, and Test & Validation organizations.
Success in this role requires strong systems engineering knowledge, sound technical judgment, assertiveness, stakeholder management skills, and the ability to defend requirement decisions that may impact program timing, cost, and downstream engineering activities.
Additionally, the SME serves as a Cluster Lead, providing operational leadership and mentoring to a small team of Requirements Engineers.

Candidates should possess experience in one or more of the following vehicle system domains, with priority given to:
Energy & Propulsion
Thermal Systems
Cabin & Visibility
Chassis
Access / Access Operations
Cabin Climate & Comfort
Vehicle Rights Management / Connectivity

Responsibilities

~1 min read

→In addition to technical SME responsibilities, the role includes operational leadership of a small team.

Requirements

~1 min read

Evaluate technical impacts associated with:
New vehicle features
Feature enhancements
Feature modifications
Carry-over content between vehicle programs
Determine whether changes require creation, modification, or release of system requirements.
Provide technical direction to Requirements Engineers regarding required updates and requirement rework activities.
Ensure requirements remain:
Complete
Consistent
Traceable
Verifiable
Aligned to intended feature functionality
Drive requirement reviews and release decisions.
Serve as technical authority for system requirement content and quality.

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related technical discipline.
Significant experience in Systems Engineering, Requirements Engineering, Product Development, or Vehicle Systems Development.
Experience serving as:

System Engineer
System Architect
Design Lead
Lead Systems Engineer
Requirements Lead

IBM DOORS / DOORS Next
Polarion
Jama
Codebeamer
Equivalent platforms

Automotive product development experience.
Vehicle E/E architecture knowledge.
INCOSE certification (ASEP, CSEP, or ESEP).
Experience with MBSE methodologies.
Prior customer-facing technical leadership experience.
First-level people leadership or team lead experience.

Operate upstream of design engineering and validation organizations.
Translate customer, business, regulatory, and feature needs into robust system-level requirements.
Analyze feature interactions and cross-functional dependencies.
Identify technical gaps, assumptions, conflicts, and risks during early development phases.
Support development of system architecture concepts when necessary to ensure requirement quality.
Collaborate with Vehicle Feature Owners and Architecture teams to assess technical impacts of proposed changes.

Represent the Requirements Management organization within Client and customer-facing discussions.
Defend requirement decisions and recommendations when challenged by development teams.
Facilitate technical alignment among:

Vehicle Feature Owners
Systems Engineering
Architecture teams
Design Engineering teams
Test & Validation organizations
Program leadership

Present and synthesize complex technical information for audiences ranging from technical specialists to executive stakeholders.
Drive decisions through influence and technical credibility.

Promote INCOSE-aligned systems engineering practices.
Improve requirements management methodologies, standards, and governance processes.
Contribute to organizational capability growth in:

Requirements Engineering
Systems Engineering
Change Management
Technical Risk Assessment

Lead and mentor a team of Requirements Engineers.
Provide technical coaching.
Establish workload priorities and engineering objectives.
Promote a collaborative, high-performance team culture.

Perform workload planning and task scheduling.
Monitor deliverables and project milestones.
Support resource planning and prioritization activities.
Escalate issues and risks appropriately.

Conduct technical and program risk assessments.
Identify requirement-related risks early.
Develop mitigation strategies.
Support issue resolution and cross-functional decision-making.

System requirements development
Requirement decomposition and allocation
Requirement change management
Systems engineering principles
System architecture fundamentals
Cross-functional system integration
Technical impact assessment
Engineering change management
Risk assessment methodologies

Ability to defend technically justified requirement changes.
Confidence in challenging opposing viewpoints when required.
Ability to maintain objective engineering decisions despite schedule or organizational pressures.

Strong presentation and facilitation skills.
Ability to synthesize complex topics into clear executive-level messaging.
Excellent verbal and written communication.
Ability to influence without formal authority.

Identifies risks before they become program issues.
Takes initiative rather than waiting for direction.
Drives technical decisions to closure.

Strong listening skills.
Open to feedback and alternative viewpoints.
Effective cross-functional relationship building.
Team-first mindset.

Adapts quickly to new technologies, processes, and organizational needs.
Continuously seeks opportunities for improvement.
Behavioral competencies are considered equally important as technical expertise.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, genetic information, or pregnancy.

Please beware of job seeker scams and see this important notice on our careers page for more information about our recruiting process.

Compliance Notice: Alten USA is a federal contractor subject to the requirements of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) and Executive Order 11246. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

Drug Screening Requirement: As a federal contractor, Alten USA maintains a drug-free workplace. All candidates selected for employment will be required to successfully complete a pre-employment drug screening as a condition of hire.