Senior/Principal Lead Delivery Engineer — Defense

Full-time position | San Mateo, CA (Onsite)

Note: In accordance with export control regulations, this position requires candidates to qualify as a U.S. Person (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual as defined under 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3)). An active or obtainable U.S. security clearance (Secret or TS/SCI) is preferred.

JOIN THE REVOLUTION IN ENGINEERING INNOVATION

Luminary helps engineering companies be more competitive by getting to market faster, creating better products, and reducing development risk. We do this through our Physics AI platform — the fastest and easiest way to build and deploy models that understand and instantly predict physical reality with precision. Our customers span industries from automotive and aerospace to defense, industrial, semiconductors, and energy — ranging from hyper-growth startups to Fortune 100 enterprises. Luminary is a Series B company headquartered in San Mateo, California.

YOUR IMPACT

As the Senior/Principal Lead Delivery Engineer for Defense, you own customer outcomes for Luminary's defense and government engagements — prime contractors, DoD agencies, defense innovation organizations, and national labs. You are a dual hat — project manager and product manager — leading a matrixed value delivery team across Applications Engineering, Applied AI/ML, Data & Platform, and product engineering. You operate fluently in environments with security, compliance, and ITAR/EAR requirements, and you partner with the GTM team on program engagement and expansion.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Own end-to-end customer outcomes across new and existing defense and government accounts — prime contractors, DoD agencies (DARPA, AFRL, NRL, Navy), and national labs — from discovery through model deployment and embedding into program workflows.
• Author SOWs and RFP/RFI responses that navigate government contracting items — milestones, deliverables, IP, and export control — and own delivery accountability against them.
• Lead a value delivery team in a matrix structure: Applications Engineers, Applied AI/ML Scientists, Data and Platform Engineers, and selected product engineers. Set technical direction, sequence the work, remove blockers.
• Operate as a dual hat — project manager and product manager — running execution while shaping the product intuition for what to build next.
• Stay hands-on-keyboard where it matters. Debug a model, restructure a data pipeline, prototype a workflow integration.
• Embrace co-engineering: work side-by-side with customer engineers on use case development, including at customer sites where required.
• Partner with the GTM team on new program engagement and account growth.
• Navigate compliance: ITAR/EAR, CMMC, DFARS, and FedRAMP awareness in delivery planning and customer dialogue.
• Bring market and customer signal back to Product and Research, shaping Luminary's roadmap for defense-specific requirements including security, compliance, and certification.

WHAT YOU BRING

• 5–10 years of experience in a technical role in defense, government R&D, prime contractor engineering, or defense-adjacent enterprise software. Principal-level candidates have an extensive track record in defense. 
• Multi-physics fluency across defense engineering disciplines: structural mechanics, aeroelasticity, thermal-structural analysis, propulsion, signal integrity, electromagnetics, or multi-physics simulation.
• U.S. Person required; active or obtainable Secret/TS-SCI clearance preferred.
• Familiarity with government contracting, ITAR/EAR, and defense acquisition frameworks.
• Strong hands-on engineering chops — Python, scripting, simulation tools, and AI/ML workflows.
• Working knowledge of AI/ML applied to engineering — surrogate modeling, neural operators, physics-informed ML, structural digital twins.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional technical teams without direct authority.
• Product instinct and customer-facing presence; comfortable with chief engineers, program managers, and government technical leadership.
• Self-starter, persistent through iteration, willing to travel 10–25% to customer sites.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering, or related discipline.
• Prior experience at prime contractors (e.g., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing Defense, Raytheon/RTX, General Dynamics, L3Harris) or defense labs (DARPA, AFRL, NRL, Sandia, Los Alamos).
• Active security clearance.
• Experience with digital twin programs for airframe, propulsion, or fleet health management applications.
• Track record of deploying ML or simulation tooling into program environments under compliance constraints.