Main Responsibilities of a Retired Aerospace Engineer at Northrop Grumman
As the material system architect for the low observable suite of a hypersonic missile, Michael led a technical team to design the necessary materials, including radar absorbing materials, for the missile system; a key responsibility was translating missile performance requirements into actionable engineering requirements by collaborating with the Navy, design engineering, program managers, and chief engineers, illustrating the importance of understanding the entire "work breakdown structure" from mission objectives to part-level specifications.
Aerospace Engineering, Materials Science, Hypersonic Technology, Systems Architecture, Requirements Engineering
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Michael Capoccia
Retired Aerospace Engineer
Northrop Grumman Corp.
Cal State University Long Beach
Pepperdine University Masters In Business Administration , Graduate Studies In Program Mngt. and Systems Engineering Cal Tech
Engineering - Chemical
Aerospace, Aviation & Defense
Research and Development (R&D)
Honors Student, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Transfer Student, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Led a technical team to design the materials suite for a hypersonic missile, including radar absorbing materials.
2. Translated missile performance information into actionable requirements by collaborating with the Navy, design engineering team, program managers, and chief engineers.
3. Worked at high conceptual levels, from determining the missions of the system to defining system and part requirements through a work breakdown structure.
Transcript
What are your main responsibilities within your role?
My last role was officially as the Material System Architect for the low observable suite of a hypersonic missile. I know it's English words, but it can be confusing.
In this role, I was the focal point of a small technical team. I led them to design the materials suite, including radar-absorbing materials and others required for this missile system.
My job also involved taking missile performance information and turning it into requirements. This required working with the customer, in this case the Navy, along with the design engineering team, program managers, and chief engineers. We'd work out what we were actually required to do.
Unless you've been in engineering for a while, this can sound odd. But to get to the point of designing a part, there's a lot of work at very high conceptual levels. This goes from determining the system's missions down to system requirements, and then down to part requirements.
There's a whole flow-down process called a work breakdown structure. Engineering teams usually become subject to this after five to ten years in the industry.