Customer Engagement Manager -Avionics

JD: Customer Engagement Manager – Avionics (SW & HW Development)

Role Overview

The Customer Engagement Manager (Avionics) will be responsible for owning and managing customer relationships for avionics software and hardware development programs. This role ensures seamless communication between customers and internal engineering teams, drives requirement clarity, manages expectations, and ensures on-time, compliant delivery of aerospace-grade products. The candidate must have strong domain expertise in avionics systems, DO-178B/C or DO-254 processes, and excellent program management capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

1. Customer Relationship & Communication

Act as the primary point of contact for all customer interactions across project lifecycle.

Understand customer needs, expectations, and constraints; translate them into actionable engineering inputs.

Facilitate regular customer meetings: technical reviews, schedule updates, risk discussions, and milestone checkpoints.

Manage customer escalations with calm, structured, and root-cause based communication.

2. Program & Delivery Management

Own end-to-end delivery of avionics SW/HW development programs.

Drive alignment between engineering teams (SW, HW, Systems, QA, Certification) and customer requirements.

Build, track, and optimize program schedules, milestones, and delivery roadmaps.

Ensure all project deliverables meet DO-178B/C, DO-254, ARP4754A, and customer-specific standards.

3. Requirements & Scope Management

Collaborate closely with systems and software teams for requirements clarification, prioritization, and change management.

Manage customer requirement baselines, CRs, change impact analysis, and approval cycles.

Ensure traceability from requirements to design, implementation, test, and certification artifacts.

4. Technical Understanding & Support

Demonstrate strong understanding of avionics systems, LRU architectures, embedded SW, and HW components.

Support technical discussions on architecture, integration constraints, certification impacts, and performance evaluations.

Coordinate internal technical reviews before presenting to customers.

Technical Skills

Strong understanding of avionics software and hardware development processes.

Knowledge of:

DO-178B/C (SW certification)

DO-254 (HW certification)

ARP4754A / ARP4761

Embedded systems, RTOS, microcontrollers, FPGA/ASIC basics.

Exposure to system integration labs, HIL/SIL environments, and verification processes.

Project & Customer Management Skills

Proven experience in customer-facing roles in aerospace/avionics domain.

Strong stakeholder management, negotiation, and expectation-setting abilities.

Proficiency in program management tools (MS Project, Jira, Confluence, ALM tools).

Ability to handle technically complex discussions with engineering and customer teams.

Soft Skills

Excellent communication (written & verbal), presentation, and documentation skills.

Ability to work under pressure with tight certification-driven deadlines.

Strong analytical, problem-solving, and conflict-resolution skills.

Qualifications

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electronics, Electrical, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or related field.

8–15 years of total experience with at least 3–5 years in customer engagement/project management roles.

Experience working with Tier-1 avionics suppliers or OEMs (Honeywell, Collins, Thales, GE Aviation, Safran, etc.) is highly preferred.