The Air Force should support an internal systems engineering career track that rewards the mentoring of junior systems engineering personnel, provides engineers with broad systems engineering experience, provides appropriate financial compensation to senior
systems engineers, and enables an engineering career path into program management and operations.
The
systems engineer's role in working with other team members is to understand the problem at hand and assist the team to reach a cost-effective solution.
It is noteworthy that the systems engineering literature is increasingly using concepts from systems thinking to underpin its teaching and practice (Hitchins, 1992, 2003; Aslaksen, 1996; Sydenham, 2004; Cook, 2005), and
systems engineers are becoming increasing familiar with ideas such as emergence, holism, boundary judgements and connectedness.
Although developing
systems engineers from the entry-level stage of their careers has many advantages, the way it was implemented in my unit carries a number of risks.
Therefore, it is crucial that
systems engineers participate in all design, development and testing activities.
The role of the
systems engineer is to act as the "technical facilitator" and ensure that changes are systematically assessed while attending to risks.
Because talent trumps process, a good
systems engineer knows how to unleash talent--both his or her own as well as the talent of others.
One of the most critical issues identified across the international community is that there are not enough qualified
systems engineers. A recent job search on Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com indicated more than 2,000
systems engineers were needed across the country.
With the organizational elements solidified, the next step is to codify the organizational approach to
systems engineers within the quality system, specifically the product development process and ancillary standard operating procedures.
By studying successful
systems engineers, (1) it became clear that technical expertise was only a part of the equation.
"Working with the University of Manchester, we have analysed the gap in the market which exists for qualified
systems engineers. It is evident that many of the region's most important industries, including the energy and aviation sectors, are looking for a new generation of professionals, as are some of the most strategically-important sectors of the future, such as industrial manufacturing and robotic engineering," he added.
A group of
systems engineers from academia, government, and industry has developed a list of 13 measures that engineers can use to forecast how well technical projects-including R&D programs--will ultimately fare.