Senior Principal System Engineer
Company websitecubic.com (Cubic, opens in new tab)
Base salary $193K to $220K
Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in San Diego, CA
You apply on the employer's own site. Six Figure Work does not handle applications.
- LocationSan Diego, CA
- WorkplaceWorkplace not stated
- Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
- Last checked (1 h ago) · observed since
About this job
Business Unit:
Cubic DefenseCompany Details:
When you join Cubic, you become part of a company that creates and delivers technology solutions in transportation to make people’s lives easier by simplifying their daily journeys, and defense capabilities to help promote mission success and safety for those who serve their nation. Led by our talented teams around the world, Cubic is committed to solving global issues through innovation and service to our customers and partners.We have a top-tier portfolio of businesses, including Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) and Cubic Defense (CD). Explore more on Cubic.com.
Job Details:
Job Description
Job Summary:
Works independently as a technical project leader, applies engineering principles, procedures and techniques to perform systems engineering assignments related to the development of electronic and software intensive systems and subsystems. Works closely with other engineering disciplines to ensure interdisciplinary communication and coordination. Provides technical guidance, leadership and supervision. Coordinates activities for proposals/new business. This position typically works under limited supervision and direction. Incumbents of this position will regularly exercise discretionary and substantial decision-making authority.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
Provides technical direction to systems engineering programs, team members and managers. Outlines and communicates the most appropriate technical approach for business development activities. Determines the technical direction and strategy for solving complex, significant or major issues.
Identifies, investigates and resolves technical issues.
Plans and evaluates architectural design, reviews system performance, and identifies technical risks and associated ways to mitigate those risks.
Communicates technical advancements through briefings and technical papers to co-workers, management staff, customers, and technical community, as appropriate.
Maintains state-of-the-art awareness in areas of technical expertise such as changes, advancements and improvements. Applies expertise to all areas of systems engineering.
Analyzes system design problems and performs design studies.
Our Secures Comms group deals primarily with data links. Expertise with RF and specifically RF used for line of site and beyond line of site communications is essential. Skills should include doing a cascade analysis on an RF system or doing link margin calculations to estimate range for a line of site RF link.
Develops algorithms and plans, conducts and directs research and development.
Develops and applies advanced systems methods, theories and research techniques.
Directs, coordinates and contributes to compilation and writing of proposal documents.
Prepares design proposals to reflect cost, time and alternative solutions.
Provides functional or resource planning guidance to program, engineering and management staff.
Interfaces with team members, management staff, customers, subcontractors and vendors.
Solves complex and difficult engineering problems.
Identifies systems engineering process improvements and enforces the execution of them across the organization.
Maintains knowledge of and follows applicable policies and procedures governing work assignments.
Serves as team lead and assumes additional technical and leadership responsibilities as needed to solve engineering problems or develop improved engineering processes.
Four-year college degree in electrical engineering or related technical discipline, plus a minimum of twelve years of related experience, or a master’s degree with ten years of experience. Effective written and oral communication skills. Ability to use personal computer software such as spreadsheets and word processing programs. Ability to use DOORS, EPDM and AllChange. Ability to effectively interface with customers, subcontractors and vendors, and deal with employees and managers at all levels both within and outside of the engineering organization. In depth knowledge of customer needs and competing products. Mental ability to perform engineering problem solving and analytical tasks. Must be able to work under project deadline pressures, and associated cost and schedule constraints.
Minimum Job Requirements:
Four-year college degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or related technical discipline, plus a minimum of twelve years of related experience, or a master’s degree with ten years of experience.
Active DOD Security Clearance
Effective written and oral communication skills.
Ability to use personal computer software such as spreadsheets and word processing programs.
Ability to use DOORS, EPDM and AllChange.
Ability to effectively interface with customers, subcontractors and vendors, and deal with employees and managers at all levels both within and outside of the engineering organization.
In depth knowledge of customer needs and competing products.
Mental ability to perform engineering problem solving and analytical tasks.
Must be able to work under project deadline pressures, and associated cost and schedule constraints.
Cubic Pay Range:
$193,000.00 - $220,000.00 + benefits.
The Cubic pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.
Worker Type:
Employee
We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate based on any protected characteristic under applicable law.
Source: Cubic on Workday · View original posting (opens in new tab)
Pay in context
This role's base floor ($193,000) is above 66% of the 5,064 Software Engineering roles in California listed on this site; 2 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $176,800; the middle half runs from $149,391 to $204,000.
Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 7, 2026.
This listingSenior Principal System Engineer$193K to $220K
Senior Principal Systems Engineer$193K to $220K
Senior Principal FPGA Engineer$202K to $224K
Director, Manufacturing Engineering$168K to $183K
Senior Software Engineer – Forward Deployed (Fort Meade)$159K to $184K
Field Systems Engineer$156K to $170K
Program Director - New York$235K to $270K
Chart as a table
| Role | Published base |
|---|---|
| Senior Principal System Engineer (this listing) | $193K - $220K |
| Senior Principal Systems Engineer | $193K - $220K |
| Senior Principal FPGA Engineer | $202K - $224K |
| Director, Manufacturing Engineering | $168K - $183K |
| Senior Software Engineer – Forward Deployed (Fort Meade) | $159K - $184K |
| Field Systems Engineer | $156K - $170K |
| Program Director - New York | $235K - $270K |
Observed changes
- First observed on the employer's board
- Began meeting the published-salary criteria
- Observed since
- Employer-stated posting date
- 2026-07-14
Where this pay comes from
Location as the employer wrote it: San Diego, California
$193,000.00 - $220,000.00 + benefits.
- Method
- Employer text, read with fixed rules and re-verified
- Checked
- Rule set
- us-base-v2
The pay passage appears in the employer's own job text. Fixed, deterministic rules located it, and the passage below was checked against the stored copy of the posting.
What we verified
- The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
- The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
- The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.
We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.
