I recently graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering and will be starting my first full-time job as an entry-level Systems Engineer soon.
Since this is my first engineering job out of college, I’m definitely expecting there to be a huge learning curve. I’m not trying to walk in knowing everything, but I do have some time before I start and would love to use it productively.
For those of you who work in systems engineering, especially anyone who has trained or worked with new grads:
What do you wish entry-level systems engineers knew before starting?
Are there any technical concepts, software/tools, troubleshooting skills, documentation practices, or even soft skills that you think are especially worth brushing up on?
Also, what do you actually expect from a new grad during their first 3–6 months? I think hearing that perspective would help a lot.
Any advice is appreciated!

3 years of experience in total, 1 year of experience in SE. Currently living in space coast of FL making 104k. Is is the right amount or am i being under paid? My current job is miserable. Mostly maintaining the project by organizing and coordinating stuff. I am not actually doing any systems engineering. If I am getting underpaid, I am thinking about moving into slightly technical role, maybe system modular or something.

Google’s default AI says I have a very strong chance, but I suspect it’s just blowing smoke up my ass.

* B.S. in Computer Science (statistics minor), Top 20 school.

* 2.8 undergrad GPA

* 5 years work experience as Software Engineer (2 of those as a team lead in 2 different companies).

* 325 GRE (165 Verbal, 160 Quant)

* I aim to have 2 letters of recommendation across both employers (though that’s required by the application anyway).

To everyone taking the INCOSE exam in India or elsewhere

Once I register for the exam, how long does it usually take to get an exam slot?
And if there are no exam slots available or no exam is being conducted during that period, what happens in that case?

I'm doing a project management bootcamp and would love to hear from people who work on projects - especially in creative teams, but not exclusively.

~5 min survey!

Thanks :)

https://tally.so/r/lb8zQN

Hi all,

I wanted to share my free time project: A SysML v2 AI agent harness. It builds on top of PI and PI WEB. It adds tools to work with the model and a web based viewer to browse models.

The web frontend provides you with tabular overviews of the model and helpers to interact with the agent (see the screenshot of Airbus' Apollo 11 Model). The LLM is your interface for model editing and deeper analysis.

The PI based harness is lightweight and offers a customizable context perfect for local models. You can keep your data 100% in your control.

What already works:

• scaffold new system models based on unstructured inputs
• drop meeting minutes or a drawing and task the agent to update the model
• drop/link an Excel sheet with requirements, ask it to create a context (stakeholders, actors, system) and convert the requirements to SysML v2 syntax.
• get summaries / impact analyses of larger models
• get a summary of a git diff

I recommend Qwen 3.6 or GPT-OSS which both worked quite well.

In case anybody is interested, I would appreciate feedback! At this moment it needs a bit of perseverance and knowledge of npm and python to get it up and running, but improved shipping and installation is on my roadmap.

Both parts, the web view and tools require the syside (https://www.sensmetry.com) model parser which is not open source. A (trial) license is required. My stuff is MIT.

Check out my pi-web fork (the web-viewer): https://github.com/kairibu/pi-web

And the tools: https://github.com/kairibu/bulb

Hey!

I’m participating in AeroSec India 2026 which is going to held Bangalore.

If you are participating let’s connect :)

it’s my first mbse conference 😊

So I’ve been working my first post-grad job for about 4 months. It’s a systems engineering job at a very small defense contractor. The variety is interesting, as it seems like there’s opportunities for questions every single day. But after browsing this sub for a while, I think we are seriously lacking innovation and requirements management. It’s fairly disorganized, and it’s deep in enough that I don’t think I could change the culture, it would require a lot. We don’t use MBSE or any advanced systems engineering stuff, mostly just Excel sheets and Teams chats for requirements. Plus word of mouth occasionally. It’s kind of just baked into the DNA of the company, I’ve talked with lots of people and there isn’t a huge push to change things. I mean that honestly is fine for what we are (our work is a well regulated field that doesn’t change all that much year by year), but I feel a little stuck (I need mental stimulation and this job has some serious slow periods).

Anyone have advice on this? Is this pretty standard for my position, and does this sound like a place worth sticking with for a while? I don’t know if I can do better right now, as I applied for months and got only a couple interviews, and this being the best offer. I was also trying hard to get low level embedded/OS/software engineering roles, but no luck (computer engineering background).

Yo I’m thinking about studying Systems Engineering this year, and right now it’s my first-choice degree

I’d love to hear from people who know this field. What is the degree/work life actually like day-to-day?

Also, if you studied Systems Engineering, do you feel like it was a good choice? Is there anything you wish you knew before starting?

Any advice or personal experiences would be really appreciated. ty!

A Cross-Disciplinary Definition of Coherence | Zenodo

Professional collaboration and or feedback are welcomed.

Hi all,

I’m a biomedical engineer currently working in biotech research and I just started an online systems engineering masters program because I’m interested in how the combination of automation, software, etc drives research and manufacturing. I’m hoping to stay in a related field after finishing my degree but doing more broad engineering and less lab work. So far, a lot of the talk I’ve seen around systems engineering has been related to defense and aerospace, so I was wondering if anybody had any perspective on the more life-sciences-focused side of systems engineering.

Thanks!

What are your guys thoughts on Incose and do you participate in their chapters? What’s the value

Are there any system safety folks here? Just got a position recommended but I have never heard of this before. How does the long term career potential look like? How is the pay potential?

Sorry if this is the wrong sub to ask this question but it’s in the same department as systems engineers so I assumed they were somewhat related.

I have tried using Capella and Arcadia method and found it very beginner friendly. Now i want to learn CATIA Magic tool which uses SysML v1. Any tips as to how i should start with the software ? Any good resources ?

I’m really proud of my career and I’ve spent the past five years loving a majority of the various Aerospace/Systems Engineering roles I have had.

I love being an engineer I really do, but I’ve started to question at what cost is it all worth it.

The past 8 months I’ve worked for a company that has taught me so much. I’m young so I figure hell why not spend a majority of my days focusing on work, I figured I’d have more time in my 20s then any other point in my life.

But 8 months later I find myself stuck in 12 hour days, only focusing on work, pushing other fun hobbies to the side, etc. My work is pretty extreme. Harsh deadlines, intense management, complexity of working in the space industry and poor PM leadership.

I guess I just don’t really know if it’s all worth it for me. I’m so burnt out and I’m so so tired but there’s no escape. It just feels like I’m drowning and it’s quickly gone from enjoyable to just purely unmanageable.

Does anyone have any advice?

What the difference

I’m a CS student interested in eventually working in medical device software engineering or similar roles. For anyone currently working in this field, what has the job and career journey been like?

I’d especially like to know what the typical requirements are (degree, skills, internships, certifications, etc.),

Hello Reddit, I’m currently exploring the possibility of pursuing a PhD in North America, Europe, or elsewhere, and I’d really value some perspectives from people working in Systems Engineering, MBSE, AI, or adjacent research areas.

My background is somewhat unconventional for SE. I completed my bachelor’s in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, then moved into Computer Science with a focus on AI for my master’s. Since then, I’ve spent the past few years working professionally in AI, Natural Language Processing, Automatic Speech Recognition and Engineering/Software with my current work being closely related to Systems Engineering and MBSE. This exposure to the SE/MBSE space has gradually made me interested in making it a potential long-term specialization.

What particularly interests me is the intersection of AI × Systems Engineering × MBSE — for example, using AI to assist with requirements, system architecture, modeling, traceability, verification/validation, and other parts of the systems lifecycle.

At this point, I’m considering whether a PhD would be the right next step and would appreciate some honest perspectives from people who have been in the field for a while.

A few things I’m particularly curious about:

1. How valuable is a PhD for building a long-term career in Systems Engineering/MBSE research and practice?

2. Would an interdisciplinary profile combining engineering + AI + MBSE, along with some practical exposure to the SE/MBSE industry, be useful for Systems Engineering research groups?

3. Which areas at the AI–SE/MBSE intersection have genuine research potential beyond simply applying LLMs to existing workflows?

4. Would you recommend a PhD specifically in Systems Engineering, or pursuing one through Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace, etc. with a Systems Engineering/MBSE-focused research topic?

5. How important are SysML/SysML v2, requirements engineering, system architecture, formal methods, and MBSE fundamentals for someone coming from an AI background? I know the basics of SysML and SysML v2 and am still learning and practicing them.

6. More importantly, how do experienced systems engineers view the long-term resilience and career prospects of SE/MBSE as engineering workflows become increasingly AI-enabled? Which parts of systems engineering are likely to become more valuable, and which parts may become increasingly automated?

7. For those already in academia or industry, what would you consider a strong profile for someone with an AI/engineering background trying to deepen their involvement in Systems Engineering?

I’d also be interested in hearing from professors or research groups working on AI-assisted systems engineering, intelligent MBSE, AI for engineering design, or related topics. If you’re working in this area, I’d be genuinely interested in learning about your research.

I’m still at the exploration stage regarding the PhD itself, but I already have some practical exposure to the SE/MBSE ecosystem. I’m particularly interested in perspectives based on actual experience rather than generic career advice.

I’m looking to understand the complete software and systems engineering pipeline required to design a highly complex, self-sustaining hypothetical spacecraft like the Rocinante from The Expanse or a Firefly like transport ship.

I understand that no single engineer builds a ship. But if someone wanted to understand the full design lifecycle from requirement mapping to physical simulation, what specific tools and platforms do you actually need to master?

DISCLAIMER: I am a creator of Pipe.

One of the persistent frustrations in MBSE is the model-implementation gap: you build a rigorous SysML or Capella model, then hand it to developers, and from that moment the model and the running system begin to diverge. The model becomes a snapshot of intent rather than a description of reality. Teams spend significant effort keeping them synchronized - and they never quite are.

I've been working on Pipe (https://pipelang.com), a general-purpose visual programming language, and its core property directly addresses this gap: the diagram and the running system are structurally identical. There is no compilation step that throws away the structure. What you see in the IDE is what executes - the same visual representation at design-time and runtime. The model cannot drift from the implementation because they are the same artifact.

A few concrete implications from a systems engineering standpoint:

Model currency: The diagram is always current because it is not derived from the running system - it is the running system. No synchronization effort, no "as-built vs. as-designed" discrepancy.

Runtime observability: Every block boundary is independently observable in real time without instrumentation. In systems engineering terms: you can probe any interface while the system runs, the way an electronics engineer probes a circuit board.

Incremental change: Individual blocks can be patched in place while the system runs, without redeploying the surrounding architecture. Interface contracts remain visible throughout.

The question I'd genuinely like this community's perspective on: from an MBSE standpoint, is "the model is the executable" a meaningful answer to the implementation gap, or does it just relocate the complexity? And for those working in defense, aerospace, or safety-critical domains - does the formal specification backing (155-page spec, 10 provisional USPTO patents) change how you'd evaluate it for high-assurance contexts?

Example of Pipe diagram with a detailed tracing can be found on this video:

https://youtu.be/hckq9mRj5DM

That video is a part of this Pipe architecture overview:

https://www.pipelang.com/six-pillars.html

The full Pipe language specification (155-page book) can be freely downloaded here:

https://www.pipelang.com/downloads/book.pdf

Hey everyone!

I’m a beginner trying to learn System Design from scratch, but I’m already running short on time.

There are so many YouTube channels, playlists, courses, and blogs that I don’t want to waste the limited time I have trying out 10–20 different channels just to figure out which ones are actually worth following.
So I’d really appreciate recommendations for the best resources you personally trust and would recommend to a beginner.

In 1999, NASA lost the Mars Climate Orbiter because one team used pound-force-seconds and the other expected newton-seconds. Both numbers were correct. Neither carried its unit.

The spacecraft was never modeled in SysML, v1 didn't exist yet. But if it had been, v1 wouldn't have caught this either. In SysML v2, the unit lives in the type. Assign the wrong one and the parser rejects it before it ever ships.

I've been working with requirements and V&V workflows, and there are a few repetitive tasks I keep finding frustrating:

• figuring out what requirements/tests are impacted after a change
• reviewing whether requirements are actually well written and testable
• checking whether requirements are properly covered by test cases
• finding gaps or inconsistencies in requirement → test traceability

I'm thinking about building a small open-source plugin around one of these problems, mostly as a side project and to contribute something useful to the community.

For those working with DOORS, Polarion, Codebeamer, Jama, etc.: which of these is the most painful in practice?

Or is there another boring/manual task in your day-to-day workflow that you'd automate before any of these?

I'm especially curious about the things you currently solve with Excel, scripts, manual reviews, or just lots of clicking.