Anyone work for Raytheon Missile Systems? (Tucson, Oro Valley: how much, houses, job market)

[joe4702]

I'll be in Tucson interviewing for a senior software engineering position.

Any comments from past or current employees about RMS and/or the Tucson tech job market? Is RMS pretty stable or do they have hiring booms followed by layoffs when things slow down?

I worked for Raytheon in Dallas 10 years ago, but that was a completely different division (doing comms systems)

I currently work for a large defense contractor in San Diego. The tech job market here is quite good, but the leftist politics, taxes and sky high home prices are not.

Thanks,
Joe

[Bummer]

Originally Posted by joe4702

I currently work for a large defense contractor in San Diego. The tech job market here is quite good, but the leftist politics, taxes and sky high home prices are not.

Thanks,
Joe

Sorry, Joe, not much help with Raytheon questions . . .

However, I relocated to Tucson from Northern California about ten years ago and have never looked back. Every aspect of day to day living is simpler and much less intense here. One point to remember, when it comes to the local pay scales, it isn't how much you take home as much as how much you have left over after covering all of your expenses.

Good Luck!

[Idaho]

Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson appears to be very stable in the engineering world. In fact, they are hurting for engineers!
Their engineers are approaching retirement age faster than there are young ones up and coming through the ranks to take their places.
No lay-offs in sight ~ Quite the opposite for the engineers.

Resale housing market is yours for the taking, as a buyer. Lots of Raytheon engineers live in Oro Valley, Sahuarita, and the far east side of Tucson.
Beautiful houses for really great prices all over the place.

Welcome to Raytheon and the Tucson Basin!
We've been here/with both eight years now (were in Dallas prior to that) and we don't regret it one bit.

[sierraAZ]

Is RMS pretty stable or do they have hiring booms followed by layoffs when things slow down?

Sorry to disappoint you and I may be wrong, but the predominant opinions in town at least I've heard lean to the latter...

[LexusNexus]

Originally Posted by joe4702

I'll be in Tucson interviewing for a senior software engineering position.

Any comments from past or current employees about RMS and/or the Tucson tech job market? Is RMS pretty stable or do they have hiring booms followed by layoffs when things slow down?

I worked for Raytheon in Dallas 10 years ago, but that was a completely different division (doing comms systems)

I currently work for a large defense contractor in San Diego. The tech job market here is quite good, but the leftist politics, taxes and sky high home prices are not.

Thanks,
Joe

You mean, as a Defense engineer, you don't value leftist politics and seek to move where the slant is more right-wing? This is why I left Defense. Too many right-winger engineers. I think Pima county is left-leaning. After all, it's a college area. I could be wrong. U of A has been known to be quite a racist place to go to school for blacks. Maybe this is what you seek to be near.

From what I have observed, Raytheon is the lone defense contractor of its size in that city, and has in the past laid off a bunch of workers when contracts didn't materialize. You would be going into a city that has one lone defense contractor of its size, with the inclination to lay off at a moments notice if their proposals don't pan out. Risky, I would say. On the other hand, Tucson is reasonably priced and the wages won't run the govt agencies away from Raytheon in that location. Work rate is reasonable unlike in silicon valley. Raytheon appears committed to the location and may funnel work there on a continual basis to keep the place afloat.

[joe4702]

Thanks for the comments. The interview went well. The managers I spoke with indicated Raytheon has a hard time attracting engineers to Tucson. I'm guessing its due to pay scales, the size of the city and lack of a tech job market.

As far as "right-wing" vs. "left", well, I'm politically conservative with a strong libertarian streak. I'm also a gun owner and enthusiast. California is not friendly to gun owners at all, while AZ is the opposite.

[jeff1ao]

Joe,

I am looking at coming to Tucson and I am interested in a career at Raytheon. Did you take the job there? Do you have any good POC?

Jeff

[jogar]

Anything for Principal Systems Engineers?

[sierraAZ]

Hmm, they laid off people about a week or two ago. Don't remember how many and they didn't disclose what positions these people held, but the article in the paper claimed that was the first lay-off since '02.

[brrrinmass]

Originally Posted by sierraAZ

Hmm, they laid off people about a week or two ago. Don't remember how many and they didn't disclose what positions these people held, but the article in the paper claimed that was the first lay-off since '02.

Hey all I actually work for Raytheon in Massachusetts. The layoff was 225 salaried employees. I am a mechanical engineer looking to relocate to Raytheon Tucson but the work is quite slow right now. Hoping to get there sometime in the not too distant future.