Software Engineering Institute

Sarah Sheard is an SEI alumni employee.

Sarah Sheard is a senior member of the technical staff and Principal Systems Engineer at the SEI, working in the CERT Division. Sheard’s role at SEI includes research into today’s systems and software engineering concerns as well as consulting with government clients on how to navigate between systems engineering (which envisions and balances the “whole picture”) and software engineering (which creates the bulk of any system’s capability today). She led the team conducting innovative research on the relationship of avionics complexity to safety and another team looking at the relationship between software architectures and system properties.
Sheard’s 20 years of experience includes seven years of service as CEO and principal consultant of Third Millennium Systems, focusing on systems engineering process improvement and application of complexity sciences to systems engineering.

She also led the systems engineering effort at the Systems and Software Consortium, served three years at IBM/Loral on air traffic control, and twelve years building satellites at Hughes Aircraft Company (now Boeing Satellite Systems).

Dr. Sheard is the head of the International Council on Systems Engineering’s (INCOSE’s) new working group on the System and Software Interface, which works to clarify the number of ways in which the two disciplines interface, and improve and transition viable solutions. Also an INCOSE Founder’s Award winner and Fellow, she has written many well-known papers on systems and software engineering.

Sheard holds a BA in chemistry from the University of Rochester and a PhD from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Contact: Sarah Sheard
Rev 01/31/2018