Sr. Systems Engineer with Security Clearance

Shadowgate Partners is seeking a Sr. Systems Engineer (SIGINT) for our client. This is a fully funded position with the client serving as prime on the contract, available for immediate start. This role is 100% onsite at the client's facility either in Fairfax, VA or Denver, CO.

Salary Range and Benefits: $150,000 - $220,000 401(k): 25% company contribution — for this role, that equates to $50,000 contributed to your 401(k) over 12 months. Imagine the growth in 4-5 years! Individual Benefits Account (IBA): An additional 25% employer contribution used to cover health insurance premiums.

Any unused IBA balance is paid out at year-end as part of salary, so contributions are never forfeited PTO: 8 weeks annually Education: 100% tuition and books reimbursement Support ground processing system development to satisfy evolving mission requirements (e.g., modern communications signals) and ground architecture requirements (e.g., resiliency), working to transition legacy applications from their current hosting infrastructure to a container orchestration framework and provide continuing post-migration support.

The framework provides an operationally supported container orchestration environment and processing capability at several government sites, enabling DevSecOps pipelines for Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery/Deployment, and Continuous Operations, driving toward rapid software/hardware updates with reduced transition timelines and cost.

• Interact with developers, teammates, and the customer within a weekly/monthly/quarterly rhythm to plan and execute agile processes; e.g., facilitate creation of Jira epics and stories, assignment of story points, and assessment of progress toward objectives
• Investigate and implement agile software development and deployment techniques to modernize current systems; e.g., containerize components, Kubernetes orchestration
• Develop prototype tools, documentation, and common implementation pattern examples
• Document system architecture, interfaces, CONOPs, trade study plans and results
• Create documentation of roadmaps, key technical capabilities, and detailed plans utilizing tools such as Confluence and Jira Required Skills and Experience - Bachelor's degree in Engineering or Computer Science
• At least 15 years performing technical systems engineering tasks, software, hardware, or firmware development, testing or systems integration
• Ability and desire to work independently; i.e., adapt tasking to fulfill needs as they evolve, self-starter, work to high level objectives and intent rather than formal requirements
• Proven skills facilitating small technical team coordination and productivity
• Proven capability to learn complex topics and perform engineering tasks in an uncertain problem space
• Comfortable adapting to evolving constraints, processes and tools
• Willingness to independently research and document existing systems as well as explore potential solutions to improve them
• Capable of taking measured risks and learning from failure, must be able to give and receive constructive criticism
• Aptitude for system analysis utilizing both top down and bottom up approaches
• Organized and detail oriented, but comfortable with high level solution oriented thinking - Able to apply high level systems engineering concepts such as ROI, technical debt, scope creep when evaluating potential solutions
• Driven to pursue improvement but disciplined enough to accept the good over the perfect solution
• Strong communication skills; facilitate technical and programmatic information sharing across systems team, developers, and with customer

Desired Skills and Experience - Master's degree in Engineering or Computer Science

• Experience with Kubernetes and related containerization technologies (Docker, Helm, k9s)
• Experience and familiarity with DevSecOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing
• Proficiency or experience with at least one scripting/programming language such as Python, Bash, VBA, or Go
• Familiarity with cybersecurity best practices for cloud-native and on-premises deployments, PKI, container security scanning, and zero-trust principles
• Experience with configuring and monitoring a suite of logging tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, OpenSearch)
• Basic understanding of networking fundamentals (routing, switching, firewalls, VPNs) and secure communications in distributed computing systems
• Experience working with Jira, Confluence, and GitLab
• Proven leadership skills and the ability to nurture productive relationships with customers
• Knowledge and experience in the IC and/or NRO
• Expertise in SIGINT tasking, collection, processing, exploitation, and/or dissemination
• Familiar with Cloud Native Compute Foundation (CNCF) offerings and how they can be used to facilitate application deployment in on-premises or cloud environments
• Familiarity with ground processing systems
• Experience as an IPT lead or other small team technical leadership
• Experience in modernizing non-cloud native legacy systems to function in cloud environments Security Clearance TS/SCI with the ability to obtain a CI polygraph after start.

Salary Range $150,000 - $220,000 Benefits Our Client offers an incredible benefits package including a 25% 401(k) company contribution, an additional 25% Individual Benefits Account (IBA) contribution covering health insurance premiums, 8 weeks of PTO, and 100% tuition and books reimbursement.