Satellite Lead Mission Engineer

Job ID: 2612798

Location: Chantilly, VA, US

Date Posted: 2026-05-20

Category: Engineering and Sciences

Subcategory: Systems Engineer

Schedule: Full-Time

Shift: Day Job

Travel: Yes - 10% of the time

Minimum Clearance Required: TS.SCI

Clearance Level Must Be Able to Obtain: TS/SCI with Poly

Potential for Remote Work: ORA_ON_SITE

Description

SAIC's Air Force, Space and Intelligence Business Group is growing and looking for innovative, mission-driven professionals to help us advance cutting-edge space capabilities for our Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) customers. Embark on a rewarding career just ten miles from SAIC headquarters, as part of our Chantilly, VA team supporting essential programs in systems development, targeting & intelligence analysis, systems engineering & integration, and beyond.

We are seeking a Satellite Lead Mission Engineer to serve as a team member on a state-of-the-art space program that continuously operates in all phases of the system lifecycle. In this SETA role, you partner with the Government and SETA Program Manager serving as the Mission Engineer responsible for orchestrating a proven technical team of system engineers and subject matter experts. Over the next year the mission completes unit and subsystem assembly, then begins system-level integration and test.
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Key Responsibilities
In this highly collaborative and technically complex position, you will:
Serve as the Government Program Office's technical focal point for system and mission-level development through Assembly, Integration and Test (AI&T).
Partner with the Government and SETA Program Managers for the mission to advise on mission performance, schedule, and costs.
Liaise with SETA factory representatives located in Developer factories to track progress and mitigate associated risks.
Partner with Developer engineers and technicians to establish a trusted relationship of sharing data and win-win ideas that benefit the program.
Liaise with SETA Subject Matter Experts (SME) to analyze integration activities and test results.
Proactively report risks and issues that could result in reduced mission performance, requirement verification shortfalls, or schedule slips impacting launch schedules.
Track and report system/mission development progress in weekly Mission-level, Enterprise-level, and System-level meetings held by the Government Program Office.

Qualifications

To excel in this role, you must possess:
Active TS/SCI clearance.
5+ years of expertise working as a senior system engineer with leadership roles on a large and complex satellite program.
Expert-level system engineering experience, particularly in spacecraft integration, test, check-out and launch preparation.
Excellent organizational skills capable of orchestrating technical exchanges with system engineers distributed across multiple locations and time zones to proactively escalate technical status information to decision-makers.
A Bachelor's degree in a relevant field with 14 years of experience, or a Master's degree with 12 years of experience.
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Desired Qualifications
Additional qualifications that set you apart include:
Experience supporting or servicing as a Program Manager for a satellite subsystem or unit responsible for mitigating schedule risks.
Experience in a Satellite AI&T lead technical role at the system, subsystem, or unit level.
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Why Join SAIC?
At SAIC, we empower employees to innovate, solve complex challenges, and deliver precise solutions. Join us in shaping the future of space technology and supporting some of the nation's most vital intelligence and defense initiatives. Apply today to become part of a high-caliber team driving forward our country's space and intelligence capabilities.

Target salary range: $160,001 - $200,000. The estimate displayed represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors.


SAIC is a premier technology integrator providing full life cycle services and solutions in the technical, engineering, intelligence, and enterprise information technology markets. SAIC is Redefining Ingenuity through its deep customer and domain knowledge to enable the delivery of systems engineering and integration offerings for large, complex projects. SAIC's approximately 15,000 employees are driven by integrity and mission focus to serve customers in the U.S. federal government. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SAIC has annual revenues of approximately $4.5 billion. For more information, visit saic.com. For information on the benefits SAIC offers, see .