Sr. Systems Engineer with Security Clearance

Job Title: Sr.

Systems Engineer
Location: Gaithersburg, MD – On-site Type: Contract-to-Hire
Security Clearance: Active Top Secret/SCI with the ability to successfully pass a Polygraph examination.

Contact: RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead systems engineering activities across the full system lifecycle, including requirements analysis, architecture development, integration, testing, deployment, and sustainment.
• Collaborate with Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and Agile development teams to refine features and translate mission needs into technical solutions.
• Develop and maintain system architectures, interface definitions, operational concepts (CONOPS), and technical documentation.
• Perform systems decomposition, functional analysis, allocation, and traceability using industry-standard systems engineering practices.
• Support backlog refinement, sprint planning, and technical roadmap development.
• Lead system performance assessments, troubleshoot complex issues across applications, infrastructure, interfaces, networks, and data flows, identify and mitigate technical risks, and drive solutions that ensure system reliability, mission effectiveness, and operational performance.
• Coordinate integration across multiple development teams and external mission partners.
• Support verification and validation activities, ensuring requirements are fully tested and documented.
• Participate in design reviews, architecture reviews, technical interchange meetings, and customer briefings.
• Support DevSecOps initiatives and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) processes.
• Ensure compliance with customer and Intelligence Community engineering standards and security requirements. REQUIREMENTS
• US citizenship is required per contract.
• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering or a related STEM discipline and 8-12 years of prior relevant experience or a Master’s with 6-10 years of prior relevant experience.
• 8+ years of professional systems engineering experience.
• Must have experience supporting the customer’s mission systems or GEOINT programs.
• Experience with geospatial intelligence storage, discovery, dissemination and exploitation systems/segments/tools, sensor programs, data/product types/formats and specifications and system/segment interfaces.
• Strong understanding of systems engineering principles and the systems development lifecycle.
• Experience working with Agile frameworks (Scrum, SAFe, Kanban).
• Experience with requirements management tools such as Jira, Confluence, or similar.
• Knowledge of cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GovCloud).
• Experience with system integration, interface management, and enterprise architecture.
• Familiarity with DevSecOps pipelines and CI/CD tools.
• Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, cross-functional team environment.
• INCOSE Systems Engineering Professional Certification (ASEP, CSEP, or ESEP) preferred.
• SAFe Agilist (SA), Scrum Master, or Agile certification preferred.
• Experience with Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and SysML preferred.
• Familiarity with Cameo Systems Modeler or similar modeling tools preferred.
• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and containerized applications preferred.
• Knowledge of microservices architecture, REST APIs, and distributed systems preferred.
• Experience supporting cloud-native or hybrid cloud environments preferred.
• Experience with evaluation, cost analysis, and cost impact development to support system impacts for new and modified requirements levied through the RFC process.