Capability Engineer

PeopleTec•Huntsville, AL

2d•Onsite

About The Position

PeopleTec is seeking a Capability Engineer to support our Huntsville, AL location. The role involves assessing and transitioning new tools and capabilities into our customer's Digital Test Environment (DTE) over the next five years of modernization. Capability Engineers will act as hands-on technical evaluators, engaging with vendors, learning their tools, configuring them in dev and test environments, assessing their fit against DTE needs, producing go/no-go recommendations, and handing adopted products off to a separate integration team. Initially, the work will focus on pilots of commercial products, but will evolve to include continuous capability assessment, tool challenges, and modernization initiatives as the DTE develops.

Requirements

10-15 years in systems engineering, integration engineering, or technical evaluation of commercial software products.
Demonstrated experience evaluating commercial products against technical, security, and operational requirements.
Strong hands-on generalist technical skills — ability to learn and operate unfamiliar software across multiple tool categories, configure it in evaluation environments, and assess it on technical merit.
Working knowledge of at least two of the following categories, with the ability to learn the others: Test & Evaluation tools (test automation, data capture, instrumentation), Model-Based Systems Engineering and digital engineering tools, Data and analytics platforms.
Experience writing technical evaluation criteria, gap analyses, and assessment reports.
Comfort working directly with vendors — eliciting honest answers, validating demos against reality, and managing the vendor relationship through an evaluation.
Must be a U.S. Citizen.
An active DoD Secret clearance is required to perform this work. Candidates are required to have an active Secret clearance upon hire (or the able to obtain), and the ability to maintain this level of clearance during their employment.
Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, Engineering, or related technical field. Additional relevant experience may substitute.

Nice To Haves

Active U.S. DoD TOP SECRET or TS/SCI clearance.
Experience evaluating or integrating commercial products in accredited DoD or federal environments.
Familiarity with RMF, STIGs, and ATO processes as they apply to commercial product integration.
Background in T&E modernization, digital test environments, or similar mission contexts.
Experience producing buy-vs-build analyses or technical trade studies.
Working knowledge across three or more of the tool categories listed in the qualifications.

Responsibilities

Plan and execute capability evaluations end-to-end: scope and objectives, dev evaluation, test evaluation, and decision-gate recommendation.
Engage with vendors to learn their products, validate claims, and assess fit against DTE needs.
Configure tools in dev and test environments; document findings, gaps, and integration risks.
Develop evaluation criteria and assess products against DTE technical, security, and operational requirements.
Collaborate with the integration team to identify, document, and communicate integration gaps, technical constraints, operational impacts, and adoption risks as part of formal evaluation recommendations.
Produce go/no-go recommendations and supporting technical documentation for the decision gate.
Hand off adopted products to the integration team with full evaluation artifacts: findings, integration risks, architecture notes, vendor contacts, and known gaps.
Support the integration team through transition as the subject matter expert on the evaluated product.
Support tool challenges, modernization initiatives, and continuous capability assessment as the DTE evolves over the program's multi-year horizon.
Run 2-4 evaluations concurrently at varying stages across multiple tool categories.