Lead Systems Engineer

Unissant•Ashburn, VA

1d•$112 - $168•Hybrid

About The Position

Unissant, Inc. is seeking a Lead Systems Engineer to support a client on a large federal enterprise IT services program. The role leads enterprise-level systems engineering, capability planning, and modernization roadmap development. Working with government stakeholders, program leadership, engineers, technical leads, and mission partners, the engineer will define the future-state enterprise environment and create a phased, executable strategy and roadmap for modernization. This includes translating mission needs, operational priorities, stakeholder requirements, and technology opportunities into an integrated plan that sequences capabilities across planning epochs, establishes dependencies and milestones, and informs investment and implementation decisions. The position connects strategic modernization objectives with actionable engineering planning while balancing mission priorities, technical dependencies, operational continuity, and resource constraints. It operates across the enterprise, facilitates complex stakeholder decisions, and produces engineering artifacts and roadmaps to guide long-term modernization. The role is hybrid, with on-site work in Ashburn, Virginia, four days per week during the first year and thereafter as mission needs require. Candidates must live in the greater Washington, DC area or be commutable to Ashburn. The environment is mainly a routine office setting. The role may require lifting up to ten pounds and working extended hours. Candidates must complete pre-employment screening.

Requirements

At least 8 years of relevant professional experience, including substantial experience in systems engineering, enterprise IT, systems integration, architecture, or technology modernization.
Experience supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or National Targeting Center (NTC), U.S. Border Patrol mission environments.
Experience supporting large-scale federal enterprise IT services, systems modernization, or systems integration programs.
Experience with integrated schedule planning, dependency analysis, milestone management, risk identification, and cross-team coordination.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to assess complex technical dependencies and develop practical, defensible recommendations.
Ability to collaborate with government customers, program management, enterprise architects, and multidisciplinary engineering teams.
Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline.
Active CBP clearance or DoD Top Secret (TS) clearance.
Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate technical issues and trade-offs to technical and executive audiences.
Ability to present proposals and performance data and interface with all levels of an organization.
Ability to write clear and concise creative content in a highly confidential manner.
Must be within the greater Washington, DC area or commutable to Ashburn, Virginia.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing multi-year modernization roadmaps organized into planning horizons or epochs.
Understanding of federal enterprise IT technologies and modernization considerations, including cloud platforms, application modernization, data integration, cybersecurity, identity management, and infrastructure transformation.
Familiarity with agile delivery, DevSecOps, enterprise portfolio planning, and program management processes.
Relevant systems engineering, enterprise architecture, or program management certifications.
Active CBP clearance or active DoD TS or TS/SCI clearance.

Responsibilities

Lead development and maintenance of the systems modernization roadmap, defining target and intermediate states, transition strategies, and sequencing of modernization initiatives.
Develop capability-based plans across planning epochs, identifying required capabilities, dependencies, prerequisites, and anticipated outcomes.
Assess the current enterprise environment, identify capability gaps and technical limitations, and recommend modernization priorities aligned with mission objectives and government strategy.
Translate strategic objectives into actionable engineering plans, including implementation phases, decision points, milestones, dependencies, and transition timelines.
Evaluate modernization alternatives, legacy-system constraints, technology opportunities, and integration considerations to inform technical recommendations and investment decisions.
Identify and manage cross-system dependencies, sequencing constraints, critical-path activities, risks, and schedule impacts across modernization initiatives.
Coordinate with program management, technical leads, architects, and delivery teams to validate estimates, assumptions, resource requirements, and implementation feasibility.
Engage government mission owners, operational users, program leadership, and technical stakeholders to elicit, analyze, validate, and prioritize enterprise requirements.
Translate mission objectives and operational needs into measurable capability, functional, and system requirements, as well as technical constraints.
Analyze conflicting requirements, gaps, and ambiguities, and recommend balances among mission value, technical feasibility, cost, schedule, and risk.
Apply systems engineering principles throughout the enterprise lifecycle, from mission analysis and requirements development through architecture definition, integration planning, deployment, and sustainment.
Analyze system-of-systems dependencies and assess the effects of proposed changes across applications, infrastructure, data, cloud services, networks, cybersecurity, and shared enterprise capabilities.
Support technical trade studies, feasibility assessments, gap analyses, risk assessments, and alternatives analyses to inform architecture and modernization decisions.
Identify emerging technical and operational risks and develop mitigation strategies, escalation paths, and decision options.