Principal Systems Engineer
About The Position
MITRE’s Systems Engineering Analytics department is seeking a Systems Engineer to support the National Geospatial Agency’s (NGA) Sensor Integration Program Management Office. The role focuses on reducing integration risk, aligning decisions across programs, and shaping the long-term evolution of the ground enterprise. The engineer will assess how changes to sensors, ground systems, data architectures, interfaces, and operational workflows affect performance across the tasking, collection, processing, exploitation, and dissemination (TCPED) flow. The successful candidate will serve as an independent, objective, and vendor-neutral technical advisor on complex mission and enterprise-integration challenges. Working with acquisition, architecture, research, analysis, engineering, operations, government, and industry stakeholders, the candidate will frame ambiguous, cross-program problems; assess mission needs, concepts, architectures, interfaces, data flows, and alternatives; identify gaps, dependencies, interoperability constraints, risks, and opportunities; and provide evidence-based recommendations, decision options, and capability roadmaps to government leaders.
Requirements
- Typically requires at least 10 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree, 8 years with a master’s degree, or 5 years with a PhD, or an equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related field, with 10 years of relevant experience.
- Ability to rapidly understand unfamiliar mission problems and translate them into technical approaches.
- Strong systems thinking and analytical problem-solving skills.
- Experience integrating commercial, government, and open-source technologies to solve operational problems.
- Ability to analyze complex technical information and communicate findings and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Experience collaborating with multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders.
- Demonstrated experience applying systems, mission, or enterprise engineering to complex systems-of-systems, including architecture development, requirements and interface definition, interoperability analysis, integration planning, and performance verification.
- Experience analyzing end-to-end remote-sensing or imagery mission threads across TCPED, including tracing operational needs to system capabilities, interfaces, data flows, measures of effectiveness, and enterprise architecture priorities.
- Demonstrated ability to frame ambiguous, cross-cutting mission problems and independently assess mission concepts, architectures, and technical alternatives, including capability gaps, cross-program dependencies, technology maturity, integration risks, and lifecycle or transition impacts.
- Ability to develop evidence-based recommendations that inform enterprise evolution, capability roadmaps, and government decisions.
- Demonstrated ability to serve as an objective, vendor-neutral technical advisor; communicate complex findings to technical and senior leadership audiences; and build alignment among IC, DoW, operational, acquisition, research, analysis, engineering, and industry stakeholders.
- Ability and willingness to successfully complete a CI polygraph within 12 months of hire.
- Must have an active U.S. Government-issued Top Secret/SCI security clearance and be eligible to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI/Polygraph clearance. Must be a U.S. citizen to be considered for a security clearance.
- Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government-issued Top Secret/SCI security clearance.
Nice To Haves
- Master’s degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related field with 8 years of relevant experience; or PhD in one of these fields or a related field with 5 years of relevant experience.
- Active DoD Top Secret/SCI clearance with polygraph.
- Direct experience with NGA missions and customer needs, imagery data products, and ground architecture and infrastructure.
- Experience leading independent architecture assessments, mission analyses, trade studies, modeling or simulation efforts, or cross-agency technical studies evaluating integration and mission performance across multiple TCPED functions in GEOINT, national security, space, defense, or intelligence environments.
- Ability to operate independently in a sponsor-facing environment with minimal supervision.
Responsibilities
- Frame complex or ambiguous mission and systems-engineering problems spanning multiple programs, systems, and TCPED functions.
- Assess mission needs, operational concepts, architectures, interfaces, data flows, and technical alternatives across end-to-end mission threads.
- Identify capability gaps, cross-program dependencies, interoperability constraints, technical risks, and opportunities to improve enterprise mission performance.
- Translate technical and mission analysis into clear, evidence-based recommendations, decision options, and capability roadmaps for government leaders.
- Serve as an independent, objective, vendor-neutral technical advisor on mission and enterprise-integration challenges.
- Collaborate with acquisition, architecture, research, analysis, engineering, operations, government, and industry stakeholders.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
