Senior Mission Performance SME - Space-Based Sensing & Tracking

Stellar Solutions•Chantilly, VA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Stellar Solutions, a nationally recognized “Great Place To Work,” delivers engineering solutions across commercial space and national security missions—from innovative new entrants to established space systems organizations. We bring talented, energetic, and immediately productive professionals to meet critical customer needs in systems engineering and integration, mission operations, program management, and strategic planning—helping teams deliver resilient capability to the mission with speed, quality, and focus. Stellar Solutions is seeking a Senior Mission Performance SME - Space-Based Sensing & Tracking to support a proposed space-based sensing and tracking enterprise. This role provides modeling, simulation, analysis, and mission-performance support to help government customers evaluate emerging capabilities, assess technical alternatives, and make informed architecture and acquisition decisions. The successful candidate will bring a strong analytical foundation in one or more relevant sensing, remote sensing, mission-processing, or space systems domains. The role is designed for a senior technical advisor with depth in modeling and analysis, not for an individual expected to be the deepest subject matter expert across every sensor type, mission area, algorithm, and customer environment. This is a senior technical advisory role for a professional who can use models, simulations, data, and structured analysis to connect technical performance with mission outcomes. The work may support mission areas such as AMTI, GMTI, SAR, Environmental Monitoring, radar/RF sensing, mission-data flow, ground processing, or multi-sensor integration, depending on customer priorities. Experience in one or more of these areas is valuable; broad exposure and the ability to learn adjacent mission contexts are equally important.

Requirements

12+ years of relevant experience in modeling and simulation, mission analysis, systems engineering, remote sensing, ISR/GEOINT, radar/RF, SAR, ground systems, mission processing, space systems, or related national security programs.
Demonstrated experience using models, simulations, data analysis, or mission-performance assessment to guide technical decisions, architecture trades, requirements, acquisition planning, or operational capability development.
Experience in at least one relevant mission or technical area, such as space-based sensing, remote sensing, radar/RF, SAR, ISR/GEOINT, ground processing, mission-data systems, or environmental monitoring.
Understanding of how technical performance, data flow, processing, latency, and operational use affect mission outcomes.
Ability to work across technical, programmatic, acquisition, contractor, and mission-user communities.
Experience supporting technical reviews, architecture assessments, integration planning, verification activities, risk reduction, or transition-to-operations efforts.
Ability to communicate complex analytical findings clearly to government program managers, senior leaders, and cross-functional teams.
U.S. citizenship is required.
Active security clearance is required; TS/SCI eligible
Ability to access U.S.-only data systems and support classified government mission environments is required.
Ability to travel to temporary work locations up to 10%, as needed.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in engineering, physics, mathematics, computer science, atmospheric science, remote sensing, systems engineering, or a related STEM discipline.
Exposure to one or more mission areas such as AMTI, GMTI, MTI, SAR, radar/RF sensing, Environmental Monitoring, ISR/GEOINT, mission-data dissemination, or multi-sensor integration.
Experience with one or more applicable technical methods, such as sensor or mission modeling, simulation development, data fusion, detection or tracking analysis, processing-chain assessment, synthetic data, model validation, or performance analysis.
Experience supporting space, defense, intelligence, civil remote sensing, or government advisory environments, including SSC, USSF, SDA, NRO, NGA, MDA, AFRL, DoD, IC, NOAA, NASA, or USGS.
Familiarity with acquisition or systems-engineering artifacts such as analysis plans, requirements, technical specifications, ICDs, risk registers, verification documentation, SOWs/PWSs, or CDRLs.
Experience contributing to digital engineering, MBSE, mission-thread analysis, effects-chain analysis, or architecture repositories is a plus, but not required.

Responsibilities

Apply modeling, simulation, and analytical methods to assess mission performance, system effectiveness, technical alternatives, and architecture tradeoffs for space-based sensing and tracking capabilities.
Develop or evaluate mission, constellation, sensor, data-flow, ground-processing, or mission-thread analyses that connect technical performance to operational needs.
Support assessment of end-to-end sensing and mission-data chains, including collection, processing, exploitation, dissemination, latency, and operational use.
Use quantitative analysis to inform questions involving coverage, capacity, data quality, processing performance, scalability, mission utility, or technology maturity.
Support evaluation of algorithms, models, simulation environments, processing approaches, or technical claims at an appropriate level of fidelity for the decision being made.
Contribute to architecture trades involving space, ground, payload, processing, data transport, cloud or edge computing, and user-facing mission effects.
Translate operational or programmatic questions into modelable technical questions, analysis plans, assumptions, measures, and decision-quality findings.
Provide independent technical analysis to help government customers assess contractor approaches, identify risks, and evaluate technical alternatives.
Support requirements, verification, integration, technical review, and acquisition activities by providing analytical evidence and performance-focused recommendations.
Coordinate with program offices, systems engineers, mission users, acquisition teams, contractors, and technical SMEs to ensure analyses address priority mission and program decisions.
Prepare concise reports, briefings, trade-study results, analysis products, and recommendations for senior government stakeholders.