Space Systems Security Architect

Dragonfli Group • Washington, DC

4d • Remote

About The Position

Dragonfli Group is seeking a Lead Product Engineer / Architect to serve as the senior technical authority for a satellite cybersecurity offering. This role will shape the technical vision, architecture, and engineering standards across cyber, software, hardware, AI, space, ground, and user segments. The ideal candidate will translate complex mission and security requirements into scalable, commercially viable solutions that can be deployed repeatedly across clients. Responsibilities include owning the long-term target architecture, serving as the senior technical authority for release-readiness and engineering tradeoffs, leading technical integration across multidisciplinary teams, and guiding system-level test strategy from research through production. This position requires 10 or more years of experience leading complex cybersecurity, aerospace, or mission-critical systems to production, with a strong understanding of frameworks such as NIST, CMMC, and STIGs to create executable, compliance-ready designs.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• 10+ years of experience as a product engineer, solution architect, systems architect, technical product leader, or similar role delivering complex cyber, aerospace, space, embedded, or mission-critical systems.
• Proven leadership delivering complex, multidisciplinary cyber and/or space systems to production and operations.
• Deep experience designing secure architectures across cloud, on-premises, hybrid, and space/embedded constraints, with strong systems-thinking and an integration background.
• Demonstrated authorship of reference architectures, patterns, or platforms adopted by multiple teams, ideally productized offerings deployed across more than one client or environment.
• Sufficient cross-domain depth (embedded/space, AI/ML, ground segment, cloud/DevOps) to serve as the senior technical sounding board for specialist workstream leads.
• Strong grasp of security architecture: identity, key management, secure boot and update, segmentation, data protection, logging and telemetry, and supply chain.
• Experience operating under compliance constraints (NIST, ATO, STIGs, CMMC as applicable) and translating them into executable delivery controls.
• Calm, decisive leadership under uncertainty, with strong incident- and risk-management discipline.
• Proven ability to influence without direct authority, with excellent written and verbal communication across technical and executive audiences.
• Willingness and ability to travel 20 to 60 percent, based on clients and events.

Nice To Haves

• Experience taking a product or platform to market commercially: pilots, co-development, or first-of-kind deployments with external clients.
• Experience with satellite mission operations or aerospace delivery environments.
• Background in embedded and real-time systems integration.
• Familiarity with AI/ML model deployment pipelines in constrained environments.
• Background in space-focused threat research or attack frameworks.
• Active security clearance (Secret or higher) for government-adjacent commercial work.
• Working fluency across the platform tech stack: embedded/space (C, POSIX, real-time OS); AI/ML (Python, PyTorch); ground segment (Docker, Grafana, MQTT, Node.js); CI/CD and DevOps (GitHub Actions, automated security scanning, containerized deployments).

Responsibilities

• Own the long-term architecture: target architectures, interfaces, trust boundaries, and patterns across the space, ground, and user segments, with security by design embedded throughout a multi-year roadmap.
• Serve as the senior technical authority for release-readiness gates, engineering standards, and architecture tradeoffs, making pragmatic decisions that protect system integrity and mission outcomes.
• Lead technical integration across multidisciplinary delivery spanning cyber, software, hardware, AI, and systems; unblock teams, ensure implementation consistency, and bridge research to production.
• Productize solutions for scale so they deploy repeatably across different client satellites and constellation profiles as the offering grows.
• Guide system-level test strategy and execution across integration, security validation, mission-readiness, and operational acceptance, including support for failure analysis and root-cause resolution.
• Translate relevant frameworks (NIST, CMMC, ATO/STIGs, and related space threat models as applicable) into executable delivery controls and compliance-ready designs for commercial and government-adjacent clients.
• Lead technical-vision discussions with clients and executives; serve as the cross-domain technical authority workstream leads consult on hard tradeoffs, and grow them into stronger architects and engineers.

Benefits

• Medical: Multiple POS health plan options including an HSA-compatible plan
• Dental: PPO coverage for preventive, basic, and major services
• Vision: Annual exam, frames, lenses, and contact lens allowance
• 401(k): Employer match up to 5% of eligible compensation
• Long-Term Disability: 100% employer-paid coverage at 50% of pre-disability earnings
• Life Insurance & AD&D: 100% employer-paid coverage valued at $10,000 each
• PTO: 15 to 25 days annually based on tenure
• Paid Federal Holidays: All 11 federal holidays observed

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Senior