SYSTEMS ENGINEERS (Active TS clearance with SCI eligibility)

NorthHill Technology•Fairfax, VA

21h•Hybrid

About The Position

Work with ground processing system developers to satisfy evolving mission requirements (e.g. modern communications signals) and ground architecture requirements (e.g. resiliency) working to transition legacy applications from their current hosting infrastructure to the SIGINT Mission Framework (SMF), and provide continuing post-migration support. SMF provides an operationally supported container orchestration environment and processing capability at several government sites. SMF enables DevSecOps pipelines for Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery/Deployment and Continuous Operations, driving toward rapid software/hardware updates with reduced transition timelines and cost. Interact with developers, teammates, and customer within a weekly/monthly/quarterly rhythm to plan and execute agile processes, e.g. facilitate creation of Jira epics and stories, assignment of story points, and assessment of progress toward objectives Investigate and implement agile software development and deployment techniques to modernize current systems, e.g. containerize components, Kubernetes orchestration Develop prototype tools, documentation, and common implementation pattern examples Document system architecture, interfaces, CONOPs, trade study plans and results Create documentation of roadmaps, key technical capabilities, and detailed plans utilizing tools such as Confluence and Jira

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or Computer Science
At least 3 years performing technical system engineering tasks, software, hardware, or firmware development, testing or systems integration
Active TS/SCI clearance
Ability and desire to work independently; i.e. adapt tasking to fulfill needs as they evolve, self-starter, work to high level objectives and intent rather than formal requirements
Proven skills facilitating small technical team coordination and productivity
Responsible for team progress/reporting/monitoring
Responsible for collaborating across organization to remove roadblocks
Effectively communicate in-progress efforts with distributed remote team.
Proven capability to learn complex topics and perform engineering tasks in an uncertain problem space
Comfortable adapting to evolving constraints, processes and tools
Willingness to independently research and document existing systems as well as explore potential solutions to improve them
Capable of taking measured risks and learning from failure, must be able to give and receive constructive criticism
Aptitude for system analysis utilizing both top down and bottom up approaches
Organized and detail oriented, but comfortable with high level solution-oriented thinking
Able to apply high level systems engineering concepts such as ROI, technical debt, scope creep when evaluating potential solutions
Driven to pursue improvement but disciplined enough to accept the good over the perfect solution
Strong communication skills; facilitate technical and programmatic information sharing across systems team, developers, and with customer

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Engineering or Computer Science
Experience with Kubernetes and related containerization technologies (Docker, Helm, k9s)
Experience and familiarity with DevSecOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing
Proficiency or experience with at least one scripting/programming language such as Python, Bash, VBA, or Go
Familiarity with cybersecurity best practices for cloud-native and on-premises deployments, PKI, container security scanning, and zero-trust principles
Experience with configuring and monitoring a suite of logging tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, OpenSearch)
Basic understanding of networking fundamentals (routing, switching, firewalls, VPNs) and secure communications in distributed computing systems
Experience working with Jira, Confluence, and GitLab
Proven leadership skills and the ability to nurture productive relationships with customers
Knowledge and experience in the IC and/or NRO
Expertise in SIGINT tasking, collection, processing, exploitation, and/or dissemination
Familiar with Cloud Native Compute Foundation (CNCF) offerings and how they can be used to facilitate application deployment in on-premises or cloud environments
Familiarity with ground processing systems
Experience as an IPT lead or other small team technical leadership
Experience in modernizing non-cloud native legacy systems to function in cloud environments

Responsibilities

Satisfy evolving mission requirements and ground architecture requirements.
Transition legacy applications to the SIGINT Mission Framework (SMF).
Provide post-migration support for transitioned applications.
Enable DevSecOps pipelines for CI/CD/Continuous Operations.
Interact with developers, teammates, and customers to plan and execute agile processes.
Facilitate creation of Jira epics and stories, assignment of story points, and assessment of progress.
Investigate and implement agile software development and deployment techniques.
Containerize components and utilize Kubernetes orchestration.
Develop prototype tools, documentation, and common implementation patterns.
Document system architecture, interfaces, CONOPs, trade study plans and results.
Create documentation of roadmaps, key technical capabilities, and detailed plans using Confluence and Jira.