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Booz Allen

Builds AI and cyber systems for the US government

Space Vehicle Chief Architect Lead

Full-TimeDeadline 11/10/26
$86.8k - $198k/yr
Senior, Expert
Bachelor's
El Segundo, CA, USA
In Person
Aerospace EngineeringSpacecraft & Launch Vehicle Systems
No H1B Sponsorship
US Top Secret Clearance Required

About the job

Requirements
  • 10+ years of experience with space vehicle systems engineering, planning, and integration.
  • 10+ years of experience with systems architecture, requirements management, and technical baseline management.
  • 7+ years of experience reviewing space systems, including SRR, SDR, SFR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FCA, SVR, MRR, or PCA, and experience with the Department of Defense acquisition system.
  • 5+ years of experience with risk and opportunity management and articulating program risk posture.
  • Ability to contribute to the Department of Defense mission.
  • Ability to communicate and establish collaborative relationships with government clients and contractor teammates.
  • Active TS/SCI clearance.
  • Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or Computer Science.
Responsibilities
  • Lead space vehicle systems engineering efforts.
  • Design and develop space vehicle systems.
  • Evolve space vehicle systems with advanced technology solutions.
  • Translate real-world customer needs into technical specifications.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience with computer tools, including Confluence or Jira.
  • Experience designing, building, and testing communications antennas, transmitters, or receivers for a payload.
  • Experience with mission assurance in strategic or tactical military communications payload development.
  • Knowledge of Department of Defense systems engineering, testing, and production policies and practices.
  • Ability to perform multiple systems engineering and program management functions in support of design reviews and requirements verification.
  • Excellent interpersonal skills.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

About the company

Booz Allen builds and runs technology for the U.S. government, mostly for the military and intelligence agencies, and its engineers work alongside consultants who know each agency's mission. In 1958, it helped the U.S. Navy create PERT, a project-scheduling method first used on the Polaris submarine missile program and later adopted across government and industry. Its teams design cyber defenses, AI and data tools, and battlefield communications, and it sells its own products, such as Vellox, a suite of AI tools that spot and fight off hackers. Agencies pay mainly through multi-year contracts that reimburse costs, bill hours, or set a fixed price. Booz Allen was founded in 1914 and is based in McLean, Virginia.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

New York City, New York

Founded

1914

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Product work is growing: Booz Allen bought Ultra's battlefield encryption and computing unit for $720 million in August 2026.
  • Hiring continues despite cuts: Booz Allen listed 2,282 open roles in October 2026, 1,097 of them in technology.
  • Work is lined up for years: backlog, including contract options, hit $39.5 billion in June 2026, about 3.5 years' revenue.

What critics are saying

  • Job security has slipped: staff fell from 33,400 to 30,900 in the year to June 2026 as civil work shrank.
  • Stock grants lost value: shares fell 29% in the year to October 2026 while defense IT rival CACI rose 14%.
  • Shutdowns halt paid work: the federal shutdown that began October 2025 cost Booz Allen about $50 million in unperformed work.

What makes Booz Allen unique

  • Most coworkers are cleared for secrets: about 77% of Booz Allen's 31,500 employees held security clearances in March 2026.
  • AI is its specialty: Booz Allen calls itself the federal government's largest AI provider, with about 400 active AI projects.
  • It bankrolls defense tech startups: Booz Allen tripled its venture fund to $300 million in July 2025, backing 17 companies.

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Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • Life Insurance
  • Disability Insurance
  • 401(k) Retirement Plan
  • Paid Vacation
  • Professional Development Budget
  • Remote Work Options
  • Flexible Work Hours

Company News

PR Newswire
Oct 9th, 2026
PDW integrates Booz Allen mission autonomy software on AM drones with secure fleet updates

Performance Drone Works announced it is integrating Booz Allen's mission autonomy software, powered by Shield AI's Hivemind, onto its AM drones. The software enables autonomy-assisted missions whilst operators retain decision-making authority. PDW is also deploying Booz Allen's secure over-the-air fleet update system across its aircraft portfolio. The combined product entered testing on 30 September and is planned for general availability in Q1 2027. PDW aims to extend the autonomy software to its C100 aircraft later in 2027. The integration supports PDW's strategy to rapidly field and adapt systems. The company's Huntsville facility has annual production capacity of 100,000 drones. Booz Allen's update system is designed to reduce approved update cycles from weeks to hours, even in contested environments.

Tectonic
Oct 5th, 2026
Aventra raises $17.5M for high-altitude balloon-dropped glide bombs

Virginia-based startup Aventra has raised $17.5 million in new funding, with Konvoy Ventures leading the round. Seed round backer Lavrock Ventures participated alongside new investors Booz Allen Ventures, Sands Capital, Langford Industries, and Western Alliance Bank. The company manufactures Piranha, a high-altitude balloon-dropped glide bomb that converts unguided munitions into precision-guided weapons. Since emerging from stealth with a $3.5 million seed round last October, Aventra has delivered over 400 units to US and NATO customers and doubled its production revenue. The system launches munitions from 60,000 feet and can glide approximately 100 miles, with recent demonstrations achieving accuracy within three metres of targets. Aventra plans to use the funding to scale production from 35 units monthly to 500 through a new Virginia facility called Factory Zero.

Yahoo Finance
Sep 14th, 2026
Palantir, Nvidia, Booz Allen restrict Anthropic and OpenAI models over data retention concerns

Palantir Technologies, Nvidia, and Booz Allen Hamilton are restricting use of AI models from Anthropic and OpenAI over data protection concerns, Reuters reported. The companies worry model providers could retain or extract value from sensitive corporate information. Palantir has pressed Anthropic for zero data retention guarantees. Nvidia limits Anthropic's models to less sensitive tasks, favouring its own Nemotron models for proprietary work. Booz Allen has banned staff from using Anthropic's commercial model on cybersecurity projects involving proprietary data. The pushback intensified after Anthropic introduced a 30-day data retention policy in June for its Claude 3.5 model, citing security monitoring needs. Anthropic responded by launching Enterprise Frontier Safeguards, allowing customers to store activity data in their own cloud infrastructure under their encryption keys.

Business Wire
Sep 12th, 2026
Credo AI Announces $21 Million in New Capital, Grows Leadership Team to Match the Rapid Pace of AI Innovation, Emerges as the Standard of Responsible AI Governance

Credo AI, a global leader in AI governance software, today announced that it has raised $21 million in new capital from CrimsoNox Capital, Mozilla Ventures, ...

TechCrunch
Sep 2nd, 2026
HiddenLayer nabs $100M as enterprises rush to secure their AI deployments | TechCrunch

Security companies are scrambling to build products that can monitor not just agents but also the tools and add-ons they use.