SIGINT Systems Engineer



DESCRIPTION:

SAIC has an opportunity in Chantilly, Virginia for a mid-level engineer to join an award-winning SIGINT Flight team providing analysis and recommendations directly contributing to operational and future SIGINT collection systems used for National Security purposes.  

Members of the team apply aspects of electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, systems engineering, and computer and data science to perform analysis under the guidance of the SIGINT Flight Team Lead and in close collaboration with one another.

Members of the team also prepare technical and programmatic briefings and interface with Government Customers on a frequent and ongoing basis.

Occasional short-term and extended travel to CONUS and OCONUS government and contractor locations required.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as one of the government’s trusted technical advisors for SIGINT mission systems modeling and analysis in areas from spacecraft bus and payload to command and control, mission management, and mission processing systems.
• Assist the government in identifying mission needs and opportunities in developing concepts of operations and optimization strategies, in assessing baseline change impacts, and in developing requirements, to influence current and future operations and acquisition efforts.
• Perform technical analysis using COTS tools (e.g. STK) as well as use and develop in-house tools using, for example, Python, to develop recommendations for the government on topics such as orbit design and modification, payload resource allocation, and capacity requirements for current mission systems and future system acquisitions.
• Play a key role in transitioning and integrating new systems into operations, working closely with government mission customers to ensure new capabilities are fully leveraged by operations. This role includes providing on-site training and demonstrations to operations personnel (travel required).
• Assess integration activities in the context of cross-systems dependencies (technical, resource, and schedule) and present unbiased analysis-based findings and recommendations to government managers.
• Provide “ground truth” technical assessments of project or system reviews, milestones, and/or decision gates; identify risks, issues, opportunities, mitigations; represent the government customer’s interests with other stakeholders.
• Support government requests for systems engineering and integration studies, process analysis and design, project management assessments, etc.; provide analysis, recommendations, and take necessary actions needed to follow through on accepted recommendations.
• Contribute to the development or assessment of system Concept of Operations, Requirements Documents, Test Plans, Contract Statements of Work, Systems Engineering Plans, as well as the “staff work” needs of the government (e.g., action items, weekly reports, etc.), including support to government acquisitions and source selections.
• Collaborate proactively with government personnel and other contractors (often across multiple sites, time zones, and organizational levels) to provide unbiased analysis and recommendations on courses of actions to address risks/issues or approaches to exploit an opportunity.

Required:

• Must be a US Citizen.
• Must possess an active/current TS/SCI with polygraph.
• Bachelor’s degree in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) field and minimum nine (9) years of relevant experience; master’s in STEM field and seven (7) or more years of relevant experience. STEM degree is a contractual requirement.
• Technical knowledge of spacecraft and ground systems and subsystems- space to ground and ground communications and mission data processing systems, space vehicle mission planning and command and control systems.
• Must have working knowledge of mission readiness process, control gates, and associated entry and exit criteria.
• Must possess knowledge of orbital mechanics and experience with orbit modeling and analysis and associated orbit analysis tools (e.g. STK).
• Must be a forward-thinking self-starter, able to proactively address customer requirements without dedicated supervision and be able to readily define and communicate solutions for broad, abstract topics.
• Must be a polished, persuasive communicator (both written and verbal) with excellent interpersonal skills and personal judgment.
• Must be confident in interacting at all levels to include highest levels of government and contractor workforce and skilled at collaboration and coordination with team members and with multiple stakeholders (consensus builder).

Desired:

• Understanding of SIGINT missions, and SIGINT mission ground and space baselines.
• Programming, and data reduction and analysis, experience using Python and/or Interface Definition Language (IDL) software.
• Real-time operations experience as a spacecraft operator, spacecraft engineer or ground systems operator, familiar with space and SIGINT operations/policies.
• Familiar with Digital Engineering/Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), Agile development, cloud technologies.
• Master of Science in Electrical Engineering with concentration in Communication Systems Engineering.