Full-Time

Systems Engineer

TS/SCI

Xcelerate Solutions

Xcelerate Solutions

201-500 employees

Security, consulting, and digital transformation services

No salary listed

No H1B Sponsorship

Bethesda, MD, USA

Hybrid

Most work on-site in Bethesda, MD; hybrid schedule with occasional remote tasks.

US Top Secret Clearance Required

Category
Engineering Management (1)
Required Skills
Agile
Python
Java
JIRA
SCRUM
Confluence
Requirements
  • BS in Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or related field and 12 – 15 years of prior relevant experience or Masters with 10 – 13 years of prior relevant experience. Additional years of experience in lieu of degree are acceptable
  • Must have an active Top Secret security clearance with the ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI with Polygraph.
  • Software development experience in languages such as Java or Python.
  • Experience as a Systems Enginer, Product Owner, or a similar role in an Agile software development team.
  • Experience with requirements and design documentation, including process flow diagrams.
  • Demonstrated ability to break down complex problems into actionable steps.
  • Experience managing and prioritizing product backlogs effectively.
  • Strong understanding of Agile methodologies, and experience with tools like Gitlab, Jira, and Confluence.
  • Experience with facilitating scrum for the team (Planning, Retrospective, Grooming & Review/Demo).
  • Excellent communication skills (verbal and written) to articulate technical and non-technical concepts to diverse audiences.
  • Proven ability to work cross-functionally with engineering, design, and project management teams.
  • Demonstrated ability to manage expectations and maintain strong relationships with government and contractor stakeholders.
Responsibilities
  • Manage, direct, coordinate, and provide technical direction for all aspects of the team’s development efforts.
  • Plan, design, and oversee implementation of software development solutions. Provide technical support, coordination, and execution of systems engineering activities such as feature/requirements analysis, design, implementation planning, integration and test, sustainment, documentation, deployment, and system assessment.
  • Ensure sound engineering practices are followed.
  • Provide direction for interpretation and application of policies and procedures to the engineering and development activities.
  • Develop a working knowledge of government business processes and provide recommendations accordingly.
  • Collaborate with other development teams to identify and develop high-value integrations with other systems/applications.
  • Develop, manage and continually improve the backlog of work items for an Agile scrum team. Update and prioritize stories and epics via feedback from various program stakeholders ensuring the team is always working on the highest-value tasks.
  • Support Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) program increment planning and execution through creation of work tickets in GitLab as well as program/system documentation using collaboration software (e.g., GitLab wiki). Lead/participate in all Agile ceremonies to include daily stand up, planning, reviews, and retrospectives.
  • Stay informed of increment and sprint progress and work with the team to identify and remove impediments and dependencies.
  • Perform backlog refinement on a regular basis. This may include decomposing features into workable stories, prioritizing or reprioritizing items in the backlog for upcoming sprints, refining acceptance criteria and complexity estimates or removing tickets that are no longer relevant.
  • Accept or reject completed work based on defined acceptance criteria to ensure delivery of high-quality software.
  • Lead the design and architecture of backend systems and services.
  • Drive initiatives across the engineering team related to scalability, reliability, and performance.
  • Develop requirements and design documents
  • Contribute to and review RFCs, and requirements, design, and architecture reviews
  • Coordinate with Test Team to develop and monitor automated system integration tests to identify failed modules and components
  • Manage individual project priorities, deliverables, and deadlines
  • Provides specific input to the software components of system design to include hardware/software trade-offs, software reuse, use of COTS/GOTS in place of new development, and requirements analysis and synthesis from system level to individual software components
  • Foster an environment of collaboration with the different team members in the goal of providing quality service and product to our customers
  • Act as a mentor to mid-level and junior engineers, offering guidance on best practices and career growth
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience with Kafka or other message passing systems
  • Experience on a production/enterprise system
  • Cloud infrastructure experience
  • Experience with Appian or other low-code software technologies
  • Experience with PostgreSQL
  • Containerization, especially with Docker
  • DevOps practices and tools including Continuous Integration/Continous Delivery (CI/CD) tools and practices, especially Gitlab or Jenkins
  • GraphQL
  • Keycloak
  • Proactive in identifying tech debt, systemic issues, and areas for team/process improvement
  • Expertise building and maintaining microservices in production in Kubernetes
  • Understanding of Elasticsearch internals: sharding, performance tuning, analyzers, query DSL
  • Elasticsearch certifications or other program stack related certifications
  • Strong Kafka experience: event design, stream processing, performance tuning
  • Familiarity with schema registries and Kafka streaming patterns
  • Familiarity with authentication and authorization products such as Keycloak
  • Experience with security best practices for services: authN/Z, secrets management, data protection
  • GraphQL familiarity
  • Hardware on-prem and cloud-based deployments using Kubernetes
  • Proficiency with infrastructure-as-code (ie CloudFormation, Terraform, Pulumi)
  • Experience of a production/enterprise systems at scale
  • Knowledge of distributed systems concepts (e.g., idempotency, eventual consistency)
  • Experience leading technical projects and mentoring engineers
  • Strong testing discipline with a focus on automation, coverage, and CI/CD pipelines
  • Hands-on development and/or scripting experience, especially Java and Python
  • Experience with AWS cloud-based architecture, services, and software development

Xcelerate Solutions helps organizations manage risk for people and systems across three service areas: Enterprise Security, Strategic Consulting, and Digital Transformation. Its offerings include security programs, risk assessments, strategic guidance, and technology-enabled transformations that protect personnel, physical assets, and cyber infrastructure while speeding up value delivery. The company differentiates itself by providing an integrated, end-to-end portfolio that combines security expertise, strategic oversight, and practical digital-change initiatives under one umbrella, rather than offering a narrow, single-solution approach. Its goal is to improve security and resilience for America’s personnel, facilities, and digital networks and to deliver results more quickly by aligning risk management with actionable transformations.

Company Size

201-500

Company Stage

N/A

Total Funding

N/A

Headquarters

McLean, Virginia

Founded

2009

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Federal civilian portfolio expansion under Jeffrey Keen drives DHS, FBI, NRC contract growth.
  • clearAvenue acquisition strengthens enterprise vetting capabilities and competitive positioning in security.
  • Donald Ross's TSA and DHS expertise accelerates homeland security and State Department market penetration.

What critics are saying

  • VMD Corp and clearAvenue integrations fail, eroding operational efficiency and client retention.
  • CACI and Leidos outcompete Xcelerate on DoD and intelligence community contracts using scale.
  • McNally Capital exits investment due to stagnant revenue growth below $250M, forcing restructuring.

What makes Xcelerate Solutions unique

  • Integrated enterprise security, vetting, and critical infrastructure protection across federal agencies.
  • GSA NextGen Login.gov BPA vendor with Socure for identity proofing across three functional areas.
  • Recent leadership appointments bring 100+ years combined federal contracting and defense sector experience.

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Benefits

Hybrid Work Options

Professional Development Budget

Company News

readmagazine.com
Mar 25th, 2026
Xcelerate Solutions appoints Jeffrey Keen as Senior Vice President of Federal Civilian Programs.

Xcelerate Solutions appoints Jeffrey Keen as Senior Vice President of Federal Civilian Programs. March 25, 2026 Xcelerate Solutions, a leading defense and national security company, announced the appointment of Jeffrey A. Keen as Senior Vice President of Federal Civilian Programs, where he will lead the company's strategy, operations, and growth across its federal civilian portfolio. In this role, Keen will oversee program delivery and business development initiatives supporting civilian government customers, strengthening partnerships, and advancing solutions that modernize IT infrastructure, enhance mission performance, and improve service delivery across federal agencies. "Jeff brings an exceptional combination of operational leadership and deep experience across the federal civilian landscape," said Mark Drever, CEO of Xcelerate Solutions. "His proven ability to manage complex programs, lead high-performing teams, and build trusted government partnerships will be instrumental as we continue expanding our civilian programs." Keen brings more than two decades of leadership experience in federal contracting, program management, and strategic growth. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Federal Civilian Enterprise Solutions at CACI, where he supported the integration of Applied Insight following its acquisition and helped lead operations and growth initiatives across the company's civilian enterprise portfolio. Previously, Keen served as Senior Vice President and General Manager at Applied Insight, where he oversaw a large operating portfolio supporting both federal civilian and Department of War customers. Throughout his career, he has led programs supporting agencies including the Defense Health Agency, U.S. Air Force, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Courts, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Capitol Police, and U.S. Coast Guard, managing teams delivering communications support services, training, cloud services, infrastructure modernization, cybersecurity, and enterprise IT support.

PR Newswire
Mar 24th, 2026
Xcelerate Solutions appoints Jeffrey Keen as senior vice president of federal civilian programs

Xcelerate Solutions, a defence and national security company, has appointed Jeffrey A. Keen as Senior Vice President of Federal Civilian Programs. Keen will lead strategy, operations and growth across the company's federal civilian portfolio, overseeing programme delivery and business development for civilian government customers. Keen brings over 20 years of experience in federal contracting and programme management. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Federal Civilian Enterprise Solutions at CACI, where he supported Applied Insight's integration following its acquisition. Before that, he was Senior Vice President and General Manager at Applied Insight, managing programmes for agencies including the Defence Health Agency, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Xcelerate Solutions provides integrated solutions for federal clients across homeland security, defence and intelligence community operations.

Homeland Security Today
Oct 7th, 2025
Xcelerate Solutions Acquires clearAvenue

Xcelerate Solutions acquires clearAvenue.

PR Newswire
Oct 7th, 2025
Xcelerate Solutions Acquires clearAvenue

/PRNewswire/ -- Xcelerate Solutions ("Xcelerate"), a leading defense and national security company and portfolio company of McNally Capital, today announced it...

PR Newswire
Aug 5th, 2025
Xcelerate Solutions Appoints Doug Kollme as Chief Financial Officer

MCLEAN, Va., Aug. 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Xcelerate Solutions, a leading provider of mission-driven solutions for the defense, intelligence, and homeland security communities, is excited to announce the appointment of Doug Kollme as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).