Principal Systems Engineer - TS/SCI with Polygraph

Description

The company is a global technology and professional services firm with 26,000 people serving US government, defense and intelligence customers in more than 50 countries.

This Lead Systems Engineer role sits in the PMO of a national intelligence program and covers a portfolio of six software-development task orders under an IDIQ contract, which are completion-based.

The role is the strategic technical lead for change and innovation across that portfolio. It falls in the IT Infrastructure and Operations job family.

Responsibilities

• Review all six task orders to find overlaps, duplicate capabilities and gaps against mission priorities and emerging needs.
• Recommend whether to consolidate, retire or modernize parts of the portfolio, and link technical investment to program and sponsor objectives, future architecture and the roadmap.
• Identify where AI and automation can deliver measurable value in software development, testing, operations and analytics.
• Define AI insertion strategies and roadmaps covering use cases, expected outcomes and how new capabilities connect to existing systems.
• Guide task order teams so AI capabilities are designed responsibly, secured, explainable where required and aligned with customer policy.
• Write the Innovation report CDRL, and create and maintain all technical CDRLs.
• Build frameworks, metrics and practices that raise delivery speed and quality, reduce technical debt and create reusable patterns across task orders.
• Lead sharing of lessons learned, reusable components and improvement ideas among task order leads, solution architects, the Lead Agilist and QA and mission assurance staff.
• Drive adoption of DevSecOps, CI/CD, test automation and observability.
• Promote a culture focused on better technical performance, mission results, user experience and modernizing legacy components.
• Work with PMO leadership and task order leads so engineering decisions are tied to measurable business and mission impact.
• Lead the technical move of legacy SOWs to the new environment or an equivalent platform, including decomposing legacy solutions, planning migration paths and dependencies, managing risk and keeping one coherent architecture.
• Keep the sponsor and key stakeholders informed on transition plans, progress and risks, gather timely feedback on architecture, and prepare briefings, options analyses and status updates for the sponsor and internal leadership.
• Ensure transitions cause minimal disruption to live mission operations and no negative effect on schedules.
• Track cost, schedule and technical performance across all task orders, especially where engineering decisions have major impact, and advise PMO on scope, cost and schedule trade-offs and on modernization and AI priorities by value and risk.
• Help build remediation plans when metrics show risk to completion-based commitments.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering or a related discipline. A Master's degree is preferred.
• You must currently hold TS/SCI with Polygraph clearance.
• You must be able to obtain TS/SCI with Polygraph clearance.
• US citizenship is required.
• 8+ years of related experience.
• 3+ years working in an Agile development environment that moves quickly.
• Experience leading teams and planning, organizing and delivering significant strategic initiatives.
• Extensive systems engineering and architecture experience on complex software programs, ideally across multiple task orders or a portfolio.
• A proven record leading modernization, portfolio rationalization or large technical transformations.
• Hands-on understanding of AI and ML solutions and their integration patterns in production environments.
• Strong background in Agile, SAFe and DevSecOps practices.
• Ability to work directly with government sponsors and senior stakeholders and explain complex technical concepts in business and mission terms.
• Experience tracking and reporting cost, schedule and performance metrics with PMO and program management.
• Desired: experience building PowerBI dashboards.

Conditions

The role is onsite in Chantilly, Virginia.

The schedule is 40 hours per week.

No travel is required.

The likely salary range is $140,821 to $190,523. This is not a guarantee. Pay is set by experience, geographic location and possibly contract requirements, and may fall outside this range.

The hiring process includes an identity verification step that uses biometrics and AI, and candidates must be on camera for virtual interviews. Biometric data is collected, processed and used for identity verification and security.

The company is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.

Benefits

• For US-based employees: medical plan options, some with Health Savings Accounts, plus dental and vision plans.
• A 401(k) plan with company match, allowing pre-tax and post-tax contributions up to IRS annual limits.
• Full flex work weeks where possible, to support work and life balance.
• Paid time off including vacation, sick and personal time, holidays, paid parental, military, bereavement and jury duty leave.
• Short and long-term disability, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness, and business travel and accident insurance, provided or available.