Mission Engineering Architect – Autonomous Defense Tech

Talanto; Washington, Northern (District of Columbia, KY); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Benefits

Equity

Job summary

Talanto is seeking a Mission Engineer to own mission representations for programs, applying systems engineering, M&S, and operational analysis to enable autonomy in defense systems. You will translate mission needs into traceable autonomy requirements for design trade-offs and system capabilities.

The role requires strong DoD stakeholder collaboration, MBSE experience, and the ability to drive analytics across multiple platforms and domains in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in mission engineering, systems engineering, operational analysis, or a related discipline.
• Experience with mission-thread analysis, force-on-force analysis, capability-gap analysis, or CONOPS development.
• Proficiency with SysML and tools (AFSIM, STK, MATLAB, or Python) for aerospace and defense.
• Experience with DoD stakeholders, warfighters, and government agencies.
• Ability to build reliable models, simulations, and analytical workflows.
• Excellent communication and briefing skills for senior leadership and customers.
• Ability to work in fast-paced, agile development environments.
• Active Secret or Top-Secret clearance or ability to obtain one.

Responsibilities

• Employ the Mission Engineering process to develop analyses and assess autonomous capabilities in military scenarios.
• Use SysML and modeling tools alongside AFSIM/STK/MATLAB/Python to build mission models and analytical artifacts.
• Develop mission architecture artifacts such as mission threads and CONOPS for new AI-driven capabilities.
• Collaborate with engineers and product managers to translate mission needs into system requirements and design decisions.
• Define trade studies and sensitivity analyses to identify mission drivers and performance thresholds.
• Work with DoD stakeholders, operators, and warfighters to define measures of effectiveness and required data.
• Develop and present technical reports, architectures, trade studies, and recommendations to leadership and customers.
• Leverage cloud/HPC workflows, containerization, version control, CI/CD, and automated testing for models and analyses.

Skills

Mission engineering

Systems engineering

Operational analysis

Modeling & simulation

CONOPS development

DoD stakeholder coordination

Communication

Agile development

Tools

SysML

AFSIM

STK

MATLAB

Python

Job description

Talanto is seeking a Mission Engineer to own mission representations for programs, applying systems engineering, M&S, and operational analysis to enable autonomy in defense systems. You will translate mission needs into traceable autonomy requirements for design trade-offs and system capabilities.

The role requires strong DoD stakeholder collaboration, MBSE experience, and the ability to drive analytics across multiple platforms and domains in a fast-paced environment.