Mission Systems Engineer

Brandes Associates Inc.; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 145,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

Brandes Associates Inc. is currently seeking a Mission Systems Engineer with over 5 years of experience. This position involves supporting deployed AET software products and requires strong troubleshooting skills and effective customer communication.

The role features tasks in customer support, release delivery, and documentation, with a hybrid work model focused on the Washington, DC/Baltimore area.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in a customer-facing technical role.
• Strong troubleshooting skills for diagnosing issues.
• Current DoD 8140/DCWF qualifications required.

Responsibilities

• Support customer and Product Support Engineer escalations.
• Assist in product release preparation and validation.
• Create and update product documentation for users.

Skills

Troubleshooting skills

Java application support

Linux command line tools

Web application environments

Customer-facing technical role

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Java

Bash scripting

SQL

Job description

Overview

Brandes Associates Inc. (BAI) is seeking an Mission Systems Engineer with 5+ years experience to join the Agile Empowerment Technologies (AET) product support and sustainment team.

The Mission Systems Engineer supports deployed AET software products used for DoD Organizational Messaging, information sharing, monitoring, and related mission workflows. This is an operational engineering role focused on customer support, product sustainment, release delivery, field issue investigation, documentation, training, and support to embedded Product Support Engineers.

The Mission Systems Engineering team ensures the product can be delivered, operated, supported, and sustained in customer environments.

The ideal candidate is comfortable learning complex software products, customer workflows, system architecture, and operational data formats through formal and on-the-job training.

The ideal candidate will be located in the Washington, DC/Baltimore, MD metro area with the ability to drive to Frederick, MD and Annapolis Junction, MD based upon operational need. (Hybrid work from home 85% / multiple customer sites 15%).

Salary

The typical annual salary range for this position is $145,000.00USD to $165,000.00USD. Salary will be based on current qualifications, directly related experience, geographic location, and possible contractual requirements which could fall outside of this range.

Responsibilities

• Customer Support and Troubleshooting
  • Support customer and Product Support Engineer escalations through ticket triage, investigation, troubleshooting, and resolution support
  • Assist with advanced product support for customers without embedded Product Support Engineer coverage
  • Review logs, system behavior, customer reports, configuration details, and other technical evidence to help diagnose product or environment issues
  • Help document issue severity, customer impact, workaround availability, and technical findings so issues can move through the appropriate support or engineering path
  • Communicate technical information clearly to customers, Product Support Engineers, and internal stakeholders
• Release Delivery and Product Sustainment
  • Assist with preparation and validation of customer-facing product releases, patches, IAVAs, advisories, and other update packages
  • Help consolidate installers, dependencies, scripts, documentation, and release artifacts into customer-deliverable packages
  • Support installation, upgrade, patching, and validation activities through scripting, documentation updates, troubleshooting, and field coordination
  • Participate in post-delivery support to help resolve issues identified during customer installation, testing, or operational use
• Documentation and Training
  • Create and update product documentation, installation guidance, release notes, advisories, support procedures, and customer-facing technical materials.
  • Support updates to training materials, exercises, environments, and related documentation as products and customer needs evolve.
  • Participate in operator, administrator, or product-specific training for customers during formal engagements or on-the-job support activities.
• Field and PSE Support
  • Provide product knowledge and troubleshooting support to embedded Product Support Engineers.
  • Assist with site integration, backend system support, system validation, and field issue investigation when needed.
  • Provide backup support during planned coverage gaps, urgent field needs, or surge demand.
  • Support occasional on-site activities, customer engagements, training events, or travel based on operational need.
• Engineering Coordination and Team Workflow
  • Coordinate with development, support, field, and management stakeholders to help move customer issues toward resolution.
  • Assist in preparing clear technical inputs for development review, workaround validation, procedure validation, defect analysis, or change-control activity.
  • Maintain accurate status and next-action information for assigned work in the team workflow.
  • Communicate blockers, unclear requirements, priority conflicts, or customer-impacting risks in a timely manner.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in a customer-facing technical role such as product support, systems integration, field engineering, system administration, testing, or operations support. Strong troubleshooting skills, including the ability to diagnose issues using logs, system behavior, user reports, configuration details, and available technical evidence. Ability to articulate technical information clearly to customers, field support personnel, developers, and non-technical stakeholders.
• 5+ years supporting, administering, or troubleshooting Java applications
• 5+ years working with Linux command line tools, Bash scripting, SQL queries, logs, system errors, and configuration files
• 5+ years deploying, maintaining and troubleshooting web application environments, including web servers such as Jetty, Apache, or IIS, networking concepts, sockets, web services, PKI, certificates, and key management
• 5+ years supporting software releases, patches, vulnerability remediation packages, IAVAs, security updates, or customer delivery artifacts
• 5+ years’ experience conducting manual QA, validation testing, installation testing, or customer acceptance support
• Current DoD 8140 / DCWF qualifications required for the applicable work role and customer environment; COMPTIA Security Plus will cover this role

Desired Experience

• Ability to read, understand and code in Java or JavaScript for troubleshooting is desired
• Experience with virtual machines, cloud environments, Azure, development/test environments, or internal support infrastructure is desirable
• Experience with DoD Organizational Messaging, Information Transport Service, Defense Messaging, Naval Messaging, Military Messaging, Legacy Messaging, or related mission systems is desirable
• Experience using AI-enabled tools, copilots, or lightweight agents to improve technical support, troubleshooting, log analysis, ticket triage, knowledge-base development, documentation, test-case generation, scripting, release support, or engineering workflow automation is desirable

Education

Degree: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Information Systems, Computer Information Systems, Software Engineering, or a closely related technical field.

Allowable Substitution: Four additional years of directly relevant technical experience may be substituted for a bachelor’s degree. An associate degree in a related technical field plus two additional years of directly relevant technical experience may also substitute for the bachelor’s degree. Relevant military technical training, DoD operational messaging experience, industry certifications, or equivalent technical training may be considered when combined with demonstrated hands‑on experience supporting, administering, troubleshooting, integrating, or sustaining mission software systems. Substitution experience should demonstrate meaningful hands‑on work with Linux, Java‑based applications, logs, scripts, configuration files, web application environments, PKI/certificates, release support, testing, or operational messaging systems.

CLEARANCE – Active DoD Secret clearance at the time of application

Condition of Employment: Applicants must have the ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret SCI with full scope polygraph. The applicants selected will be subject to a security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.

CITIZENSHIP

The applicant must have US citizenship at the time of application.

BAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other non-merit based factors made unlawful by federal, state or local laws.