Principal Systems Engineer

Prattwhitney; Aurora (CO); On-site; USD 107,500 - 204,500; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

401(k) match

Flexible work schedules

Job summary

RTX is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer for Application Services in Aurora, CO to lead systems engineering for reusable services from concept to verification and define interfaces, scenarios, and verification criteria for mission‑critical capabilities.

You will collaborate with software teams to implement observability, automated testing, and reusable design patterns within Agile product teams, and work with Platform Engineering and SRE to integrate capabilities in CI/CD and DevSecOps

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in STEM and at least 8 years of relevant experience.
• Experience performing Systems Engineering on software‑intensive systems including requirements, interfaces and verification planning.
• Experience in Agile environments and supporting software testing across the systems engineering lifecycle.
• Ability to translate mission needs into technical solutions with strong written and verbal communication.

Responsibilities

• Lead systems engineering activities for reusable Application Services from concept through verification.
• Define functional behavior, interfaces, operational scenarios, acceptance criteria, and verification strategies for common application capabilities.
• Design observability solutions supporting instrumentation, metrics, logging, tracing, health monitoring, alerting, and mission awareness across services.
• Develop verification strategies for automated unit, feature, integration, and end‑to‑end testing.
• Collaborate with software engineers to design and support automated test scenarios using Playwright or similar UI/API automation frameworks.
• Develop reusable engineering artifacts, design patterns, and shared services to reduce duplication across Agile product teams.
• Partner with Platform Engineering, SRE, Cyber Engineering, and app development teams to integrate common capabilities within CI/CD and DevSecOps workflows.
• Participate in technical reviews, PI Planning, demonstrations, customer exchanges, and integration events while maintaining a systems‑level perspective.

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) and a minimum of 8 years of relevant experience

Job description

Job Overview

Principal Systems Engineer – Application Services for a next‑generation satellite Command and Control (C2) system.Location: Aurora, CO.Salary range: $107,500 – $204,500.Relocation eligible.

Responsibilities

• Lead systems engineering activities for reusable Application Services from concept through verification.
• Define functional behavior, interfaces, operational scenarios, acceptance criteria, and verification strategies for common application capabilities.
• Design observability solutions supporting application instrumentation, metrics, logging, tracing, health monitoring, alerting, and mission awareness across mission‑critical services.
• Develop verification strategies for automated unit, feature, integration, and end‑to‑end testing.
• Collaborate with software engineers to design and support automated test scenarios using Playwright or similar UI/API automation frameworks.
• Develop reusable engineering artifacts, design patterns, and shared services that improve consistency and reduce duplication across Agile product teams.
• Partner with Platform Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Cyber Engineering, and application development teams to integrate common capabilities within CI/CD and DevSecOps workflows.
• Participate in technical reviews, Program Increment (PI) Planning, demonstrations, customer technical exchanges, and integration events while maintaining a systems‑level perspective.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) and a minimum of 8 years of relevant experience.
• Experience performing Systems Engineering on software‑intensive systems, including requirements definition, interface development, and verification planning.
• Experience collaborating with software development teams in Agile environments and supporting software testing throughout the systems engineering lifecycle.
• Experience translating mission needs into technical solutions with strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Active and transferable U.S. government‑issued TS/SCI security clearance required prior to start date; U.S. citizenship required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Automated test scenario development using Playwright or similar UI/API automation frameworks.
• Observability solutions utilizing OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, or similar platforms.
• Experience with distributed systems, microservices, Kubernetes, containerized applications, and cloud‑native architectures.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, DevSecOps practices, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and automation scripting.
• Experience with Model‑Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodologies and digital engineering practices.
• Experience incorporating AI capabilities for anomaly detection, predictive analytics, intelligent alerting, root cause analysis, or log intelligence.
• Experience developing reusable software frameworks, shared services, or common engineering capabilities supporting multiple Agile product teams.
• Experience working with customers, operators, and external stakeholders to translate operational needs into engineering solutions.
• Experience supporting satellite Command and Control (C2), mission management, or other software‑intensive defense systems.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage; life insurance; short‑term and long‑term disability.
• 401(k) match; flexible spending accounts; flexible work schedules.
• Employee assistance program; parental leave; paid time off and holidays.

EEO Statement

RTX is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other applicable state or federal protected class. RTX provides affirmative action in employment for qualified Individuals with a Disability and Protected Veterans in compliance with Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act.