Senior IT Systems Engineer

MIT Lincoln Laboratory; Lexington (MA); On-site; USD 134,000 - 181,000; Full time

Job summary

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is seeking a Sr. Systems Engineer to shape the collateral enterprise computing environment, expanding from on-premises to secure hybrid-cloud architectures for enterprise and research workloads.

You will provide technical leadership across design, integration, and standards, ensuring scalable, secure, and observable systems while collaborating with cybersecurity, enterprise applications, and research partners to meet mission needs.

Qualifications

• 10–15 years of experience in designing and operating complex enterprise or mission computing environments.
• Experience developing technical designs spanning multiple infrastructure and application domains.
• Experience establishing new classified or enterprise infrastructure environments with governance and standardization.
• Strong knowledge of hybrid-cloud design, including networking, compute, storage, identity, security, automation, and cloud-native services.
• Experience with classified cloud approaches (e.g., AWS or comparable offerings) or hyperscale cloud environments.
• Strong understanding of enterprise network design, segmentation, routing, firewalling, encryption, and secure connectivity.
• Ability to translate business, mission, cybersecurity, and operational requirements into scalable technical designs.
• Experience developing standards, reference designs, roadmaps, and design-review processes.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to technical audiences and senior leadership.
• Ability to influence technical direction across organizational boundaries without direct authority.
• Ability to obtain and maintain the security clearance required for the position.

Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain the target technical design for collateral enterprise environment across on-premises, classified cloud, networking, compute, storage, identity, security, DevSecOps, observability, and enterprise services.
• Lead the technical classified enterprise infrastructure and integrate classified cloud capabilities into the Laboratory enterprise.
• Define patterns for a hybrid classified environment with trusted on-prem access to classified cloud services while enabling cloud workloads in secure environments.
• Serve as a senior technical authority for collateral cloud systems engineering and integrate with the unclassified cloud team.
• Develop designs supporting separate research and enterprise cloud environments with appropriate segmentation and workload zones.
• Define foundational cloud capabilities including network segmentation, VPC design, routing, firewalling, IAM, encryption, logging, monitoring, and configuration management.
• Establish reusable reference designs, patterns, standards, and guardrails for consistent engineering across projects.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity and authorization stakeholders to ensure security requirements are met without excess complexity.
• Ensure classified-cloud design integrates with existing on-prem services like identity, logging, and DevSecOps tooling.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and balance tactical opportunities with enterprise suitability.
• Lead design reviews and identify risks, dependencies, debt, and integration requirements.
• Develop roadmaps linking current-state collateral environment to future state with sequencing and investments.
• Bridge research and enterprise IT, preserving flexibility for mission requirements.
• Mentor senior engineers to raise systems thinking and engineering discipline.

Skills

Hybrid-cloud design

Classified cloud

DevSecOps

CI/CD

Security clearance

Linux

Ansible

GitHub

GitLab

JFrog

Monitoring

Cloud automation

AI/ML infra

Education

Bachelor's degree in STEM

Tools

AWS

ASCI

JFrog

GitHub

GitLab

Linux

Ansible

Job description

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This position will help define the next generation of the Laboratory's collateral enterprise computing environment, extending today's on-premises capabilities into a secure hybrid-cloud architecture that supports both enterprise services and research missions while operating at inspection level readiness.

The Sr. Systems Engineer provides senior technical leadership for the design, evolution, and integration of the Laboratory's collateral enterprise computing environment. The position collaborates with team engineers to establish the technical vision and engineering direction necessary to deliver secure, resilient, scalable, and supportable enterprise capabilities across on-premises infrastructure, classified cloud environments, enterprise platforms, and research-facing services.

The Sr. Systems Engineer serves as a technical authority across organizational and technology boundaries, translating mission and business requirements into enterprise-level technical direction and ensuring that individual technology investments contribute to a coherent long-term strategy.

A significant near-term focus will be establishing the technical foundation required to expand the Laboratory's use of classified cloud capabilities, including AWS Secret Cloud for Industry (ASCI) and comparable classified cloud offerings, while integrating those capabilities with existing collateral enterprise services. This includes defining patterns for cloud connectivity, workload isolation, identity and access, shared services, logging and monitoring, DevSecOps, data movement, security boundaries, and the integration of research and enterprise workloads.

The position works closely with infrastructure engineering, cybersecurity and information assurance, research organizations, enterprise applications, network engineering, cloud providers, and Laboratory leadership to establish technical standards and guide complex engineering decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain the target technical design for the Laboratory's collateral enterprise environment, spanning on-premises infrastructure, classified cloud, networking, compute, storage, identity, security, DevSecOps, observability, and enterprise services.
• Lead the technical classified enterprise infrastructure and apply that experience to the integration of classified cloud capabilities into the Laboratory enterprise.
• Define technical patterns for a hybrid classified environment, including the role of as the trusted on-premises enterprise access path to classified cloud services while enabling cloud workloads and services to operate within appropriately designed cloud environments.
• Serve as a senior technical authority for collateral cloud systems engineering (in alignment with our unclassified cloud team), including the integration of AWS and future classified cloud capabilities into the Laboratory enterprise.
• Develop technical designs that support distinct research and enterprise cloud environments, including appropriate segmentation and workload zones for research computing, enterprise IaaS, enterprise AI services, shared applications, and access to externally provided services.
• Define the technical design for foundational cloud capabilities including network segmentation, VPC design, routing, firewalling, IAM, encryption/key management, centralized logging, monitoring, configuration management, security services, and workload isolation.
• Establish reusable reference designs, engineering patterns, standards, and technical guardrails that enable engineering teams to implement solutions consistently without requiring each project to independently solve enterprise-level technical problems.
• Partner with cybersecurity, information assurance, and authorization stakeholders to ensure technical decisions support applicable security requirements and authorization processes while avoiding unnecessary technical complexity.
• Ensure classified-cloud technical design appropriately integrates with—or deliberately remains independent from—existing on-premises enterprise services such as identity, logging, monitoring, configuration management, software repositories, DevSecOps tooling, and security services.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and vendor capabilities and determine their appropriate role within the collateral enterprise environment, distinguishing between tactical opportunities and capabilities suitable for enterprise adoption.
• Lead technical design reviews for significant initiatives and identify technical risks, dependencies, technical debt, and integration requirements before implementation.
• Collaborate with team and department leadership to Develop technical roadmaps that connect the current-state collateral environment to the desired future state, identifying sequencing, dependencies, foundational investments, and transition strategies.
• Serve as a technical bridge between research organizations and enterprise IT, ensuring enterprise technical direction provides sufficient standardization and governance while preserving the flexibility necessary to support research and mission requirements.
• Mentor senior engineers across technology domains and raise the overall level of systems thinking and engineering discipline within the organization.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10-15 years of experience designing and operating complex enterprise or mission computing environments.
• Demonstrated experience developing technical designs spanning multiple infrastructure and application technology domains.
• Demonstrated experience establishing new classified or enterprise infrastructure environments, including governance and standardization across security domains.
• Strong knowledge of hybrid-cloud technical design, including networking, compute, storage, identity, security, automation, and cloud-native services.
• Experience with classified cloud approaches (e.g., AWS or comparable offerings) or hyperscale cloud environments more broadly.
• Strong understanding of enterprise network design, segmentation, routing, firewalling, encryption, and secure connectivity.
• Demonstrated ability to translate business, mission, cybersecurity, and operational requirements into scalable technical designs.
• Experience developing technical standards, reference designs, technology roadmaps, and design-review processes.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical audiences and senior leadership.
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction across organizational boundaries without relying solely on direct organizational authority.
• Ability to obtain and maintain the security clearance required for the position.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AWS Secret Cloud, AWS or other classified commercial cloud offerings.
• Familiarity with NIST, RMF, DISA STIGs, Zero Trust principles, and authorization processes applicable to classified systems.
• Experience integrating cloud and on-premises environments at enterprise scale.
• Experience supporting both enterprise and research/mission computing environments.
• Experience with modern DevSecOps practices, infrastructure automation, configuration management, CI/CD, and software supply-chain security.
• Experience with technologies such as Linux, Ansible, GitHub/GitLab, JFrog, enterprise monitoring, configuration management, and cloud automation.
• Experience with AI/ML infrastructure or managed AI services in controlled computing environments.

Hiring Range:$134,100-$181,000

Disclaimer: MIT Lincoln Laboratory provides a typical hiring range as a good faith estimate of what we reasonably expect to offer for this position at the time of posting. The final salary offered to a selected candidate will depend on various factors, including—but not limited to—the scope and responsibilities of the role, the candidate's experience, skills and education/training, internal equity considerations and applicable legal requirements. This range reflects base salary only and does not include additional forms of compensation or benefits.

At MIT Lincoln Laboratory, our exceptional career opportunities include many outstanding benefits to help you stay healthy, feel supported, and enjoy a fulfilling work-life balance. Benefits offered to employees include:

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans
• MIT-funded pension
• Matching 401K
• Paid leave (including vacation, sick, parental, military, etc.)
• Tuition reimbursement and continuing education programs

Selected candidate will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation and must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret level DoD security clearance.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, veteran status, disability status, or genetic information; U.S. citizenship is required.