Senior Principal Digital Engineer

SAIC; Chantilly (VA); On-site; USD 160,001 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

SAIC seeks a Senior Principal Digital Engineer to own the technical strategy and delivery of advanced digital engineering transformation initiatives supporting national security missions. You will drive end-to-end digital engineering efforts and act as the trusted technical advisor for mission-critical systems.

The position requires active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph, a STEM degree, and extensive experience in MBSE, cloud integration, and digital thread development, with strong leadership

Qualifications

• Must be a US citizen.
• Active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph.
• Bachelor’s degree in STEM with 13+ years or Master’s with 11+ years.
• STEM degree is a contractual requirement.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical advisory for digital engineering projects, including MBSE, cloud integration, and digital thread development.
• Set technical direction and drive architecture decisions that reduce acquisition risk.
• Mentor engineers and elevate team capabilities through peer feedback and design reviews.
• Collaborate across sites and programs to resolve conflicting technical requirements.
• Support system engineering documents and staff work, including reports and acquisitions support.

Skills

Leadership

Technical advisory

Stakeholder collaboration

Clearance TS/SCI

Education

Bachelor’s degree in STEM

Master’s degree in STEM

Tools

MBSE

SysML/UAF

Cloud platforms

Agile development

Job description

Description

SAIC seeks a Senior Principal Digital Engineer to own the technical strategy and delivery of advanced digital engineering transformation initiatives supporting national security and intelligence missions. You will drive end-to-end digital engineering efforts, from problem framing and architecture design through production, deployment, and operational excellence—while serving as the trusted technical advisor for mission-critical systems. This is a role for someone who raises the bar across teams through mentorship, technical and thought leadership.

Primary responsibilities

• Serve as SAIC’s lead technical advisor for digital engineering projects, including model-based systems engineering (MBSE), cloud integration, and digital thread development. Set technical direction and drive stakeholder alignment on architecture decisions that reduce acquisition risk.
• Identify mission needs, operational concepts, and requirements to influence acquisition and budget efforts.
• Assess integration activities across technical, resource, and schedule dependencies to present unbiased findings, analysis, and recommendations to government and SAIC managers.
• Provide technical assessments of project reviews, milestones, and decision gates then identify risks, issues, opportunities, and mitigations to represent interests with stakeholders.
• Support requests for systems engineering and integration studies, process analysis and design, project management assessments.
• Provide analysis, recommendations, and take necessary actions.
• Support development or assessment of system Concept of Operations, Requirements Documents, Test Plans, Contract Statements of Work, Systems Engineering Plans, and contribute to staff work needs (e.g., action items, weekly reports, etc.), including support to acquisitions and source selections.
• Mentor systems engineers on requirements traceability, design validation, and digital thread implementation. Elevate team capabilities through peer feedback, design review, and technical leadership and actively shape the technical culture of the team.
• Collaborate proactively with SAIC personnel and other contractors across multiple sites and organizational levels. Drive alignment across concurrent programs on conflicting technical requirements.

Qualifications

• Must be a US Citizen.
• Active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph.
• Bachelor’s degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) and thirteen (13) years or more experience; or master’s in STEM field and eleven (11) years or more experience.
• *STEM degree is a contractual requirement/must have.
• Technical knowledge and practical experience with digital engineering tools (MBSE, SysML UAF etc.), cloud platforms, Agile development).
• Experience with space and ground and systems, and mission data processing.
• Familiarity with mission readiness processes, control gates, and associated entry/exit criteria.
• Forward-thinking self-starter able to address customer requirements with minimal supervision and define solutions for broad, abstract topics.
• Polished communicator (written/verbal), master at collaboration and coordination with multiple stakeholders.
• Impeccable interpersonal skills and personal judgment—demonstrated success in interacting with senior executives.

Desired

• Real-time operations experience as a digital engineer, systems engineer, or ground systems operator.
• Familiarity with space operations, digital policies, and cloud technologies.

Target salary range: $160,001 - $200,000. The estimate displayed represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors.

EOE AA M/F/Vet/Disability