Senior Principal Systems Engineer

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

Job summary

SAIC seeks a Senior Principal Systems Engineer to support a large SETA program under the NRO Ground Enterprise Directorate in Chantilly, VA. The role requires technical leadership, systems engineering expertise, and the ability to advise government on program activities.

Active TS/SCI with polygraph is required. The candidate will collaborate with government and contractor teams, develop architectures, and deliver clear briefings to diverse audiences.

Qualifications

• Required Education and Experience: Bachelor’s and fourteen (14) years or more experience; Masters and twelve (12) years or more experience.
• Ability to obtain a Top Secret/SCI clearance with polygraph
• Proven experience in core systems engineering and analysis disciplines and processes
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast paced, dynamic environment
• Demonstrated ability to work as a team player requiring collaboration and open communication
• Strong oral and written communication skills

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership in planning capabilities needed to better support mission operations (e.g. automation, resiliency, situational awareness)
• Analyze user needs, develop concepts of operation, and high-level systems architectures, and define capability needs and system requirements
• Work with government and contractor points of contact across multiple Agencies, Directorates and Offices to refine future ground system capabilities
• Identify and communicate key architecture and system level trades, system engineering risks, issues, opportunities, and dependencies
• Support integration of architectures with other components of the technical baseline
• Collaborate with SETA team members, engineers from various contractor and government organizations, and mission users
• Develop assessments and briefings to a variety of audiences to convey information in crisp, articulate manner

Skills

Systems engineering

Technical leadership

Oral communication

Written communication

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree +14+ years

Master's degree +12+ years

Tools

JIRA

DevOps

Kanban

Job description

Job ID 2615948

Location Chantilly, VA, US

Date Posted 2026-08-20

Category Engineering and Sciences

Subcategory Systems Engineer

Schedule Full-Time

Shift Day Job

Travel Yes - 10% of the time

Minimum Clearance Required TS.SCI_wPoly

Clearance Level Must Be Able to Obtain None

Potential for Remote Work ORA_ON_SITE

Description

SAIC is seeking a Senior Principal Systems Engineer to fill a critical position supporting a large SETA program supporting the NRO’s Ground Enterprise Directorate (GED) in Chantilly, VA. The job requires the ability to flexibly manage task execution, provide technical/professional expertise on a variety of Systems Engineering topics, and advise the government on program activities.

All candidates must have an active TS/SCI clearance with CI Polygraph.

A successful candidate in this position will bring a record of application of systems engineering and creative thought-leadership to mature and develop revolutionary multi-intelligence solutions.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to

• Provide technical leadership in planning capabilities needed to better support mission operations (e.g. automation, resiliency, situational awareness, etc.)
• Analyze user needs, develop concepts of operation, and high-level systems architectures, and define capability needs and system requirements
• Work with government and contractor points of contact across multiple Agencies, Directorates and Offices to refine future ground system capabilities
• Identify and communicate key architecture and system level trades, system engineering risks, issues, opportunities, and dependencies
• Support integration of architectures with other components of the technical baseline
• Collaborate with SETA team members, engineers from various contractor and government organizations, and mission users
• Develop assessments and briefings to a variety of audiences to convey information in crisp, articulate manner

Qualifications

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelors and fourteen (14) years or more experience; Masters and twelve (12) years or more experience.
• Ability to obtain a Top Secret/SCI clearance with polygraph
• Proven experience in core systems engineering and analysis disciplines and processes
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast paced, dynamic, and energetic environment
• Demonstrated ability to work as a team player requiring collaboration and open communication
• Strong oral and written communication skills

Desired Education and Experience

• Advanced degree in STEM (science, technical, engineering, math) or related discipline
• Engineering, computer science, or information systems background
• Ability to build, integrate and analyze MBSE architectural representations
• Domain and tool knowledge in Agile software development practices (e.g. Scrum, DevOps, JIRA, Kanban)
• Prior experience with data management services and cloud software architecture
• Prior US military and/or IC customer experience

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