Senior R&D Mission Systems Lead (Remote)

Rackner; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Certifications and training

Advancement tracks

401(k) match

Healthcare coverage

PTO & holidays

Home-office support

Wellness reimbursement

Team events

Job summary

Rackner is seeking a Senior Technical Lead — R&D Mission Systems to shape, demonstrate, and advance mission-focused capabilities for government customers. This high-visibility role blends technical leadership with program impact, guiding early ideas into usable software and demonstrable capabilities.

You will work across customers, mission users, and engineers to translate needs into architecture and prototypes, while communicating tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Qualifications

• U.S. citizenship required for federal contract work.
• Ability to obtain and maintain security clearance.
• Experience leading or contributing to mission-critical software or data projects.
• Strong technical credibility in modern software engineering and cloud environments.
• Ability to translate customer needs into technical requirements.
• Comfort with ambiguity and customer-facing engagements.

Responsibilities

• Lead mission-focused R&D efforts, demos, and customer engagements.
• Translate mission needs into clear technical direction.
• Guide system architecture and prototype planning.
• Collaborate with R&D engineers to deliver working software.
• Explain constraints and risks to diverse audiences.

Skills

Technical leadership

Systems design

Cloud environments

APIs & data workflows

Communication with stakeholders

Travel willingness

Tools

Python

APIs

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

CI/CD

Job description

Rackner is seeking a Senior Technical Lead — R&D Mission Systems to shape, demonstrate, and advance mission-focused capabilities for government customers. This high-visibility role blends technical leadership with program impact, guiding early ideas into usable software and demonstrable capabilities.

You will work across customers, mission users, and engineers to translate needs into architecture and prototypes, while communicating tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.