Senior Systems Engineer - Security & Data Engineering

Fusion Innovation; Chantilly (VA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Fusion Innovation seeks a Senior Systems Engineer to design, secure, and improve cloud and data solutions supporting critical intelligence missions. You will lead ISSE activities while building secure data pipelines and graph database solutions for mission analytics in collaboration with engineers and mission partners.

The role emphasizes secure development in classified environments, with responsibilities including A&A/ATO documentation, system security plans, and CI/CD collaboration.

Qualifications

• Strong ISSE experience across the system lifecycle.
• Hands-on data engineering skills.
• Ability to explain technical decisions clearly to stakeholders.
• Experience with secure development practices.
• Experience operating in classified environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead information systems security engineering activities across the system lifecycle, including security architecture and compliance.
• Develop and maintain A&A/ATO documentation and SSPs/POA&Ms.
• Perform security scans and coordinate patches across cloud and on‑prem environments.
• Incorporate security requirements into architectures, data flows and ETL pipelines.
• Partner with engineering and mission teams to address authorization and risk.
• Maintain continuous monitoring documentation and evidence for security.

Skills

ISSE experience

Data engineering

Clear communication

Secure development practices

Tools

Cypher

Python

Java

JavaScript

Neo4j

Job description

Fusion Innovation's recent growth has earned us a top spot in the Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America and in Washington Business Journal's Best Places to Work multiple years in a row. Our team members are passionate about their work and are empowered to contribute their unique skills and perspectives to our projects. Here at Fusion, we put people first. When you join us, you don't just join a company, you join a family. If you are ready to be part of a fun and engaging team where your innovative ideas are heard, supported, and make ever lasting mission impacts for our Nation's most sensitive programs, you have come to the right place.

Position Overview

Fusion Innovation is seeking a Senior Systems Engineer to design, secure, and improve cloud and data solutions supporting critical intelligence missions. This position combines information systems security engineering with hands‑on data engineering, helping mission teams move from complex technical requirements to secure, reliable systems and usable data.

You will lead security engineering activities throughout the system lifecycle while developing data pipelines, supporting advanced analytics, and building graph database solutions. Working alongside engineers, developers, and mission partners, you will embed security into system designs and data workflows, support system authorization, and address the technical challenges of operating in classified environments.

The ideal candidate brings strong ISSE experience, practical data engineering skills, and the ability to explain technical decisions clearly to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead information systems security engineering activities across the system lifecycle, including security architecture, control selection and implementation, and compliance with NIST and customer-specific requirements.
• Develop and maintain assessment and authorization (A&A) and Authority to Operate (ATO) documentation, including System Security Plans (SSPs), Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms), test procedures, and supporting evidence.
• Perform security scans and vulnerability assessments, coordinate patches and updates, and support remediation across cloud and on‑premises systems.
• Incorporate security requirements into system architectures, data flows, extract, transform, and load (ETL) pipelines, and operational workflows.
• Partner with engineering and mission teams to address authorization requirements, classification constraints, and operational risks.
• Maintain continuous monitoring documentation and evidence supporting ongoing system security.

Data Engineering and Analytics

• Design, develop, and optimize ETL pipelines supporting mission analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), and large language model (LLM) initiatives.
• Clean, preprocess, model, analyze, and visualize medium-to-large datasets using analytical and statistical methods.
• Build and optimize Neo4j graph database solutions, including schemas, relationship models, and Cypher queries.
• Develop software components and data processing capabilities using Cypher, Python, Java, or JavaScript, following secure development practices.
• Document datasets, queries, data flows, and software components to support maintenance and collaboration.

Systems Engineering and Technical Collaboration

• Evaluate requirements and conduct functional and technical analyses, risk assessments, cost estimates, schedule assessments, and technical trade studies.
• Apply systems engineering principles and concepts of operations to develop secure, scalable solutions across organizational boundaries.
• Support cloud and data architecture decisions within classified AWS environments.
• Contribute to Agile planning, sprint activities, and continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) processes.
• Communicate engineering decisions, security considerations, and analytical findings to diverse stakeholders.