Senior Systems Engineer - TS/SCI

Sunayu Llc; Bethesda, Northern (MD, KY); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical plans

Dental & Vision

FSA/DCFSA/HSA

Life/AD&D Insurance

Disability insurance

EAP

Education assistance

PTO

11 federal holidays

401k match

Job summary

Sunayu LLC in Bethesda, MD seeks a Senior Systems Engineer to lead an application team responsible for software enhancements and deployments on-site with occasional remote tasks. The role requires a TS/SCI clearance and strong experience in Java or Python, agile practices, and backend system design.

You will mentor engineers and coordinate with government and contractor stakeholders to deliver high-quality solutions.

Qualifications

• BS in Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or related field with 12–15 years of experience or MS with 10–13 years of experience.
• Active Top Secret clearance with ability to obtain/maintain TS/SCI with Polygraph.
• Experience in software development using Java or Python.
• Experience as a Systems Engineer or Product Owner in an Agile software team.
• Experience with requirements and design documentation and process flows.
• Ability to break down complex problems into actionable steps.
• Experience prioritizing product backlogs and Agile ceremonies.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical direction for all aspects of the team’s development efforts.
• Plan, design, and oversee software development solutions and system integration.
• Maintain agile backlog, plan sprints, and prioritize stories and epics.
• Lead design and architecture of backend systems and services; drive scalability and performance.
• Coordinate with Test Team on automated system integration tests.
• Mentor mid-level and junior engineers on best practices and growth.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and stakeholders across government/contractor domains.

Skills

Java

Python

Agile methodologies

GitLab

Jira

Confluence

Mentoring

Team leadership

Education

BS in Engineering or Computer Science

MS preferred

Tools

GitLab

Jira

Confluence

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

Job description

Category: Senior Systems Engineer - TS/SCI

Location: Bethesda, MD

Clearance: TS/SCI

Travel Required: No Remote Type: No

As a Senior Systems Engineer you will lead an application team responsible for maintaining the continuous flow of new software enhancements and deployments, while you manage risks, elevate impediments, and help to drive continuous process improvement. While most work is conducted on-site at our client location in Bethesda, MD, we offer a flexible schedule and, occasionally, some tasks may be performed remotely.

You will work closely with the team on the following key tasks:

• Manage, direct, coordinate, and provide technical direction for all aspects of the team’s development efforts.
• Plan, design, and oversee implementation of software development solutions. Provide technical support, coordination, and execution of systems engineering activities such as feature/requirements analysis, design, implementation planning, integration and test, sustainment, documentation, deployment, and system assessment.
• Ensure sound engineering practices are followed.
• Provide direction for interpretation and application of policies and procedures to the engineering and development activities.
• Develop a working knowledge of government business processes and provide recommendations accordingly.
• Collaborate with other development teams to identify and develop high-value integrations with other systems/applications.
• Develop, manage and continually improve the backlog of work items for an Agile scrum team. Update and prioritize stories and epics via feedback from various program stakeholders ensuring the team is always working on the highest-value tasks.
• Support Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) program increment planning and execution through creation of work tickets in GitLab as well as program/system documentation using collaboration software (e.g., GitLab wiki). Lead/participate in all Agile ceremonies to include daily stand up, planning, reviews, and retrospectives.
• Stay informed of increment and sprint progress and work with the team to identify and remove impediments and dependencies.
• Perform backlog refinement on a regular basis. This may include decomposing features into workable stories, prioritizing or reprioritizing items in the backlog for upcoming sprints, refining acceptance criteria and complexity estimates or removing tickets that are no longer relevant.
• Accept or reject completed work based on defined acceptance criteria to ensure delivery of high-quality software.
• Lead the design and architecture of backend systems and services.
• Drive initiatives across the engineering team related to scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Develop requirements and design documents
• Contribute to and review RFCs, and requirements, design, and architecture reviews
• Coordinate with Test Team to develop and monitor automated system integration tests to identify failed modules and components
• Manage individual project priorities, deliverables, and deadlines
• Provides specific input to the software components of system design to include hardware/software trade-offs, software reuse, use of COTS/GOTS in place of new development, and requirements analysis and synthesis from system level to individual software components
• Foster an environment of collaboration with the different team members in the goal of providing quality service and product to our customers
• Act as a mentor to mid-level and junior engineers, offering guidance on best practices and career growth

To be successful in this role you need the following (required qualifications):

• BS in Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or related field and 12 – 15 years of prior relevant experience or Masters with 10 – 13 years of prior relevant experience. Additional years of experience in lieu of degree are acceptable
• Must have an active Top Secret security clearance with the ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI with Polygraph.
• Software development experience in languages such as Java or Python.
• Experience as a Systems Enginer, Product Owner, or a similar role in an Agile software development team.
• Experience with requirements and design documentation, including process flow diagrams.
• Demonstrated ability to break down complex problems into actionable steps.
• Experience managing and prioritizing product backlogs effectively.
• Strong understanding of Agile methodologies, and experience with tools like Gitlab, Jira, and Confluence.
• Experience with facilitating scrum for the team (Planning, Retrospective, Grooming & Review/Demo).
• Excellent communication skills (verbal and written) to articulate technical and non-technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally with engineering, design, and project management teams.
• Demonstrated ability to manage expectations and maintain strong relationships with government and contractor stakeholders.

You will wow us even more if you have some of these skills:

• Experience with Kafka or other message passing systems
• Experience on a production/enterprise system
• Cloud infrastructure experience
• Experience with Appian or other low-code software technologies
• Experience with any of the following technologies:
  • PostgreSQL
  • Containerization, especially with Docker
  • DevOps practices and tools including Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) tools and practices, especially Gitlab or Jenkins
  • GraphQL
  • Keycloak
• Proactive in identifying tech debt, systemic issues, and areas for team/process improvement
• Expertise building and maintaining microservices in production in Kubernetes
• Understanding of Elasticsearch internals: sharding, performance tuning, analyzers, query DSL
• Elasticsearch certifications or other program stack related certifications
• Strong Kafka experience: event design, stream processing, performance tuning
• Familiarity with schema registries and Kafka streaming patterns
• Familiarity with authentication and authorization products such as Keycloak
• Experience with security best practices for services: authN/Z, secrets management, data protection
• GraphQL familiarity
• Hardware on-prem and cloud-based deployments using Kubernetes
• Proficiency with infrastructure-as-code (ie CloudFormation, Terraform, Pulumi)
• Experience of a production/enterprise systems at scale
• Knowledge of distributed systems concepts (e.g., idempotency, eventual consistency)
• Experience leading technical projects and mentoring engineers
• Strong testing discipline with a focus on automation, coverage, and CI/CD pipelines
• Hands‑on development and/or scripting experience, especially Java and Python
• Experience with AWS cloud-based architecture, services, and software development

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Who We Are

Sunayu, LLC serves as a premier technology partner to the Defense and Intelligence communities, delivering mission-critical engineering solutions across the nation. Our operations are anchored in a commitment to trust, accountability, and ethical transparency, ensuring the high-performance outcomes necessary to protect our country's most vital interests.

Culture

Our team prioritizes collaboration, professional growth, and encourages open communication. At Sunayu, we don't just secure the mission—we grow together.

Career Development

We support and encourage our team members to continue their professional growth by providing company‑reimbursed training and continuing education of up to $5,000 per year. We also participate in many industry conferences and events where we share our expertise and experiences.

Pay Rate

Salary range considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/ training, key skills, as well as market and business considerations when extending an offer.

Benefits

• 3 Medical Plan Options
• Dental and Vision
• FSA, DCFSA, HSA
• Life/AD&D Insurance
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Training and Educational Assistance
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• 11 Federal holidays
• 401k plan with up to a 6% match (100% immediate vesting)

Equal Opportunity Employer

Sunayu, LLC is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, protected veteran status, disability status, marital status, genetic information, medical condition, or any other characteristic protected by law.