Space Protection Operations Engineer

Vosper Thornycroft Group; Chantilly (VA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 197,000; Full time

Job summary

Vosper Thornycroft Group (VTG) seeks a Space Protection Operations Engineer to support the Space/IC customer with systems engineering and advisory services. The role may require weekly travel to locations in the Washington, DC metro area.

The engineer will serve as SME and SPO representative for deploying protection capabilities into space operations, coordinating with operators, developers, and stakeholders for testing, transition to operations, training, and DR management.

Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI clearance with Poly.
• Bachelor’s degree plus 9+ years experience or Master’s plus 7+ years.
• Experience in IC or DoW space acquisitions or mission operations.
• Experience deploying software in a 24/7 operations center or similar environment.
• Knowledge of agile software development principles.
• Desired: DevOps/CI-CD experience.
• Experience authoring operator or deployment documentation.
• Experience in space protection operations and related technologies.

Responsibilities

• Provides space protection operations mission expertise to acquisition managers and software engineers.
• Elicit system capability needs and UI/UX preferences from operators.
• Collaborates with developers to inform mission application enhancements.
• Manages the transition of new capabilities and software deliveries to operations.
• Leads review and coordination of system documentation and training materials.
• Evaluates solutions, guides software deployment activities, and assesses patches.

Skills

Top Secret/SCI clearance

Space operations experience

Agile development

CI/CD tooling

24/7 ops experience

Education

Bachelor's degree + 9+ years

Master's degree + 7+ years

Tools

DevOps tooling

Job description

Overview

VTG is seeking a Space ProtectionOperations Engineer to join the Air Force, Space, and Intelligence Business Group providing systems engineering and technical advisory services to a rapidly expanding Government Intelligence Community (IC) customer. The customer is developing the next generation of space and ground systems, architectures, and hardware and software solutions. This position may require weekly travel to other locations in the Washington, DC metro area.

What will you do?

The Space Protection Operations Engineer will serve as the subject matter expert (SME) and System Program Office (SPO) representative coordinating with end user operators, the developer, and other stakeholders for the deployment of new protection capabilities into space operations. The Space Protection Operations Engineer is the SPO’s on‑site agent for user‑engagement with operators of a space protection system and will collaborate with site users and SMEs within the SPO home office to support system testing, transition to operations planning, user/operator training, Operations and Maintenance (O&M) planning and Deficiency Report (DR) management, and be the focal point for representing SPO equity to the site’s Operations stakeholders.

The Space Protection Operations Engineer responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Provides space protection operations mission expertise to acquisition managers and software engineers in the development of tools that provide operators Indications and Warning against Space threats.
• Elicit system capability needs and user interface/experience (UI/UX) preferences from operational users.
• Collaborates with software developers to inform/guide mission application enhancements.
• Manages the transition of new capabilities and software deliveries to operations.
• Leads the review and coordination of system documentation and training materials.
• Evaluates developer solutions, guides software deployment activities, and assesses software patches/fixes.

Do you have what it takes?

Required Qualifications:

• Active Top Secret/SCI clearance with Poly.
• Bachelor’s and 9 or more years of experience; master’s and 7 or more years of experience; Extensive experience may be considered in lieu of degree.
• Experience in IC or DoW space acquisitions or mission operations.
• Experienced deploying and sustaining software within a 24/7 operations center or similar environment.
• Knowledge of agile software development principles.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience with DevOps, including continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD).
• Experience in Space Protection operations and familiarity with protection technologies.
• Experience authoring operator-related or software deployment documentation.
• Experience in Space system testing, simulation, and modeling environments.
• Knowledge of the fundamentals of orbital mechanics and orbit determination.

Pay Range: VTG’s estimated starting pay range is $130,000 - $197,000 annually, which is a general guideline for the geographic location. When extending an offer, VTG also considers work experience, education, skill level, market considerations and may possibly include contractual requirements which may cause an offer to fall outside of this range.