System Engineer

Unity Compass; Gaithersburg (MD); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Unity Compass in Gaithersburg, MD is seeking a seasoned Systems Engineer to lead the full lifecycle of mission-critical systems. The role requires active TS/SCI with polygraph eligibility; you will collaborate with Product Owners, Agile teams, and external partners to translate complex mission needs into robust technical solutions.

You will develop architectures, CONOPS, and documentation; perform systems decomposition and traceability; guide CI/CD and DevSecOps practices, ensure compliance with

Qualifications

• US citizenship is required.
• Active Top Secret/SCI clearance with polygraph eligibility.
• 8–12 years of systems engineering experience; STEM degree.

Responsibilities

• Lead systems engineering across the full lifecycle from requirements to sustainment.
• Refine features with Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and Agile teams.
• Develop system architectures, CONOPS, and technical documentation.
• Perform decomposition, functional analysis, allocation, and traceability.
• Support backlog refinement, sprint planning, and technical roadmaps.
• Lead performance assessments and mitigate risks for reliability.
• Coordinate integration across multiple teams and partners.
• Support verification, validation, and design/architecture reviews.
• Participate in CI/CD and DevSecOps initiatives and security requirements compliance.

Skills

Systems engineering

Agile collaboration

Requirements analysis

System architecture

CI/CD

DevSecOps

Cross-functional teamwork

Troubleshooting

Education

Bachelor's degree in STEM

Master's degree

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Kubernetes

Docker

Cameo Systems Modeler

Job description

Clearance Level Required: Active Top Secret/SCI with the ability to successfully pass a Polygraph examination.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead systems engineering activities across the full system lifecycle, including requirements analysis, architecture development, integration, testing, deployment, and sustainment.
• Collaborate with Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and Agile development teams to refine features and translate mission needs into technical solutions.
• Develop and maintain system architectures, interface definitions, operational concepts (CONOPS), and technical documentation.
• Perform systems decomposition, functional analysis, allocation, and traceability using industry-standard systems engineering practices.
• Support backlog refinement, sprint planning, and technical roadmap development.
• Lead system performance assessments, troubleshoot complex issues across applications, infrastructure, interfaces, networks, and data flows, identify and mitigate technical risks, and drive solutions that ensure system reliability, mission effectiveness, and operational performance.
• Coordinate integration across multiple development teams and external mission partners.
• Support verification and validation activities, ensuring requirements are fully tested and documented.
• Participate in design reviews, architecture reviews, technical interchange meetings, and customer briefings.
• Support DevSecOps initiatives and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) processes.
• Ensure compliance with customer and Intelligence Community engineering standards and security requirements.

Required Qualifications:

• US citizenship is required per contract.
• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering or a related STEM discipline and 8-12 years of prior relevant experience or Master’s with 6-10 years of prior relevant experience.
• 8+ years of professional systems engineering experience.
• Must have experience supporting the customer’s mission systems or GEOINT programs.
• Experience with geospatial intelligence storage, discovery, dissemination and exploitation systems/segments/tools, sensor programs, data/product types/formats and specifications and system/segment interfaces.
• Strong understanding of systems engineering principles and the systems development lifecycle.
• Experience working with Agile frameworks (Scrum, SAFe, Kanban).
• Experience with requirements management tools such as Jira, Confluence, or similar.
• Knowledge of cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GovCloud).
• Experience with system integration, interface management, and enterprise architecture.
• Familiarity with DevSecOps pipelines and CI/CD tools.
• Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, cross-functional team environment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• INCOSE Systems Engineering Professional Certification (ASEP, CSEP, or ESEP).
• SAFe Agilist (SA), Scrum Master, or Agile certification.
• Experience with Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and SysML.
• Familiarity with Cameo Systems Modeler or similar modeling tools.
• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and containerized applications.
• Knowledge of microservices architecture.
• Experience with REST APIs and distributed systems.
• Experience supporting cloud-native or hybrid cloud environments.
• Experience with evaluation, cost analysis and cost impact development, to support system impacts for new and modified requirements levied through the RFC process.