Systems Engineer (SETA), Mid

castaliasystems; Chantilly (VA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

401k matching

Generous PTO

Paid holidays

Professional training opportunities

Pet insurance

Job summary

Castalia Systems is seeking a Mid Systems Engineer (SETA) to provide systems engineering and analytical support for national security decisions. The role requires integration of intelligence with engineering analyses to assess foreign capabilities affecting U.S. interests.

Candidates should have a Bachelor's in a technical field and 5-10 years of relevant experience. Proficiency with M&S tools like STK and AFSIM is highly valued. Benefits include health coverage and generous PTO.

Qualifications

• 5–10 years’ experience in space, defense, or IC analysis or systems engineering.
• Experience with M&S tools to support analytic or engineering tasks.
• Working understanding of space and ground architectures.

Responsibilities

• Support threat-informed mission engineering activities.
• Develop and execute M&S cases to characterize system performance.
• Translate intelligence into technical requirements.
• Coordinate with stakeholders for analytic consistency.
• Contribute to test and evaluation planning.
• Produce clear assessments on space threat systems.
• Provide SETA support across the acquisition lifecycle.
• Apply analytic standards and quality assurance practices.

Skills

Systems engineering

Modeling & Simulation

Analytical thinking

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering, Physics, Mathematics, or Computer Science

Tools

STK

AFSIM

Python

MATLAB

Job description

Job Type: Full- Time

Workplace Type: Onsite

Clearance: TS/SCI w/CI Poly

Must be a U.S. Citizen

Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision coverage, 401k matching, generous PTO, paid holidays, professional training opportunities, and even pet insurance to ensure your furry friends are cared for too.

Job Summary

Castalia Systems is seeking a Systems Engineer (SETA), Mid to provide systems engineering and analytical support to help inform national security space decisions. The successful candidate will integrate all-source intelligence with engineering analysis, modeling, and simulation to evaluate foreign space and counterspace capabilities and assess their implications for U.S. and allied space and ground architectures. You will contribute to trade studies, mission thread analysis, and test and evaluation planning to reduce technical risk for government programs. The position requires close coordination with partners across the Intelligence Community (IC), DoD, and mission stakeholders to ensure analytic rigor, traceability, and alignment with threat-informed requirements and CONOPS. You will produce high-quality technical assessments and briefings that support strategy, resourcing, and operational readiness.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Support threat-informed mission engineering activities, including end-to-end mission thread analysis, resiliency assessments, and deployment analysis.
• Develop and execute modeling and simulation (M&S) cases using tools such as STK, AFSIM, or custom Python/MATLAB models to characterize system performance, coverage, and timelines.
• Translate intelligence on foreign space and counterspace systems into technical requirements, measures of performance/effectiveness (MOP/MOE), and risk considerations for architectures and programs.
• Coordinate with stakeholders across customer mission centers, Service components, USSF/SSC, the IC, and Combatant Commands to ensure analytic consistency and support decision processes.
• Contribute to test and evaluation planning (developmental and operational), including modeling for test design, data sufficiency, and evaluation criteria.
• Produce clear, technically grounded assessments, reports, and briefings on space threat systems and their implications for mission assurance and resilience.
• Provide SETA support across the acquisition lifecycle, including requirements analysis, architecture decomposition, integration, verification/validation, and configuration management.
• Apply analytic standards, review methodologies, and quality assurance practices to engineering and all-source analytic products.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or a related technical field from an accredited institution.
• 5–10 years’ experience in space, defense, or IC analysis or systems engineering, including exposure to space threat analysis or mission/architecture assessments within the IC/DoD environment.
• Modeling & Simulation: Demonstrated experience using space mission M&S tools (e.g., STK, AFSIM, or equivalent) to support analytic or engineering tasks.
• Architecture Knowledge: Working understanding of space and ground architectures, including interactions among mission, ground, and user segments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced Degree: M.S. in Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research, or a related discipline.
• Advanced Methods/Tools: Experience with MBSE (SysML/UML), digital engineering environments, or advanced modeling approaches (e.g., Python/MATLAB toolchains, Monte Carlo methods).
• Mission/Enterprise Awareness: Familiarity with Intelligence Community and Combatant Command organizations (e.g., NRO, NSA, NGA, USSPACECOM) and understanding of how space and counterspace intelligence informs operational planning and joint mission execution.

Physical Requirements/Work Environment

• Normal Office environment

Travel

• As needed

Disclaimer

Castalia Systems is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer and strives to comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, marital status, HIV-positive status, as well as any other category protected by federal, state, or local laws. All such discrimination is unlawful, and all persons involved in the operations of the company are prohibited from engaging in this type of conduct.