Systems Engineering Subject Matter Expert (SME)

Staffed4U; Herndon (VA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

5 weeks PTO + birthday leave

401(k) with 10% employer contribution

Employer-paid dental coverage

Employer-paid vision coverage

Discretionary profit sharing

Discretionary performance bonus

Job summary

Staffed4U seeks a seasoned Systems Engineering SME in Herndon, VA to lead complex modernization efforts across enterprise infrastructure, cloud platforms, and DevSecOps. The role requires hands-on leadership, architecture design, and collaboration with security, data, software, and platform teams.

The ideal candidate will assess current environments, craft future-state architectures, and guide migrations from design through production, serving as a technical authority and escalation point.

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on systems engineering across enterprise infrastructure and cloud.
• Experience with DevSecOps, CI/CD, and modern automation.
• Ability to design as-is and to-be architectures and lead migrations.

Responsibilities

• Perform full-stack systems engineering across network, compute, storage, OS, middleware, databases, and applications.
• Assess and document as-is architectures and develop to-be architectures.
• Develop implementation, migration, modernization, and upgrade strategies.
• Lead cloud, hybrid, and on-premises implementations and migrations.
• Design for availability, performance, security, and compliance.
• Integrate infrastructure with DevOps/DevSecOps and CI/CD pipelines.
• Troubleshoot complex multi-domain issues.
• Create technical docs, diagrams, standards, and runbooks.
• Act as senior escalation point for architecture decisions.
• Communicate technical risks and strategies to stakeholders.

Skills

Cloud platforms

DevSecOps

Security

CI/CD

Docker

Terraform

Python

Kubernetes

Automation

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

Terraform

Ansible

CloudFormation

Python

Job description

• Herndon, VA
• Computer/Software

Location: Herndon, VA
Employment Type: Full-Time
Clearance:TS/SCI Poly

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly experienced, hands-on Systems Engineering Subject Matter Expert (SME) to support a complex technical environment in Herndon, Virginia.

This position is ideal for a senior technical leader with broad, practical expertise across enterprise infrastructure, cloud platforms, networking, operating systems, containers, databases, applications, security, and DevSecOps.

The Systems Engineering SME will assess current-state environments, develop future-state architectures, and lead complex implementations and modernization efforts from design through production. This individual will serve as a technical authority and escalation point while working closely with infrastructure, platform, software, DevOps, security, and data teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform full-stack systems engineering across network, compute, storage, operating systems, middleware, databases, and application environments.
• Assess and document existing "as-is" architectures and develop detailed "to-be" architectures.
• Develop implementation, migration, modernization, and upgrade strategies.
• Lead complex cloud, hybrid, and on-premises implementations and migrations.
• Design systems for availability, scalability, performance, security, and compliance.
• Integrate infrastructure and platforms with DevOps/DevSecOps and CI/CD pipelines.
• Troubleshoot complex technical issues spanning multiple infrastructure and application domains.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, platform, software engineering, DevOps, security, and data teams.
• Develop technical documentation, architecture diagrams, standards, implementation plans, and operational runbooks.
• Serve as a senior escalation point and technical authority for complex system issues and architectural decisions.
• Communicate technical concepts, risks, recommendations, and strategies to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders, including executive leadership.

Required Skills & Experience

Candidates should possess extensive hands-on systems engineering experience across several of the following areas:

Infrastructure & Networking

• Firewalls, load balancers, and DNS
• SAN, NAS, and object storage
• Hybrid and on-premises infrastructure integration
• AWS, Azure, and/or GCP
• Cloud networking and security
• Docker
• PKI and identity management

Databases & Application Infrastructure

• Relational and NoSQL database technologies, including experience with platforms such as:
  • Oracle
  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • SQL Server
  • MongoDB
  • Cassandra
  • DynamoDB
  • Redis
• APIs and web services
• Middleware technologies
• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) fundamentals
• Event messaging technologies such as SQS, SNS, and RabbitMQ

Infrastructure as Code & Automation

• Terraform
• Ansible
• CloudFormation
• Python
• Bash
• PowerShell

DevOps / DevSecOps

• CI/CD concepts and implementation
• Jenkins
• GitHub Actions
• ArgoCD
• Integration of systems and platforms into DevOps/DevSecOps workflows

Security & Observability

• Security best practices and system hardening
• Monitoring, logging, and observability technologies such as:
  • Prometheus
  • Grafana
  • Splunk
  • ELK
  • CloudWatch

Architecture & Technical Leadership

• Demonstrated ability to assess complex production environments and create comprehensive as-is and to-be architectures.
• Experience developing detailed implementation and migration plans.
• Ability to move between high-level architecture and hands-on technical implementation.
• Proven ability to design, build, troubleshoot, and take ownership of complex production systems.
• Strong systems-thinking and problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to collaborate across technical disciplines and communicate effectively with executive-level stakeholders.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience designing or supporting Zero Trust architectures.
• Exposure to AI/ML or data platforms.
• Experience with big data technologies such as:
  • Hadoop
  • Databricks
  • Snowflake
  • BigQuery
• Experience supporting mission-critical systems and environments.
• Relevant cloud, security, DevOps, or architecture certifications, such as:
  • AWS Solutions Architect
  • AWS DevOps
  • Azure Administrator
  • CKA / CKAD
  • ITIL

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is not solely an architect or administrator, but a hands-on technical SME who can operate across the entire technology stack. They should be equally comfortable developing an enterprise architecture, working through a difficult production issue, planning a cloud migration, automating infrastructure, and communicating technical recommendations to senior leadership.

This position is well suited for an experienced Systems Engineer or Architect who enjoys solving complex, cross-domain technical challenges and taking ownership of systems from architecture and design through implementation and production operations.

This position offers a highly competitive, employer-supported benefits package, including:

5 weeks of PTO plus birthday leave

11 floating holidays

401(k) with 10% employer contribution

Multiple medical plan options through Anthem, including:

Platinum PPO national plan

Gold PPO national plan

Gold HMO HSA national plan

Employer-paid dental coverage through Delta Dental PPO Plus Premier

Employer-paid vision coverage through VSP / DeltaVision

Employer-paid Life and AD&D coverage at 2x salary, up to $400,000

Optional voluntary Life and AD&D coverage from $10,000 to $500,000, not to exceed 5x salary

Employer-paid Short-Term Disability, covering 60% of salary up to $2,500

Employer-paid Long-Term Disability, covering 60% of salary up to $10,000 per month

Health Savings Account availability, depending on selected health plan

$1,000 annual Lifestyle Savings Account

$5,000 annual professional development reimbursement for degrees, training, and certifications

$1,000 annual technology reimbursement

Candidate referral bonus program, up to $10,000

Discretionary profit sharing

Discretionary performance bonus opportunities

New contract bonus opportunities, up to $10,000

Employer-paid access to online training through Udemy and Paylocity

Optional pet insurance through Pets Best

Access to Working Advantage employee discounts and rewards programs at no cost

About the Opportunity

This is an excellent opportunity for a Full Stack Software Developer with strong cloud, data analytics, and application development experience to support high-impact mission work. The selected candidate will contribute to modern, scalable, and secure software solutions that improve data processing, analytics, search, automation, and enterprise digital architecture across a mission-critical environment.