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Systems Engineer SME (TS/SCI with Poly Required)

GCI Incorporated
Herndon, VA Full Time
POSTED ON 6/28/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 7/27/2026
GCI embodies excellence, integrity and professionalism. The employees supporting our customers deliver unique, high-value mission solutions while effectively leverage the technological expertise of our valued workforce to meet critical mission requirements in the areas of Data Analytics and Software Development, Engineering, Targeting and Analysis, Operations, Training, and Cyber Operations. We maximize opportunities for success by building and maintaining trusted and reliable partnerships with our customers and industry.

At GCI, we solve the hard problems. As a SME Systems Engineer, a typical day will include the following duties/skills:

Required Skills

  • Document "as-is" architectures and develop detailed "to-be" designs
  • Lead cloud and on prem implementations, migrations, upgrades, and modernization initiatives
  • Ensure system availability, scalability, performance, security, and compliance
  • Integrate systems and platforms with DevOps/DevSecOps pipelines
  • Troubleshoot complex, cross-domain issues
  • Collaborate with infrastructure, platform, software, DevOps, and data teams
  • Produce technical documentation, diagrams, standards, and runbooks
  • Serve as an escalation point and technical authority
  • Communicate effectively with executives and cross organizational partners

Desired Technical Skills

  • Enterprise networking, firewalls, load balancers, DNS
  • SAN/NAS/Object storage
  • Kubernetes, Docker
  • Linux (RHEL/CentOS) administration, hardening, automation
  • PKI and identity management
  • Cloud platforms: AWS, Azure, or GCP
  • Hybrid and on prem integration, cloud networking/security/cost optimization
  • Relational & NoSQL databases (Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB, Redis)
  • APIs, web services, middleware, SDLC fundamentals
  • Event messaging (SQS, SNS, RabbitMQ)
  • IaC, automation, and scripting (Terraform, Ansible, Python, Bash, PowerShell, CloudFormation)
  • CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD)
  • Security best practices and system hardening
  • Monitoring/observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, ELK, CloudWatch)
  • Ability to produce "as-is" and "to-be" architectures plus implementation/migration plansPreferred Skills
  • Zero Trust architectures
  • AI/ML or data platform exposure
  • Big data platforms (Hadoop, Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery)
  • Experience supporting mission-critical systems
  • ITIL or agile delivery experience
  • Cloud, security, or architecture certifications (AWS SA/DevOps, Azure Admin, CKA/CKAD, ITIL)Ideal Candidate
  • Hands-on technical SME with broad full-stack systems expertise
  • Strong systems thinker who moves easily between architecture strategy and practical implementation
  • Effective communicator and collaborator across technical and nontechnical teams
  • Proven ability to design, build, and own complex systems in production

A candidate must be a US Citizen and requires an active/current TS/SCI with Polygraph clearance.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Individuals with Disabilities / Protected Veterans

Salary.com Estimation for Systems Engineer SME (TS/SCI with Poly Required) in Herndon, VA
$94,736 to $112,889
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