Senior Lead Systems Engineer & Integrator

About Us:

VT-ARC, a technical services and applied research company, has built an organizational culture marked by four primary values: Teamwork, Integrity, Excellence, and Service. Integral to our success is our staff’s enthusiasm for solving tough problems by working together in teams to get the job done. We foster a culture where every employee’s contribution is valued and performed with integrity while maintaining a fun work environment. VT-ARC strives for excellence in all that is done for our clients, and such achievement is recognized through service/merit awards. Moreover, we promote a sense of community larger than VT-ARC alone, where staff and institutional resources can be applied in service to our country.

We are proud to be the recipient of the Best Workplace in Defense Award by Emergent Magazine, an honor that recognizes companies with positive cultures that not only impact their people but also make a meaningful difference in the community.

About You:

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Systems Engineer & Integration Lead to provide senior technical leadership on a transformational network engineering program. This is a hands-on role for an experienced engineer who can help translate mission and operational needs into integrated technical solutions, while also driving execution across engineering teams, stakeholders, and program leadership. The successful candidate will lead systems engineering and integration activities across the program lifecycle, ensuring technical coherence, interoperability, and alignment with requirements, security constraints, and delivery objectives.

This role is best suited for a senior practitioner who is equally comfortable developing systems engineering artifacts, resolving technical integration issues, supporting design and implementation decisions, and coordinating technical work across multiple teams. While the position includes some project and execution management responsibilities, the primary emphasis is on systems engineering rigor, technical integration, and hands-on problem solving. Active Top Secret/SCI clearance is required.

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Lead systems engineering and technical integration efforts across a complex network engineering program.
• Translate operational needs, mission requirements, and technical constraints into actionable systems engineering products and integrated solution approaches.
• Develop, refine, and maintain key systems engineering artifacts, including CONOPS, requirements, interface definitions, architecture products, verification approaches, and technical plans.
• Drive interoperability and end-to-end integration across system, subsystem, network, and external stakeholder boundaries.
• Work closely with architects, engineers, program leadership, and customer stakeholders to ensure technical solutions are feasible, supportable, and aligned with program objectives.
• Identify, assess, and help resolve technical risks, design gaps, integration issues, and cross-functional dependencies.
• Support technical planning and execution, including development of schedules, milestones, engineering reviews, and implementation priorities.
• Contribute directly to technical problem solving, design tradeoff analysis, requirements decomposition, and solution maturation.
• Prepare and brief technical status, engineering issues, risks, and recommendations to leadership and clients.
• Support program reviews and technical baselines, including requirements, design, test, and readiness review activities.
• Help coordinate engineering execution across multiple contributors while maintaining technical quality, discipline, and accountability.

Required Education, Certification, Skills, Capabilities:

• Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical field.
• 10 or more years of relevant experience in systems engineering, systems integration, technical program execution, or related engineering leadership roles, preferably in defense or government contracting environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading hands-on systems engineering and integration efforts for complex technical programs involving multiple interconnected systems.
• Strong background in developing and managing systems engineering artifacts such as CONOPS, requirements documents, architecture products, interface definitions, verification approaches, and technical plans.
• Experience translating user, mission, and operational needs into integrated technical solutions and executable engineering activities.
• Working knowledge of systems engineering lifecycle activities, technical baselines, and engineering review processes.
• Experience coordinating across technical teams and stakeholders to drive alignment, integration, and issue resolution.
• Ability to establish technical objectives, formulate executable plans, and implement solutions in collaboration with multidisciplinary engineering teams.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate clearly with technical teams, program leadership, and clients.

Desired Education, Certification, Skills, Capabilities:

• Master’s degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Technology Management, or related field.
• 15 or more years of relevant experience in systems engineering, integration, or technical leadership roles.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or comparable program/project execution experience.
• Experience with communications and networking systems design, implementation, integration, and test.
• Experience supporting formal systems engineering and program reviews such as SRR, SFR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and related events.
• Familiarity with budgeting, resource planning, and program execution tracking.
• Experience operating in secure, mission-driven environments with high reliability, security, and operational performance expectations.

Primary Work Location: Work is expected to be fully onsite in Arlington, VA.

Special Work Conditions: Occasional travel may be required; up to 15%.

Security:

• Must be a U.S. Citizen
• Active Top Secret/SCI clearance is required

Competitive Salary: VT-ARC offers competitive pay based on a number of factors, including but not limited to conducting comparable salary market research, education, years of experience, and benefits.

Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation: VT-ARC is a 501(c)(3), non-profit R&D organization affiliated with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech or VT). Our mission is to provide superior analytic and technology solutions across multiple domains by leveraging Virginia Tech’s multidisciplinary research and innovation ecosystem. With unique access to the broad and rich research enterprise found at Virginia Tech, VT-ARC forms multi-disciplinary teams to apply innovative solutions to the real-world problems that strain our social, political, industrial, and economic foundations.

To learn more about VT-ARC’s Benefits, Perks, Culture & more visit our Careers page: https://vt-arc.org/careers/

Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation is an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit www.E-Verify.gov.