Senior System Engineer

Role: Senior System Engineer

Location: Fairfax, VA or Denver, CO

Salary: $160,000 - $220,000 + Exceptional Benefits (Total Compensation up to $330,000)

Clearance: Active TS/SCI (CI poly preferred)

Benefits

• Employer-funded 401(k) contribution worth 25% of base salary
• Flexible benefits allowance worth 25% of base salary (take as benefits or additional compensation)
• 8 weeks PTO
• Medical, Dental & Vision coverage
• Life Insurance
• 100% tuition reimbursement (Degrees, Certifications & Professional Development)
• Flexible working hours
• Long-term, mission-critical programs supporting the US Intelligence Community

Are you a senior Systems Engineer with deep experience across Linux, cloud-native technologies and software-driven systems within the Intelligence Community?

We are supporting a specialist national security technology organisation looking to add a Senior Systems Engineer to its team in Fairfax, VA.

This is a highly technical position for someone who can work across systems and software engineering, helping shape and modernise complex mission-critical environments. You'll work closely with developers and customers to solve technical challenges, improve system architecture and support the adoption of modern cloud-native and DevSecOps technologies.

The environment includes an operationally supported container orchestration platform used across multiple government sites, enabling CI/CD and Continuous Operations.

What you'll be doing

• Work with software and ground-processing teams to solve complex systems engineering challenges
• Help modernise existing systems through containerisation, Kubernetes and modern deployment techniques
• Evaluate architectures and conduct technical trade studies to improve system resiliency
• Develop prototypes and technical solutions
• Work across Linux and cloud-native environments
• Support DevSecOps, CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code initiatives
• Define and document system architectures, interfaces, CONOPs and technical plans
• Collaborate directly with developers and Intelligence Community customers
• Use Jira and Confluence to manage technical roadmaps and engineering activity

The underlying position specifically covers Kubernetes-based modernisation, architecture resiliency, prototyping and detailed systems documentation.

What we're looking for

• Active TS/SCI clearance
• 15+ years of relevant technical experience
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering or a related discipline
• Strong technical Systems Engineering background
• Strong Linux systems experience
• Experience with cloud-native technologies and architectures
• Previous experience supporting an Intelligence Community customer
• Strong understanding of software engineering and modern software architectures
• Ability to operate independently within complex technical environments
• Strong communication skills and confidence working directly with technical teams and customers

Desirable

• Active CI Poly
• Master's degree in a relevant technical discipline
• Software Engineering background
• Kubernetes, Docker, Helm and container orchestration
• DevSecOps and CI/CD
• Ansible, Terraform or Puppet
• Python, Bash, Go or similar scripting/programming languages
• Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack or OpenSearch
• NRO ground systems experience
• SIGINT experience
• PKI, container security and zero-trust principles

These technologies and domain areas align closely with the desired experience for the position.

This is best suited to a Senior Systems Engineer, Principal Systems Engineer, Technical Systems Engineer or Systems Architect who has remained technically hands-on and wants to work on complex, mission-focused systems rather than move into purely managerial or programme-level work.

Interested? Apply or get in touch for a confidential conversation.

Keywords

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Location: Fairfax, Virginia | Salary: $160000 - $220000 per year | Job type: Permanent | Posted: 19/08/2026