Senior System Engineer, Cyber Missions

This is an active, impact-ready, fully-funded position.

Location: Columbia, MD, Travel

Telework: TBD, subject to manager approval and tasking

Clearance Required: TS/SCI with Polygraph

Salary Range: $195,000 to $215,000

At Shadow Strategies, you will join a culture defined by innovation, purpose, and meaningful impact. We seek systems engineers who bring structure to complexity, connect technical decisions across the system, and turn mission needs into reliable operational capability. If you are inspired by complexity, motivated by clarity, and committed to excellence, we invite you to become part of something exceptional.

This role provides systems engineering leadership for the development and evolution of a declarative, mission-adaptable workflow capability supporting cyber operations. You will shape system architecture, drive technical decisions across software, infrastructure, automation, and mission services, and ensure mission requirements are translated into scalable operationally effective capabilities. You will work directly with mission stakeholders, architects, and engineering teams to define the technical path forward to guide the platform's evolution toward offensive mission automation.

What You’ll Do

Lead systems engineering activities across the full system lifecycle, from concept development through operational deployment

Drive requirements decomposition and allocation across software, infrastructure, automation, and mission services

Lead technical trade studies and architectural evaluations to balance mission needs, performance, security, and scalability

Establish systems engineering processes, artifacts, and technical standards for the program

Identify and mitigate technical risks, interface challenges, and integration issues before they impact mission delivery

Provide technical leadership during integration, verification, validation, and operational testing events

Mentor and review the work of other systems engineers

Serve as a trusted advisor to program leadership on systems engineering matters

Who This Might Be a Fit For

You have led systems engineering efforts for complex mission systems and influenced technical direction across multiple teams

You can evaluate completing technical approaches and make defensible architectural recommendations

You are comfortable leading technical discussions with engineers, operators, stakeholders, and program leadership

You bring structure to ambiguity and help teams make sound technical decisions in dynamic mission environments

You understand how mission outcomes are affected by architecture, integration, security, and operator experience

You enjoy mentoring engineers and raising the overall quality of engineering execution

Required Skills

Leadership of systems engineering activities for complex, software-intensive systems

Requirements development, decomposition, allocation, and traceability

System architecture, interface definition, and integration

Technical risk identification and mitigation

Verification, validation, test planning, and technical troubleshooting

Technical documentation, system modeling, and configuration awareness

Helpful Experience Areas

CYBERCOM or related cyber mission environments

Offensive cyber operations, mission automation, or declarative workflow systems

Cyber infrastructure, networked systems, and distributed services

DevSecOps, CI/CD, and configuration management practices

Cloud, containerized, or Kubernetes-based environments

REST APIs, service integrations, infrastructure as code, and automated provisioning

Years of Experience and Degree Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field and 12 years of experience

OR an associate degree and 16 years of experience

OR 18 years of experience without a degree

Degrees must be obtained from an accredited college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education

Work Environment

Based in Columbia, MD with travel opportunities

Telework policy is being defined as this is a new contract, subject to manager approval and tasking

Multidisciplinary teams supporting cyber mission systems in classified environments

Senior engineers are expected to lead systems engineering efforts independently, provide technical guidance to multidisciplinary teams, and influence program-level technical decisions. They are responsible for ensuring engineering activities align with mission objectives, architectural strategy, and operational requirements.

What Comes With It

You will have what you need to do your best work:
Fully covered health insurance for medical, dental, and vision

Paid parental leave: 16 weeks if you give birth, 4 weeks if your partner does

Flexible leave: 36 days total each year, including 25 days of PTO and 11 paid holidays

401(k) for your future

Short-term and long-term disability

Annual health stipend if you opt out of our insurance

The Extras? They’re Built In.

No points systems. No bean bags. Just clarity, autonomy, and a mission that matters.

Shadow invests in exceptional people because demanding work requires more than a paycheck. Our benefits are designed to provide meaningful support inside and outside the mission.

See our benefit plan at: https://www.shadowstrategies.io/benefits

Shadow Strategies is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating a workplace that values diversity and fosters inclusion. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to location, the individual’s particular combination of education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience, as well as contract-specific affordability and organizational requirements.

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About Shadow Strategies LLC

Shadow Strategies solves problems with innovative strategies. We approach complexity with creativity and resolve, focus on impact and quality, and embrace uncertainty in the pursuit of clarity. We do this together, for all.