Title: Senior Systems Engineer Location: Chantilly, VA
*Clearance: *Active TS/SCI w/ Polygraph needed to apply *
Company Overview: Cornerstone Defense, in partnership with our military, intelligence, and civil government customers, supports U.S. operations worldwide through the use of many different types of intelligence, satellite, and cyber technologies. Cornerstone’s Intelligence Sector provides solutions to the United States Government for information collection, operations, exploitation and dissemination, and research activities. Our Team specializes in software development, cloud architecture, systems and network engineering, systems integration, agile management, as well as targeting operations and intelligence analysis. Our support to our mission customers includes cyber network operations, exploitation and defense, signals intelligence, human intelligence, and critical missions and networks.
Seeks talented candidates for a senior Systems Engineer position. The successful candidate will support a Customer program office that oversees a diverse portfolio of specialized communications capabilities. The portfolio encompasses various R&D program, industrial and academic outreach, sensitive operational architectures, and strategic policy matters for the larger Intelligence Community (IC). The successful candidate must:
Operate under broad intent independent of direct oversight, and be trustworthy, reliable, and results-oriented with a bias towards action.
Possess strong interpersonal skills with the ability to forge and nurture close working relationships with both Action Officers and executive-level leaders throughout the Customer organization, IC, industry, and academia.
Adapt well to change and thrive in a highly collaborative small team atmosphere that requires trust, teamwork, disciplined initiative, creative problem-solving skills and grit.
Hold exceptional communication skills: active listening, verbal, and written.
Have excellent time management and organizational skills with the ability to shift work priorities based on evolving requirements; adapt workflows for effectiveness and efficiency; and promote clear communication across program members and various stakeholders.
Position responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:
Help government leaders identify, define, and prioritize requirements; and work closely with program leaders to implement associated action plans and align required resources.
Work with government leaders to translate intent into multi-year strategies, annual roadmaps, action plans, and resource allocation decisions; track milestones and evaluate progress toward the Customer’s strategy/framework objectives.
Support Customer’s strategic engagement strategy for coordinating policy actions throughout the larger Customer organization and across a broad cross-section of IC partners and stakeholders.
Co-author and support independent reviews of IC-level policy documents that define the community’s special communications requirements.
Work closely with various government program managers who canvass the academic and private industry communities to scout out technologies of interest, identify potential R&D partners and gather unique insight into emerging technologies.
Support independent reviews of system architectures, technical proposals and use-case specific CONOPS to ensure designs comply with government requirements and operate within risk tolerance; compile findings and present recommendations to government PM’s in formal reports.
Track tasks, actions, and pending decisions; coordinate with the larger cross-functional team to compile responses to Customer tasks, meet suspense dates for actions and prepare program leaders for executive-level decision points (internal and external).
Work across the team to identify, schedule, and orchestrate meetings, governance boards, councils, working groups, and other official fora with various stakeholders throughout the Customer organization, larger IC, industry, and academia.
Author meeting notes, data calls, program status reports and other program documentation.
Draft formal presentations, staff proposals, background papers, meeting agendas, and other formal communications; participate in executive-level meetings, discussion, and program briefings.
Help program leaders promote open communication and synchronized actions across the larger team.
Required Qualifications
Current TS/SCI clearance with Full-Scope Polygraph.
Bachelor’s degree in an applicable field and a proven track record of delivering results from within the larger Customer organization.
Demonstrated mastery in system engineering principles with specialization in satellite communication systems, optical, radio design, and/or Radio Frequency (RF) architectures.
Expertise in the RF spectrum and modern telecommunications architectures to include signal structures, propagation, modulation types, data rates, and other related areas.
Excellent organizational and time management skills; contribute to body of shared knowledge; ability to articulate intent, frame requirements, adjust workflow priorities absent direct oversight and balance between competing priorities.
Strong interpersonal skills with ability to develop profession rapport with broad cross-section of IC stakeholders, industrial partners, and academic institutions.
Clear understanding of Customer’s technology-focused directorate, mission strategic direction, subordinate components, general stakeholders, and organizational culture.
Willingness to travel within CONUS (approximately 30-45 days per year).
Well-versed with MS Office suite including PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, Excel, and Visio.
Desired Qualifications:
Prior experience working with R&D institutions from academia, private industry and/or USG (DARPA, IARPA, ICWERX, SOFWERX, IWTSD, etc)
Prior experience in the policy arena, ideally at the IC level.
Working-level experience in strategy design, roadmap planning, program management, project development, or structured planning methodologies.
Strong understanding of requirements management processes and models.
Familiarity with Customer operational planning, coordination, deconfliction, and methods.
Experience with online team collaboration tools and knowledge management suites such as Confluence, HIVE, and other similar programs.
Working knowledge of Customer’s formal messaging and coordination system.
