Cleared Senior/Principal Systems Engineer - Space Systems, Onsite (Colorado Springs, CO)

Cleared Senior/Principal Systems Engineer - Space Systems, Onsite (Colorado Springs, CO)

What Your Job Will Be Like:

We are seeking a cleared, experienced Space Systems Engineer to be an on-site customer liaison that sits with the US Space Force customer in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The person occupying this role will represent Sandia programs to the Operational Test & Training Program Office, Space Warfighting Analysis Center, and Space Security and Defense Program Office.

The selected candidate will serve as an on-site technical representative and systems-engineering integrator, representing Sandia's modeling, simulation, mission-analysis, and systems-engineering capabilities to multiple government customers. The role requires the technical judgment and leadership to build trusted customer relationships; translate complex mission needs into executable technical and analytic work; coordinate distributed Sandia teams and integration partners; evaluate the mission relevance and fitness-for-use of technical results; and communicate technically rigorous, decision-quality findings to senior stakeholders.

On any given day, you may be called on to:

• Serve as Sandia's on-site technical representative for government customers supporting classified space security, defense, test, training, modeling and simulation, and mission-analysis activities; provide customer-facing systems-engineering coordination and technical leadership across Sandia technical teams and integration partners.

• Build trusted working relationships with customer technical leaders, program managers, analysts, and operational stakeholders, and communicate Sandia capabilities, technical findings, risks, assumptions, and recommendations.

• Translate customer mission needs and technical questions into executable Sandia model-development and analysis work, including objectives, technical requirements, assumptions, measures, deliverables, and execution plans.

• Coordinate Sandia-developed model-delivery activities for use in mission-level, system-of-systems, distributed, or high-fidelity simulation environments.

• Provide systems-engineering and customer-facing coordination for model integration, including intended use, technical interfaces, dependencies, assumptions, data-exchange expectations, configuration needs, verification and validation planning, and resolution of cross-organizational technical issues.

• Coordinate Sandia organizations conducting mission analysis, modeling and simulation, system assessments, and related technical studies; integrate results into clear products, briefings, and recommendations for customer decisions.

• Apply technical judgment to help customers and Sandia teams understand the appropriate use, assumptions, uncertainty, limitations, and mission implications of model and analysis results.

• Identify and facilitate technically appropriate collaboration among customer organizations and Sandia teams, including opportunities to apply existing Sandia capabilities to emerging mission needs.

• Support Sandia technical program and program-management leadership with technical objectives, statements of work, work packages, milestone plans, customer engagements, and proposals for new or expanded work.

• Protect classified information and exercise sound professional judgment in handling sensitive mission, customer, technical, and programmatic details.

The person in this role will report daily to the project leads they are supporting and be supervised by a Manager who are all located in Albuquerque, NM. Thus this person will be expected to effectively and professionally operate in a remote location with minimal supervision. Regular onsite work in Colorado Springs, CO is expected of the selected applicant.

Salary Range:

Salary range is estimated, and actual salary will be determined after consideration of the selected candidate's experience and qualifications, and application of any approved geographic salary differential.

Qualifications We Require:

• A Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline and five (5) years of directly relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of directly relevant education and engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research and development.

• Active DOE Q and SCI clearances, or equivalent.

Qualifications We Desire:

The ideal R&D S&E Systems Engineering candidate for Sandia National Laboratories will in addition possess the following:

• Graduate degree in Engineering or a highly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).
• Experience working with Nuclear Security Enterprise (NSE) laboratories and plants including Pantex, Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and Kansas City National Security Campus/New Mexico Operations (KCNSC/NMO)
• Experience working on engineering design, qualification, production, or related modeling/simulation projects.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams.

Also, for this posting we are seeking individuals with the following experience:

• Fifteen or more years of progressively responsible technical experience supporting national-security missions, including customer-facing technical leadership, systems engineering, mission analysis, modeling and simulation, or technical-program integration.
• Experience supporting national-security space, missile defense, command and control, test and training, intelligence, acquisition, operational analysis, or related mission domains.
• Experience supporting U.S. Space Force, DoW test and training organizations, space security and defense programs, or related acquisition and force-development activities.
• Experience serving as a technical bridge between an on-site government customer and geographically distributed engineering, modeling, simulation, and analysis teams.
• Experience providing technical leadership, systems-engineering coordination, or customer-facing oversight for development, delivery, integration, verification, validation, and fitness-for-intended-use assessment of models used in mission-level or distributed simulations.
• Experience framing, directing, coordinating, or integrating analysis for high-consequence acquisition, operational, test/training, or force-development decisions.
• Experience contributing to technical scope definition, statements of work, work planning, acquisition support, proposal development, or customer-funded research-and-development efforts.
• Experience in systems engineering, mission analysis, modeling and simulation, architecture development, technical program support, or technical integration.
• Experience providing systems-engineering leadership, technical oversight, or customer-facing coordination for integration of complex subsystem or component models into system-of-systems, mission-level, distributed, or high-fidelity simulation environments.
• Experience coordinating technical work across government, laboratory, FFRDC, UARC, industry, or other multi-organization teams.
• Demonstrated technical judgment and leadership in evaluating complex technical issues, defining feasible paths forward, and guiding multidisciplinary teams toward mission-relevant outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to translate sponsor needs and complex mission questions into clear technical obj