Systems Director - Systems Engineering & Integration

The Aerospace Corporation is the trusted partner to the nation’s space programs, solving the hardest problems and providing unmatched technical expertise. As the operator of a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), we are broadly engaged across all aspects of space— delivering innovative solutions that span satellite, launch, ground, and cyber systems for defense, civil and commercial customers. When you join our team, you’ll be part of a special collection of problem solvers, thought leaders, and innovators. Join us and take your place in space.

The Defense Systems Group (DSG) provides analysis-based decision support to senior leaders on space architectures, policy and strategy, technology development, warfighter capability enablers, systems integration, defense industrial base, and threat reduction to help shape existing and future space missions across the national security space (NSS) enterprise. DSG is unique at Aerospace as it not only directly supports major customers, including the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Space Command, Air Force Material Command, and senior leadership at the Pentagon, but also provides a broad range of technical support across the national space enterprise, maintaining vertical responsibilities with customers’ portfolios as well as horizontal, matrixed responsibilities across the corporation. Additionally, DSG provides deep technical expertise to the Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) in the conception, design, acquisition, launch and operations of satellite, launch vehicle, ground control, and range systems.

The nation is recapitalizing the strategic communications architecture that underwrites nuclear command, control, and communications. Evolved Strategic SATCOM (ESS) is that recapitalization. It is a presidential-priority program, it is on an unforgiving timeline, and the technical architecture is being set by a small number of people. We are looking for one of them.

The ESS program office is seeking a Systems Director to lead system engineering and integration for the ESS space segment within the Strategic Communication Systems sub-division. You will serve as the senior technical authority supporting the USSF program Chief Engineer, operating inside an integrated program office of Air Force, Aerospace, SE&I, SETA, and contractor personnel.

This is a build-it role, not a sustain-it role. You will own the system architecture, the requirements baseline, and the integration strategy for a constellation that must work on its worst day, under conditions no other satellite system is asked to survive. Decisions you make will be flying in hardware in less than a decade from now and will shape how the United States communicates with its strategic forces for a generation.

You will lead a team of exceptional systems engineers, and you will have the independence that comes with being the government's trusted technical conscience, Aerospace's role, is to give the customer the technical truth. We are looking for deep technical expertise, the judgment to know which 10% of the problems actually matter, and the leadership presence to hold a technical line in a room full of strong opinions. The work is classified.

The selected candidate will be required to work full-time, on-site at our facility at Los Angeles Air Force Base. One day per week of telecommuting may be possible depending on customer needs and management approval.

What You'll Be Doing

Owning the architecture

- Establishing and maintaining the ESS system architecture, functional decomposition, requirements allocation, and interface definition across the space, ground, and user segments
- Directing requirements management end to end: development, decomposition, allocation, verification, and traceability across the system lifecycle
- Owning the technical baseline and configuration control, including the change management discipline that keeps a fast program from quietly drifting off its requirements
- Driving the ESS Interface Control Documents (ICDs) to completion, the interfaces are where this system will succeed or fail, and they will be yours

Making integration happen

- Leading integration planning and execution across multiple contractors, government agencies, and program elements
- Improving the system engineering processes and integration frameworks for the program, aligned to DoD and USSF acquisition policy
- Directing the major technical gates such as PDR, CDR, and integration readiness reviews and being the person whose assessment the customer trusts when it's time to pass or hold
- Coordinating verification and validation planning so requirements are testable and test approaches are credible before anyone builds hardware
- Providing technical oversight of contractor SE&I activities, insight, not just oversight

Seeing it coming before it arrives

- Leading system-level technical risk management: finding the risks nobody has written down yet and driving mitigations while they're still cheap
- Giving Aerospace leadership and the customer a clear-eyed read on SE risks, integration challenges, opportunities, and what to do about them
- Working across program elements, organizations, and stakeholders to resolve technical issues with integrated solutions rather than local optimizations

Building the team

- Leading, growing, and retaining a strong team of highly talented systems engineers and integration specialists, this is a legacy-building role as much as a technical one
- Maintaining effective working relationships with the customer, Aerospace leadership, contractors, ETG, and supporting UARCs and SE&I contractors
- Ensuring the quality of technical products meets the standard our customer relies on us for
- Prioritizing work and balancing resources to deliver within cost and schedule

What You Need to be Successful

Minimum Requirements for Systems Director - Engineering Program Management and Systems Engineering:

- Bachelor's degree in systems engineering, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, or a related technical discipline

- 12 or more years of relevant systems engineering experience on complex space systems, including at least 5 years leading technical teams (or an equivalent combination of depth and demonstrated leadership)
- Real expertise across the core SE disciplines: requirements management, functional analysis, architecture development, and verification planning
- Experience leading integration on large-scale, multi-contractor space programs and the scars to show for it
- Working command of DoD and USSF acquisition frameworks, including the DoDI 5000 series
- Familiarity with systems engineering standards and practice and with MBSE tools and methods
- Solid understanding of end-to-end space system architectures: space segment, ground segment, and user terminals
- The judgment to prioritize ruthlessly among competing efforts and drive toward enterprise mission success
- The ability to operate strategically and tactically at once, setting measurable goals for a team while staying fluent in technical detail
- Comfort leading from the front: solving problems ahead of need, proposing new approaches, and operating with agility amid changing priorities and demanding customers
- Excellent interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills, including the ability to brief clearly and concisely and write technical assessments that hold up under scrutiny
- Some travel is required
- This position requires a current Top Secret clearance, issued by the US government. U.S. citizenship is required to obtain a security clearance

How You Can Stand Out

It would be impressive if you have one or more of these: