Space Systems Engineer

FTS International, LLC (FTS) is committed to providing the Federal Government with quality consultants and support. To ensure mission success we focus on putting our customers first while minimizing corporate bureaucracy on our staff. We provide Subject Matter Experts (SME) free of Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI) focused on independent analysis and mission support services within the disciplines of Engineering, Counter Terrorism Operations, Management, Information Technology, Signals Analysis, Administration, Cyber Security and Linguistics.

FTS has an opportunity for a Space Systems Engineer in Chantilly, VA.

The Space Systems Engineer provides systems engineering and program management SETA support for a Government customer.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate readiness reviews and evaluate acquisition milestone design documentation for adequacy, accuracy and completeness, and identify cost, schedule and technical risks/opportunities, provide mitigation strategies through formal and informal comments, and determine readiness to proceed to the next program phase

• Manage requirements processes to include review, evaluation, recommendation to approve/disapprove of verification products for Segment requirements and define verification methods in concert with SPO Divisions

• Coordinate with mission users, stakeholders, and NRO Enterprise representatives to understand user needs and higher-level allocated requirements

• Provide the SPO interface to adjunct payload government program offices and their industry partners

• Support the documentation and maintenance of the collection system requirements baseline in automated tools such as DOORS

• Lead Segment verification activities; assess adequacy of developer verification data and provide recommendations to the GPOC for approval or disapproval with clear commentary demonstrating the logic for the recommendations

• Review, document and trace functional and interface requirements for the collection system, and coordinate with other engineers, FFRDC and developer personnel to resolve issues

• Identify areas of risk to mission closure across collection, mission management, and mission processing

• Support requirements activities across the NRO enterprise and with the development contractors

• Based on user needs and higher level allocated Enterprise requirements, derive and flow down the error budgets and other requirements to System and Segment specifications

• Coordinate proposed requirements changes across all SPO organizations and with mission analysis and acquisition teams to ensure completeness of review across the acquisition

• Identify and assess segment-level impacts of new capabilities, including across specification, internal and external interfaces, and facilitate integration into the current program baseline

• Support customer in CONOP development

• Support initialization and on-orbit calibration and validation activities

• Support ground site integration and test activities

• Advise and mentor customer personnel regarding Segment architecture, specification, and verification & validation

• Attend Segment level design reviews and program management reviews to assess design maturity, requirements compliance and to provide informed technical recommendations to the customer

• Review verification evidence and test reports to support space vehicle level requirement verification and Pre-Ship Review (PSR) events

• Review acquisition milestone design documentation for adequacy, accuracy and completeness, and identify cost, schedule and technical risks/opportunities, and provide mitigation strategies through formal and informal comments.

• Support technical and programmatic reviews and meetings, as required

Required Skills/Qualifications

• TS/SCI with polygraph 

• BS STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math) in engineering discipline 

• 10+ years' relevant experience

• Understanding of DOD/IC satellite systems and architectures

• Excellent interpersonal, leadership, team building, and problem-solving skills with a demonstrated ability to be independent and effective in a government/contractor team environment

• Experience in DOD/IC acquisition and program management processes

• Excellent oral and written communication skills

• Demonstrated sustained superior performance

• Available to travel domestically up to 25%

Desired Skills/Qualifications

• MS STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math) in engineering discipline 

• Prior Program Office experience

• Previous experience developing technical specifications for space systems

FTS International, LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer – vets/disabled.