CT Systems Engineer

PLEASE NOTE: This position requires an ACTIVE Top Secret/SCI Clearance with Polygraph. To be considered for this position, you MUST have an ACTIVE Clearance Level of Top Secret/SCI with Polygraph

Position Code: 07-SE0924-1

Tysons or Warrenton

Job Description

We are seeking a hands-on Systems Engineer with deep expertise across infrastructure, platforms, and application ecosystem spanning cloud and on-premises environments. This role requires a proven practitioner who can analyze existing (“as-is”) systems and applications, document current state architectures, design future-state solutions, and implement system enhancements or technology transformations end-to-end. The ideal candidate is a technical leader and achiever who can seamlessly collaborate across infrastructure, platform, application, DevSecOps, information systems security, and data teams while maintaining ownership of system reliability, performance, scalability, and security.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, IT, or a related technical discipline, or the equivalent combination of education, technical training, or work/military experience
• Minimum ten (10) years of related systems engineering experience

Required Knowledge/Skills

The candidate must demonstrate hands-on experience in all the following areas:

• Infrastructure & Platforms

• Enterprise networking (e.g. routing, switching, firewalls, load balancers, DNS)

• Storage technologies (e.g. SAN, NAS, object storage)

• Virtualization and container platforms (VMware, Hyper-V, Kubernetes, Docker)

• Windows and Linux (Redhat, CentOS) operating systems (administration, hardening, automation)

• Data platforms (HPCC, Hadoop/Cloudera)

• Cloud & On-Prem Technologies

• Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, and/or GCP)

• Hybrid and on-prem infrastructure design and integration

• Cloud networking, identity, security, and cost optimization

• Data & Application Platforms

• Relational and NoSQL databases – relational (e.g., Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server) and NoSQL (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB, Redis) databases

• Data platforms (HPCC, Hadoop/Cloudera)

• Data pipelines, and ETL frameworks – with ETL pipelines, Airflow, Kafka, Spark, or similar frameworks

• Web services, APIs, and middleware

• Software development lifecycle (SDLC) fundamentals

• Engineering & Automation

• Infrastructure as Code – Scripting & Automation: Python, Bash, PowerShell, Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation

• Configuration management and scripting (PowerShell, Bash, Python, etc.)

• CI/CD integration with infrastructure and platforms (Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, GitOps)

• Security best practices and system hardening

• Monitoring & Incident Response: Proficiency with tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, ELK Stack, CloudWatch

• Architecture & Design

• Ability to create:

• As-is architecture documentation

• To-be architecture and detailed engineering designs

• Implementation and migration plans

Desired Skills

• Observability and monitoring tools (logging, metrics, tracing)
• Zero Trust and modern security architectures
• Data analytics, AI/ML platform exposure
• Experience supporting regulated or mission-critical environments
• Relevant certifications (cloud, systems, security, or architecture)
• Knowledge of machine learning platforms (TensorFlow, PyTorch, SageMaker)
• Familiarity with big data ecosystems (Hadoop, Databricks, Snowflake, Google, BigQuery)
• Strong background in ITIL processes and agile methodologies
• Certifications: AWS Solutions Architect / DevOps Engineer, Azure Administrator, Kubernetes CKA/CKAD, ITIL Foundation

Key Responsibilities

• Perform hands-on systems engineering across network, compute, storage, operating systems, middleware, databases, and applications
• Analyze and document as-is infrastructure, platform, and application architectures
• Design to-be architectures and detailed engineering designs for modernization, optimization, and transformation initiatives
• Lead and execute cloud and on-prem system implementations, migrations, and upgrades
• Ensure systems meet availability, scalability, performance, security, and compliance requirements
• Integrate infrastructure and platforms with DevOps and DevSecOps pipelines
• Troubleshoot complex, cross-stack issues spanning infrastructure, platforms, and applications

• Collaborate effectively with:

• Infrastructure & Platform Engineers

• Software Engineers

• DevOps / DevSecOps Engineers

• Data Engineers (ETL)

• Data Modelers, Data Scientists, and Data Analysts

• Produce clear technical documentation, diagrams, standards, and runbooks

• Serve as a technical authority and escalation point for complex system issues

• Communication Skills: Ability to brief executives clearly and translate technical issues into business impact

IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE

• Recognized SME with deep, hands-on technical expertise
• Strong systems thinker with the ability to see and engineer across the full stack
• Comfortable operating at both strategic architecture and tactical implementation levels
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills across technical and non-technical teams
• Proven ability to own complex systems from design through production