Telemetry Systems Engineer

Position Introduction/Key Duties

Cimarron is seeking a Telemetry Systems Engineer to serve as the technical authority for the systems that publish mission telemetry to NASA teams and the public while leading the evolution of NASA's MQTT telemetry bridge from prototype to production-ready capability. As the Principal Telemetry Systems Architect, you will define the architecture, security model, and implementation strategy required to expand telemetry distribution beyond public data, working closely with engineering, cybersecurity, platform, and mission operations teams to develop and deploy scalable, secure, and resilient solutions.

In this role, you will lead architecture reviews, guide technical design decisions, and develop strategic roadmaps for telemetry infrastructure modernization. You will collaborate across multiple disciplines to implement distributed systems, event-driven architectures, real-time data distribution platforms, and enterprise messaging solutions that support current and future mission operations. You will also provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineering teams, evaluate emerging technologies, and ensure that transitioned capabilities are well documented, operationally supportable, and ready for long-term sustainment.

Your work will directly support the software, data, and infrastructure technologies that enable NASA flight controllers, engineers, and mission support personnel to monitor, analyze, and operate human spaceflight missions and future exploration systems. Candidates should have experience designing distributed systems, streaming-data platforms, and high-volume messaging architectures in operational environments.

This is a hybrid position based at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX.

Key Duties

• Serve as the senior technical resource for the mission control data portal that publishes internal telemetry and for the public ISS telemetry server: guide incident investigation, troubleshooting and changes with the sustaining team.
• Lead the phased implementation that moves the MQTT telemetry bridge into production-quality use, starting with publishing existing public telemetry over MQTT without interrupting external consumers.
• Move the bridge toward newer mission data sources and streaming interfaces, publishing a larger set of telemetry symbols and supporting requests for historical data, while respecting mission-control security.
• Design and build the security model that expands the bridge beyond public data: authentication, topic-level authorization, encryption, auditing and data-classification controls, released in phases.
• Work early with NASA cybersecurity, export-control and public-affairs stakeholders to get approvals for each class of data.
• Evaluate alternative architectures and tools and prototype with other NASA organizations, recommending options that reduce lifecycle cost and improve efficiency.
• Document designs and interfaces, deliver software and documentation in accordance with NASA/JSC software management standards.

Required/Desired Skills, Experience, And Education

Required Skills, Experience, and Education:

• Due to facility security requirements, only U.S. citizens are eligible for consideration at this time.
• Ability to complete a pre-employment background check and drug screening, which will include but is not limited to testing for marijuana use.
• 3 or more years of software engineering experience, including 2 or more years building or sustaining real-time telemetry or networked distributed systems in production.
• Hands-on experience with message-oriented middleware such as Apache Kafka, Mosquitto, EMQX or HiveMQ.
• Experience sustaining production services: incident response, change control and mentoring other engineers.
• Experience with authentication and authorization (OAuth2/OIDC, SAML, RBAC/ABAC) and TLS/PKI.
• Experience with containers and serverless deployments.
• Ability to architect a multi-phase approach, lead it through approvals and brief NASA stakeholders.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or related field.

Desired Skills, Experience, And Education

• Experience with spaceflight or other real-time telemetry, and with pub/sub messaging servers.
• Familiarity with CCSDS standards, delay/disruption-tolerant networking, or asynchronous message services.
• Experience with containers on Kubernetes or OpenShift.
• Security certifications (Security+, CISSP) or NIST 800-53/NIST 800-171 experience.
• Identity provider experience (for example Keycloak).
• Performance testing and tuning of real-time systems.
• Prior NASA or federal contracting experience.

Business Profile

Cimarron is a global solutions company with a strategic partnering approach to satisfying customer-driven requirements. We ensure customer success with a modern approach and experienced leadership. Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, Cimarron is fueled by highly skilled employees, developing new innovative technologies, and delivering superior products and services. We believe in recognizing employees' worth by offering competitive salaries and benefits, including health, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) contributions, educational reimbursement, and much more. From company communication through Company-wide information meetings led by our President and CEO, to an Awards program designed to recognize our amazing employees and their accomplishments, you will not only feel like you are a part of a team, you will be a valued member of the Cimarron family. Cimarron is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.