Ground Systems Engineer & Architect

About The Team

Mission Solutions - The Platforms
Mission Solutions builds on Umbra's expertise in remote sensing and spacecraft operations to engineer platforms purpose-built for U.S. and allied defense and intelligence missions. Whether it's a custom payload, a full-stack spacecraft, or the infrastructure behind an entire constellation, our team delivers secure, resilient systems tailored to exacting requirements and built on timelines that match the urgency of the mission.

About The Job

The Ground Systems Engineer & Architect is responsible for defining, designing, integrating, and validating secure, mission-critical ground systems supporting advanced space, ISR, and national security missions. This hands-on technical role serves as the ground systems architecture lead, translating mission requirements into scalable, resilient, and secure enterprise solutions across classified computing environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Arcitect Secure Ground Systems: Define and develop end-to-end architectures for mission-critical ground systems supporting space, ISR, and national security missions, ensuring scalable, resilient, and secure enterprise solutions.
• Lead System Integration & Verification: Plan and execute system integration, verification, validation, and operational test activities to ensure ground systems meet mission, performance, cybersecurity, and operational requirements.
• Design Secure Enterprise Infrastructure: Develop and implement secure computing environments including COMSEC, RED/BLACK architectures, cross-domain interfaces, classified networking, Kubernetes/Docker containerized services, virtualization, storage, and enterprise IT infrastructure.
• Drive Technical Leadership & Customer Engagement: Serve as the technical authority for ground system design, leading requirements development, interface definition, technical trade studies, and presenting technical solutions at customer reviews including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and ORR.
• Enable Mission Operations & Modern Engineering Practices: Collaborate across multidisciplinary engineering teams to deliver mission-ready ground capabilities using systems engineering best practices, DevSecOps, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, and modern software deployment pipelines supporting U.S. Government and Intelligence Community programs.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline.
• Active TS/SCI security clearance with the ability to maintain access.
• 8-12+ years of professional experience in systems engineering, software engineering, infrastructure engineering, or ground systems engineering supporting complex government or aerospace programs.
• Experience designing, architecting, integrating, and verifying mission-critical ground systems supporting Intelligence Community (IC), DoD, space, ISR, or other national security programs, including system architecture, interface definition, requirements development, and verification planning.
• Experience developing and implementing Communications Security (COMSEC) plans, key management, and secure communications requirements.
• Strong understanding of RED/BLACK architectures, secure system boundary design, cross-domain considerations, and classified network security principles.
• Experience with IT infrastructure and network integration, including secure networking, virtualization, storage, servers, and enterprise computing environments.
• Experience developing Kubernetes/Docker containerized services.
• Strong systems engineering experience leading system integration, verification, validation, operational testing, and requirements decomposition for complex ground systems.