Systems Engineer Journeyman

The Systems Engineer Journeyman supports the design, integration, and lifecycle management of complex, mission-critical systems in a highly regulated government environment. They translate customer requirements into system architectures, models, and detailed technical specifications while maintaining rigorous requirements traceability. The role focuses on evaluating system alternatives, conducting trade studies, and coordinating with cross-functional engineering teams to ensure secure, reliable, and scalable system implementations.

The Systems Engineer Journeyman also contributes to verification and validation activities, technical documentation, and continuous improvement of systems engineering processes and methodologies. This hybrid role is based in the DC area and operates within an enterprise or federal IT environment, requiring close collaboration with engineering, cybersecurity, and operations stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Apply systems engineering methodologies to translate stakeholder requirements into system architectures, interface definitions, and detailed design specifications for enterprise platforms.
• Develop and maintain system models and diagrams using MBSE or similar modeling environments to support design decisions, traceability, and impact analysis across the system lifecycle.
• Perform trade studies and alternatives analyses to compare technical options against performance, security, cost, and schedule constraints, and recommend optimized solutions for mission-critical systems.
• Define user roles, personas, and access control schemes aligned with zero-trust and least-privilege principles to ensure appropriate authorization across complex environments.
• Implement end-to-end requirements traceability, linking high-level customer needs to design elements, test cases, and operational performance metrics throughout the system lifecycle.
• Support system verification and validation by developing test procedures, participating in formal technical reviews, and analyzing test results to confirm compliance with functional and non-functional requirements.
• Conduct system performance analyses, including capacity, latency, and reliability assessments, to identify optimization opportunities and technical risks before they affect delivery.
• Collaborate with cross-functional engineering, cybersecurity, and operations teams to resolve integration issues, troubleshoot defects, and enhance overall system resilience.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, tools, and frameworks for potential integration into existing platforms, balancing innovation with interoperability and security considerations.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Typically 3-6 years of systems engineering experience in a government or defense-related environment with responsibility for requirements, architecture, and system integration.
• Demonstrated experience developing system architectures, models, and technical specifications, including requirements traceability and support to verification and validation activities.
• Experience conducting trade studies and alternatives analyses for complex systems, including security, performance, cost, and schedule considerations.
• Familiarity with role-based access control, least-privilege principles, and secure system design in highly regulated or mission-critical environments.
• Ability to obtain and maintain any required background investigation for work in a U.S.-only staffing context; U.S. citizenship required.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify technical risks early and recommend mitigation strategies in collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• INCOSE ASEP or similar systems engineering certification.
• Experience with Model-Based Systems Engineering tools and environments (e.g., Cameo, Enterprise Architect, or comparable platforms).
• Prior work on classified or highly regulated programs requiring eligibility for a Secret or Top Secret clearance.
• Experience in an enterprise or federal IT environment with complex, mission-critical platforms and multi-disciplinary engineering teams.

Compensation Ranges

Compensation ranges for ASM Research positions vary depending on multiple factors; including but not limited to, location, skill set, level of education, certifications, client requirements, contract-specific affordability, government clearance and investigation level, and years of experience. The compensation displayed for this role is a general guideline based on these factors and is unique to each role. Monetary compensation is one component of ASM's overall compensation and benefits package for employees.

EEO Requirements

It is the policy of ASM that an individual's race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation or national origin are not and will not be considered in any personnel or management decisions. We affirm our commitment to these fundamental policies.

All recruiting, hiring, training, and promoting for all job classifications is done without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, or age. All decisions on employment are made to abide by the principle of equal employment.

Physical Requirements

The physical requirements described in "Knowledge, Skills and Abilities" above are representative of those which must be met by an employee to successfully perform the primary functions of this job. (For example, "light office duties' or "lifting up to 50 pounds" or "some travel" required.) Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with qualifying disabilities, who are otherwise qualified, to perform the primary functions.

Disclaimer

The preceding job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.