Sr. Software Architect & Engineer

The Aerospace Corporation is the trusted partner to the nation’s space programs, solving the hardest problems and providing unmatched technical expertise. As the operator of a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), we are broadly engaged across all aspects of space— delivering innovative solutions that span satellite, launch, ground, and cyber systems for defense, civil and commercial customers. When you join our team, you’ll be part of a special collection of problem solvers, thought leaders, and innovators. Join us and take your place in space.

The Defense Systems Group (DSG) provides analysis-based decision support to senior leaders on space architectures, policy and strategy, technology development, warfighter capability enablers, systems integration, defense industrial base, and threat reduction to help shape existing and future space missions across the national security space (NSS) enterprise. DSG is unique at Aerospace as it not only directly supports major customers, including the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Space Command, Air Force Material Command, and senior leadership at the Pentagon, but also provides a broad range of technical support across the national space enterprise, maintaining vertical responsibilities with customers’ portfolios as well as horizontal, matrixed responsibilities across the corporation. Additionally, DSG provides deep technical expertise to the Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) in the conception, design, acquisition, launch and operations of satellite, launch vehicle, ground control, and range systems. 

As the Senior Software Architect & Engineer, you will support Air Force Futures (HAF A5/7) digital architecture efforts. This position focuses on application prototyping & development for an enterprise orchestration solution integrating mission engineering with capability development data across a variety of areas (manpower, budget, acquisition, operations, etc.) to create fully burdened capability development plans and force designs. This role will also guide the broader Air Force Future digital architecture & integration strategy as it creates a distributed cloud-based wargaming, analysis, and capability portfolio management ecosystem.

The selected candidate will be required to work full-time, on-site at our facility in Crystal City, VA or El Segundo, CA.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Interfacing directly with senior government leaders (civilian and military) to understand user requirements and mission needs
• Working with product owners to translate user needs into technical requirements, architecture decisions, and work items
• Advising and leading software development teams in overcoming complex data, collaboration, and design challenges
• Designing and validating architecture for a multi-classification cloud application (NIPR, SIPR, JWICS)
• Applying DevSecOps best practices during application development and deployment
• Collaborating with government teams and contractor partners in a matrixed development environment
• Setting attainable goals for sprints, milestone planning, and product roadmap development
• Providing technical leadership on cross-domain data integration and multi-network deployment strategies
• Overseeing software development quality assurance and application maintenance
• Contributing to and maintaining project documentation (architecture decisions, development practices, quality guidelines)
• Managing release processes, change management, and migration strategies across classification domains
• Shaping digital integration and interface strategy for Headquarters Air Force tools and processes
• Growing departmental knowledge through technical leadership, training, and mentorship

What You Need to be Successful

Minimum Requirements for the Sr. Project Engineer Software Architecture Engineering and Cloud Computing Engineer:

• Bachelor’s degree in STEM, with an emphasis in Computer Science or other sciences/engineering discipline is required
• 10 or more years of relevant experience leading software development teams and designing enterprise applications is required
• Strong problem-solving, communication, organizational, and leadership skills
• Demonstrated experience advising senior leaders and translating user needs into technical solutions
• Strong background in application architecture design and technical leadership
• Experience with managing software development teams across the full stack, including UI development, data schema management, API development, UX best practices, etc.
• Experience with complex data integration across disparate systems and data sources
• Familiarity with enterprise data architecture and data modeling concepts
• Famili