Sr. Ground System Fire Control Project 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 architecture, 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 Materiel 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.

The Software Architecture Engineering and Systems Software Engineering team support the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) missions covering the Ground Weapons system (GWS), Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI), Next Generation Interceptor (NGI), and connected sensors. These programs include major system acquisitions, development, integration, and sustainment of their current and future architecture definition at the data/software/hardware levels, and research and technology for continuous evolution of Ground-Based Missile Defense warfighting capabilities. The MDA GWS program office seeks to update its Ground Weapon system to support the Next Generation Interceptor. Doing so will employ a Fire Control capability that is integrated with the overall multi-layered missile defense program.

Aerospace’s Missile Defense Software Program Office is seeking a Sr. Ground System Fire Control Engineer (Senior Project Engineer - Software Architecture and Systems Software Engineering) to directly support the MDA GWS and NGI programs to advise the integration of the ground element with the Next Generation Interceptor capability.

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

What You’ll Be Doing

• Assist the government with interfacing the ground weapon system with external missile defense architectural elements
• Supporting test coordination between multiple contractors and government program offices in a fast-paced AGILE environment
• Develop testing software tools for processing and analyzing contractor tests
• Assess contractor fire control algorithms for ground and flight tests
• Analyze fire control requirements, plans, schedules, and architecture

What You Need to be Successful

Minimum Requirements for Senior Project Engineer (Software Architecture and Systems Software Engineering):

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM field or closely related technical field is required
• 12 or more years of relevant professional or educational experience is required
• Experience providing technical expertise to the government in a variety of settings
• Background in ground architecture and software development
• Strong proficiency with command-and-control systems
• Experience coordinating and leading multidiscipline technical teams formed to solve complex technical aerospace issues
• Willingness to occasionally travel and support customer needs (domestically) approximately 25% (as required) 
• This position requires a current and active SECRET security clearance, which is issued by the U.S. government. U.S citizenship is required to obtain security clearance

How You Can Stand Out

It’s impressive if you have one or more of these:

• Strong background in developing and managing interface control documents (ICDs) and/or Algorithm Design Document (ADD) with a focus on enabling interoperability within complex systems
• Experience ground system test event analysis and processing
• Proficiency in designing and operating cloud environments and antenna systems with the capability to integrate with fire control systems, manage comm