Senior System Engineer (TS/SCI with CI Poly) {S}

ARKA Group L.P. (“ARKA”) is an advanced technologies company serving the U.S. military, intelligence community, and commercial space industry delivering next-generation solutions to support the national security space enterprise. Built on more than six decades of excellence, ARKA brings modern approaches and a culture of innovation to the challenges of today.

Join the ARKA team to learn how Beyond Begins Here. Discover your next career opportunity now!

Position Overview:

This position is for a Senior Systems Engineer supporting a mission-critical software and AI/ML product development program. You will be embedded in a high-performing, Agile delivery team to transition complex software and AI-enabled capabilities into operational use.

In this role, you will report to the Program Chief Engineer and provide technical support across multiple product teams operating on an Agile release cadence. You will act as a technical integrator and systems thinker, ensuring alignment between user needs, system architecture, software implementation, and verification outcomes.

Because this is a software-centric, Agile lifecycle, work assignments will evolve frequently. The role emphasizes continuous requirements refinement informed by user feedback, and close collaboration with software, data, and ML engineers. Typical activities may include requirements elicitation and management, system and software architecture support, backlog refinement, design and interface documentation, automated test definition, AI/ML output evaluation, and model-based and digital systems engineering practices.

We are seeking systems engineers who are curious, adaptable, and self-directed, and who thrive in environments where systems engineering is embedded within modern software and AI/ML product teams, rather than performed as a serial or document-driven function.

In support of work/life balance, many positions are available for a flexible schedule within the pay period.  Ask us about the opportunity for flex scheduling if that’s of interest to you. 

We offer generous relocation benefits for eligible candidates.

Key Responsibilities:

• Analyze stakeholder intent and user workflows to shape requirements, features, and user stories, serving as a user proxy to ensure system functionality meets operational needs
• Act as a knowledgeable user proxy by executing and evaluating prototype capabilities, AI/ML outputs, and user experience implementations to assess operational suitability, usability, and alignment with intended outcomes
• Collaborate with product owners, software engineers, data scientists, ML engineers, UX designers, and test teams to support continuous integration, verification, and validation of AI-enabled capabilities
• Support UI/UX concept development (e.g., wireframes or mockups) to inform user-centered design and operational workflows
• Contribute to automated test strategy, including definition of verification criteria and support to test implementation
• Provide informal technical leadership and guidance across multiple Agile software and AI/ML development teams
• Maintain requirements transparency and traceability across system, software, and AI/ML components throughout the development lifecycle
• Perform end-to-end requirements management, including decomposition, allocation, traceability, verification mapping, and development of compliance artifacts
• Develop and maintain system architecture artifacts, interface definitions, and design documentation using digital engineering best practices
• Generate and maintain formal program artifacts such as system specifications, interface control documents (ICDs), software description documents (SDDs), V&V documentation, and user-facing technical documentation
• Support the Chief Engineer with technical planning, interface coordination, risk tracking, and milestone readiness
• Participate in customer engagements, program reviews, government test events, and discrepancy review boards as a systems engineering representative

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in systems engineering, software engineering, computer science, or a related STEM discipline
• Minimum of 5 years of systems engineering experience supporting software-intensive systems across the full development lifecycle
• Ability to serve as an operationally informed stand-in for the customer by executing the system, interpreting AI outputs, and assessing fitness-for-purpose against defined operational questions, stakeholder intent, and system performance objectives
• Demonstrated experience working hands-on within Agile development teams, including writing and refining epics, features, and user stories; defining acceptance criteria; and participating in sprint p