Associate Director – Digital Systems Engineering

The Systems Engineering Division (SED) offers unparalleled expertise in systems engineering to the U.S. government and various public and private agencies, universities, nonprofit organizations, consortia, and commercial companies involved in the advanced development and application of space systems. From systems CONOPs and architecture development to system design and analysis, mission assurance, cost and schedule assessment, and economic market analysis, SED leverages a vast array of engineering and business disciplines across a dynamic portfolio of space programs and national challenges spanning the total space system lifecycle. 

The Digital Systems Engineering Department (DSED), part of SED, serves as a strategic partner to government and commercial organizations navigating the digital transformation of systems engineering. Through applied research and development, agile rapid prototyping, objective independent assessments, and expert advisory services, DSED enables customers to successfully institutionalize Digital Systems Engineering (DSE) concepts, methods, practices, and tools throughout their systems acquisition and realization lifecycle. Our comprehensive approach- integrating the three foundational pillars of Digital Engineering (DE), Model-Based Engineering (MBE), and Systems Engineering (SE), empowers customers to accelerate innovation, reduce risk, and achieve mission success in increasingly complex space system environments. 

Job Summary 

As Associate Director - Digital & Systems Engineering, you will help guide the department's strategic direction in helping customers adopt, integrate and use cutting-edge digital system models, digital thread models, and digital twin models as part of their lifecycle of SE activities. You'll lead a geographically dispersed team across our El Segundo, CA and Colorado Springs, CO, locations while positioning the department as a thought leader and center of excellence in digital systems engineering. 

What You'll Be Doing  

• Strategic Leadership: Drive departmental planning and execution to advance core DSE technical capabilities aligned with customer priorities 

• Talent Management: Recruit, develop, and retain top-tier mid and senior-level systems engineering professionals; conduct performance reviews and provide career development guidance 

• Business Development: Identify and capture new opportunities that establish the department as an industry-leading DSE authority 

• Technical Execution: Plan, execute, and lead DSE initiatives integrating systems engineering best practices. 

• Collaboration: Work across the broader Systems Engineering Division to identify organizational and technical synergies. 

• Thought Leadership: Author, publish, and present papers and training materials on DSE topics. 

What You Need to Be Successful 

Minimum Requirements: 

• B.S. degree in a relevant Engineering discipline (Aerospace, Systems, Electrical, Mechanical, etc.), Computer Science, or related technical field.  

• 12+ years of systems engineering experience across three or more functional areas (CONOPS, requirements, architecture, interface control, design, etc.) 

• Excellent written and oral communication skills.  

• Strong people and technical leadership skills. 

• Ability to manage competing DSED managerial and technical priorities. 

• Familiarity with DE and MBSE concepts, principles, and practices. 

• Knowledge of architecture frameworks (UAF, TOGAF, DoDAF). 

• Solid understanding of the ISO/INCOSE systems engineering lifecycle process. 

• Active TS/SCI security clearance is required. 

How You Can Stand Out   

It would be impressive if you have one or more of these: 

• M.S. or Ph.D. degree in a relevant engineering discipline (Aerospace, Systems, Electrical, Mechanical, etc.), Computer Science, or related technical field.   

• Knowledge of systems thinking concepts and research-based patterns, such as DSRP 

• Space, Ground or nuclear security systems engineering domain experience 

• Familiar with object-oriented modeling languages standards (UML, SysML, UAFML, OCL, Modelica etc.), methodologies (OOSEM, SysMOD, etc.) and tools (Cameo, Sparx, SAM, OpenModelica, etc.). 

• Knowledge of Digital Thread and Digital Twin Tooling (Syndeia, Vertasyn, etc.)  

• Familiarity with agile project management using JIRA. 

• INCOSE CSEP/ESEP or OMG SysML/UAFML certification.