Systems Engineer - Senior

About Bridge Defense. Bridge Defense is redefining how modern defense technology is delivered. Based in Washington, D.C., we are built for the dynamic mission environment facing the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and federal law enforcement agencies. We provide full-spectrum national security solutions that combine secure infrastructure, cleared talent, and mission-ready software to meet evolving defense challenges. Our services include secure software development in classified environments and the design and implementation of advanced IT and cybersecurity capabilities ranging from secure cloud architectures and enterprise infrastructure to data center operations, scientific analysis, cutting-edge cyber defense, and intelligence analysis.

We are led by technologists and veterans with firsthand mission experience, which enables us to understand both the operational realities and the innovation needed to succeed. Our approach is agile and outcome-based, delivering results in weeks rather than months whenever possible.

At Bridge Defense we value people, integrity, and excellence. We foster an environment where innovation thrives in support of traditional mission requirements. Our team members receive competitive compensation, robust benefits, professional development and certification opportunities, and clear paths for growth while working on the nation’s most critical projects.

Core Values:

• Innovation & Responsiveness: We push beyond legacy models with efficient, tech-led solutions built to scale and evolve.
• Trusted Performance: Security, compliance, and deep experience in delivering to demanding environments guides all we do.
• Mission Focused Expertise: From veteran leadership to cleared engineers, our people understand both the technology and the mission.

Summary: Bridge Defense is seeking a highly qualified System Engineer to join a mission-focused team that designs, engineers, and sustains applications, services, microservices, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and supporting infrastructure. This effort requires defining and implementing technical architectures that meet current mission needs while anticipating future capabilities, eliminating overlap, and reducing technical debt. The team continuously improves sustainment and development practices to reinvest resources into new capabilities and to enhance the effectiveness, quality, resilience, and robustness of the underlying technology stack.

Our applications support intelligence analysis and collection management, directly serving intelligence analysts and operators across the Intelligence Community and Combatant Commands. The System Engineer serves as both a senior technical designer and a hands-on engineer across multiple software development and infrastructure efforts, including JWICS, Stone Ghost, and SIPRNet. This role selects and shapes architecture patterns and technical standards in coordination with the customer and systems engineering teams, then helps implement those architectures alongside development teams. The position also recommends new technologies, integration approaches, and processes for complex distributed systems, ensuring that solution designs and implementations meet mission needs and non-functional requirements, including security, performance, scalability, maintainability, and reliability.

The System Engineer produces and maintains architecture artifacts such as system and service interaction diagrams, data flows, deployment topologies, and interface definitions, and oversees their implementation by development and operations teams. The role collaborates with users, system engineers, software engineers, cybersecurity personnel, and hardware engineers to derive system and software requirements and to gather information on project constraints, capabilities, performance requirements, and interfaces. In addition, the position develops technical roadmaps and transition plans by analyzing performance standards, system flows, data usage, work processes, and problem areas. This role also evolves existing systems and services to correct deficiencies, adapt to new mission and security requirements, and improve overall performance, resilience, and maintainability. The System Engineer designs or oversees the design and implementation of complex system integrations, interfaces, and data exchanges; coordinates deployment and integration of software and infrastructure components; and monitors system behavior to ensure operational specifications and mission requirements are met. The role also implements and advocates recommendations to improve documentation, architecture governance, and software development and integration standards, while supporting the development and execution of test and validation approaches at the component, system, and enterprise levels.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop, document, and maintain end-to-end system architectures and designs for complex and diverse software and data systems, such as processing-intensive analytics, large-scale data pipelines, real-time systems, and mission-critical business management information systems, based on documented requirements and mission objectives. Participate directly in implementation where appropriate.
• Provide specific input to system and solution design, including hardware/software trade-offs, software reuse, integration of COTS/GOTS products, and requirements analysis and synthesis from the enterprise level down to individual systems and components.
• Design, implement, and integrate software and infrastructure components consistent with approved architecture patterns, such as microservices, event-driven, API-centric, and cloud-native approaches, to ensure interoperability, scalability, and security across applications and services.
• Apply systems engineering, software engineering, and architecture methodologies appropriate to the development, integration, and production environment, including the creation of system views, interface control documents, data models, and detailed design specifications.
• Ensure efficient delivery of system engineering, architecture, and software engineering capabilities using industry standards and repeatable processes, while aligning implementation with approved architectures and technical baselines.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks, manage cost and schedule impacts related to architectural and engineering decisions, and support large-scale integrated system modernization and migration efforts, including on-premises to cloud or hybrid architectures.
• Review and test system and software components for adherence to design and architecture requirements, and document test results, including participation in design reviews, code reviews, integration events, and readiness reviews.
• Participate in and help shape DevSecOps processes and practices throughout all phases of design, development, integration, and deployment to ensure architecture is consistently implemented, automated, and validated through CI/CD pipelines.
• Develop and deliver technical briefings, training, and architecture/engineering overviews as requested by the government to support application and system understanding across stakeholders and user communities.
• Analyze current in-use technologies, data flows, configurations, and system interfaces, and develop modernization steps, roadmaps, and engineering plans to improve and expand them while reducing technical debt and enhancing mission effectiveness.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, reference architectures, and tools for applicability to mission needs, and recommend adoption, prototyping, or proof-of-concept efforts where appropriate, including hands-on prototyping.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Active TS/SCI clearance with a current CI polygraph (Within the past 5 years)
• DoD 8570 compliance at IAT/IAM Level 2
• Experience working on a development team operating under DoD/DIA DevSecOps processes
• Strong experience designing and implementing architectures that include microservices, containerized workloads, APIs, and PaaS offerings
• Hands-on experience with modern web and service technologies, such as Angular, Node.js, Java, .NET, or similar technologies
• Experience designing and consuming RESTful APIs and data services
• Solid understanding of application-level and system-level performance, reliability, and availability considerations
• Knowledge of cloud environments such as AWS, Azure, or equivalent, including networking, security groups, identity and access management, and infrastructure-as-code concepts such as Terraform, CloudFormation, and ARM/Bicep
• Demonstrated experience with Linux and/or Windows server environments, containerization technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines
• Demonstrated experience with security-by-design principles, zero trust concepts, identity and access management, and data protection mechanisms
• Ability to communicate complex architectural and engineering concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders and to lead technical discussions, trade-off analyses, and decision forums
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to diagnose issues across application, infrastructure, and network layers

Required Education and Experience:

Education

Minimum Years of Experience

High School Diploma / GED

12

Associate Degree

10

Bachelor’s Degree

8

Master’s Degree

6

PhD

4

Desired Education, Experience, Skills, and Abilities:

·A Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, systems engineering, or a related discipline is preferred, along with additional years of comparable work experience in systems or solution architecture and software engineering. Desired qualifications include 10 or more years of experience in large-scale system design, integration, and operations, with significant hands-on development or scripting experience.

·Preference will be given to candidates with experience in the Intelligence Community and with mission systems supporting intelligence analysis and collection management. Candidates should be highly analytical and able to effectively prioritize needs, requirements, risks, and technical debt across multiple systems and stakeholders. Prospective candidates should also demonstrate strong risk management skills, excellent communication, teamwork, and conflict management skills, and the ability to lead cross-functional technical teams.

·Experience with Python or other scripting languages for automation, infrastructure as code, or data tooling is preferred. Experience with enterprise architecture frameworks or methodologies such as DoDAF or TOGAF, as well as relevant cloud architect, security, or DevSecOps certifications, is highly desirable.

The Successful Candidate will Possess:

• Prospective candidates should have strong risk management skills, excellent communication, teamwork, and conflict management skills.
• The candidate must be analytical and effectively able to prioritize needs, requirements, and other issues.
• Ability to communicate and interact effectively at all levels of staff and management.
• Ability to exercise independent judgment, develop relationships, and obtain consensus among interested parties.
• Critical thinker with strong technical skills, diagnostic skills and problem-solving ability.
• Solid written and verbal communication skills to negotiate direction, drive projects and projects to successful conclusion and deliver knowledge to team members verbally and via clear designs, runbooks and technical engineering and exchange sessions.
• Self-starter, flexible, adaptable, collaborative and motivated to champion continuous improvement.
• Ability to develop peer networks across an enterprise to maintain technology awareness and to support resolution of problems.
• Ability to operate across traditional technical boundaries, comfortable working in the compute space as well as the storage space in an operational capacity.
• Technically curious and driven to learn new skills.

Clearance: TS/SCI Clearance (with current CI Poly; within the past five years)

Location: Dayton, OH; On-Site

Salary Range: 150K - 170K

General Factors:

• Depending on project requirements, may be required to work within a compressed schedule; overtime should be expected when schedules demand it.
• Willing to travel, if needed.
• No Relocation.
• Must be able to sit/stand at a desk for long-periods and must be able to lift 20 pounds occasionally.
• Must be able to multi-task and rapidly change priorities with limited notice.

Online applications, please.

When we review candidates' information, we are looking for the best matches for the position based on the qualifications listed in the job posting. If your skills and experience appear to match an open position, a recruitment services professional or a hiring manager may contact you.

Bridge Defense is an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. It is the policy of the company to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, national origin or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability. If you are a qualified disabled veteran or individual with a disability and need reasonable accommodation to use or access our online system, please contact us at 202-436-9222.