{"id":1994969,"url":"https://alion.io/job/saic-communications-systems-engineer-opticalquantum","title":"Communications Systems Engineer (Optical/Quantum)","company":{"id":58788,"name":"SAIC","domain":"saic.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/saic","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Oracle","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":80,"open_postings":53,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.981,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":12,"computed_at":"2026-10-12T06:55:09Z"}},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"staff","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Chantilly, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":143000,"max_usd":258000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":469},"experience_years_min":12,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Microsoft Office","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-06T21:56:15Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-06","last_verified_at":"2026-10-12T04:03:27Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":66,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":66},"description":"SAIC is seeking a Communications Systems Engineer with strong optical and quantum communications engineering experience to support specialized analysis, engineering, design, and operations for Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of War (DoW) customers. We support development of next-generation and far-future national security systems across land, sea, air, and space domains.\nWe are hiring a Communications Systems Engineer to provide systems engineering and technical advisory (SETA) support to an IC Research & Development (R&D) customer developing advanced hardware, software, and architectural solutions for mission-critical optical and quantum communication systems.\nResponsibilities\nPerform technical reviews, assessments, and risk evaluations of optical and quantum communication system development efforts at the component, subsystem, system, and architecture levels.\nEvaluate designs and technologies including optical terminals, free-space optical links, photonic components, entanglement-based communication architectures, and quantum-enhanced optical subsystems.\nAssess emerging technologies and identify gaps related to high-bandwidth space links, advanced modulation formats, pointing/tracking systems, link budgets, networking performance, and secure quantum-enabled transport architectures.\nSupport development of technology roadmaps, requirements, specifications, verification approaches, and transition strategies for optical and quantum system modernization.\nConduct technical outreach with mission users to capture needs and evaluate applicability of emerging optical and quantum capabilities.\nPrepare system engineering documentation, technical analyses, and program-level briefings to communicate findings and strategic recommendations.\nProvide support to programmatic and acquisition activities, including source selections, lifecycle documentation, and system integration planning.\nRequired Qualifications\nBachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, or related discipline and nine (9) years or more experience; Masters and seven (7) years or more experience ; PhD or JD and four (4) years or more experience\nExperience with USG program management and acquisition lifecycle processes and documentation.\nStrong interpersonal, verbal, and technical writing communication skills.\nDemonstrated ability to work collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams.\nProficiency with Microsoft Office tools.\nDesired Qualifications\nMaster’s degree in engineering, physics, or related discipline.\n12+ years of relevant experience, including at least 4 years in optical or quantum communication systems.\n1+ year of experience supporting USG R&D acquisition processes and documentation.\nExperience with space-based optical terminals, quantum optical payloads, photonic systems, or advanced quantum-enhanced communication architectures","description_format":"text","description_chars":2848,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":12,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Digital Government","Systems Integrators","Engineering Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-07T08:30:53Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":12,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.336,"p_room":0.35,"age_days":66,"expected_fill_days":12,"reasons":["conf:2","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-12T06:55:09Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/saic-communications-systems-engineer-opticalquantum","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/saic-communications-systems-engineer-opticalquantum.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-12T10:02:48Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":15341,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-13T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":58788},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=58788"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fsaic-communications-systems-engineer-opticalquantum"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fsaic-communications-systems-engineer-opticalquantum"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fsaic-communications-systems-engineer-opticalquantum"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/saic-communications-systems-engineer-opticalquantum\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fsaic-communications-systems-engineer-opticalquantum"}]}