{"id":2955990,"url":"https://alion.io/job/vantor-systems-engineer-architect","title":"Systems Engineer Architect","company":{"id":15008,"name":"Vantor","domain":"vantor.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/vantor","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":83,"open_postings":10,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.7,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":37,"computed_at":"2026-10-31T05:58:55Z"}},"role":"Field & Service","role_family":"Field & Service","seniority":"staff","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Westminster, United States","Herndon, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":122000,"max":162000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":162000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":15,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":true},{"name":"Platform Engineering","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-20T21:30:14Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-31T04:43:28Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":10,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":10},"description":"Vantor is forging the new frontier of spatial intelligence, helping decision makers and operators navigate what’s happening now and shape what’s coming next. Vantor is a place for problem solvers, changemakers, and go-getters-where people are working together to help our customers see the world differently, and in doing so, be seen differently. Come be part of a mission, not just a job, where you can: Shape your own future, build the next big thing, and change the world.\nTo be eligible for this position, you must be a U.S. Person, defined as a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, Asylee, or Refugee.\n\nExport Control/ITAR: Certain roles may be subject to U.S. export control laws, requiring U.S. person status as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).\nPlease review the job details below.\nJob Description Summary\nDesigns, develops, troubleshoots and debugs software programs for software enhancements and new products. Directs and participates in all phases of system development with emphasis on planning, analysis, evaluation, integration, testing and acceptance phases (IV&V and DT&E). Develops software tools including operating systems, compilers, routers, networks, utilities, databases and Internet-related tools. Determines hardware compatibility and/or influences hardware design.\nProgrammers who are developing applications for technical end users (e.g., CAD, CAM, CAE, CASE) should be matched here.\nHaving broad expertise or unique knowledge, uses skills to contribute to development of company objectives and principles and to achieve goals in creative and effective ways. Works on significant and unique issues where analysis of situations or data requires an evaluation of intangibles. Exercises independent judgment in methods, techniques and evaluation criteria for obtaining results. Acts independently to determine methods and procedures on new or special assignments. May advise on the activities of others. Typically requires a minimum of 15 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 10 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 8 years experience; or equivalent experience.\nJob Description\nThe Role\nWe are looking for a Engineer with deep systems engineering expertise to lead the design and delivery of complex software-intensive systems spanning cloud platforms, distributed systems, AI-enabled products, mission software, and large-scale operational environments. This is a senior technical leadership role for engineers who thrive in ambiguity, solve problems that span organizational and technical boundaries, and bring clarity to highly complex systems. You will partner with engineering, product, and architecture leaders to define system behavior, establish technical direction, and ensure the software we build remains scalable, resilient, and aligned with customer and mission outcomes. Success in this role requires balancing engineering rigor with product velocity. You will help teams move faster by simplifying complexity, identifying risks early, and creating architectures that allow independent teams to deliver cohesive systems.\nWhat You'll Do\nLead the technical design and delivery of complex, cross-domain software systems.\nDefine system architecture, integration strategy, and technical direction across multiple engineering teams.\nTranslate ambiguous customer, mission, and business problems into scalable technical solutions.\nLead architecture trade studies and make consequential technical decisions across competing priorities.\nDrive system decomposition, interface definition, dependency management, and integration planning for large distributed systems.\nPartner with Product to validate customer needs and ensure delivered capabilities solve the right problems.\nIdentify architectural, integration, operational, and delivery risks early and drive mitigation before they become execution problems.\nShape technical direction across a product portfolio or strategic technical domain.\nInfluence engineering organizations through technical credibility rather than reporting authority.\nRaise engineering quality through better architecture, engineering practices, technical standards, and mentoring of senior technical leaders.\nDrive capabilities from concept through integration, validation, operational readiness, and customer adoption.\nAI-Enabled Systems Engineering\nAI-assisted development and agentic software engineering are dramatically increasing the rate at which teams can design, implement, and test software. As engineering velocity increases, strong systems engineering becomes even more important to ensure we continue building coherent, scalable, and operationally effective systems. We are looking for someone who sees AI as an opportunity to evolve how systems engineering is practiced.\nAccelerate system architecture, analysis, and design.\nIdentify architectural, integration, and operational risks earlier.\nScale systems engineering practices to match the speed of AI-enabled software development.\nOur goal: increase our ability to design the right systems as quickly as we can build them.\nWhat We're Looking For\nSystems Thinking\nYou naturally reason across systems, interfaces, constraints, dependencies, feedback loops, failure modes, and emergent behavior. You can understand how software, infrastructure, data, operations, and customer workflows interact, and you know how to bring structure to problems that are initially unclear.\nSoftware Architecture\nYou have significant experience designing and evolving large software systems. You understand distributed systems, APIs, cloud-native architectures, event-driven systems, data flows, scalability, resiliency, observability, security, and operational concerns. You know how to establish clear system boundaries, reduce unnecessary coupling, and create architectures that support both near-term delivery and long-term adaptability.\nTechnical Leadership\nYou influence through technical judgment and credibility. You have led major initiatives involving multiple teams and can build alignment across engineering, product, operations, and leadership without relying on organizational authority. You are comfortable making difficult tradeoffs across customer outcomes, technical risk, delivery schedule, cost, maintainability, and strategic flexibility.\nLearning Agility\nYou can enter unfamiliar technical or mission domains, identify the governing issues, develop sufficient depth to make sound decisions, and integrate the perspectives of subject-matter experts. You are able to challenge assumptions, resolve technical disagreement, and make cross-domain decisions where no single expert has the complete picture.\nProduct and Mission Orientation\nYou understand that successful engineering is not complete when code is written. You remain accountable for integration, validation, operational readiness, adoption, and the real-world performance of the delivered system.\nRequired Qualifications\nBachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent experience solving complex software systems problems.\nSignificant experience architecting and delivering large-scale, software-intensive systems.\nDemonstrated success leading major cross-functional or cross-domain technical initiatives.\nDeep understanding of modern software architecture and distributed systems.\nExperience leading architecture reviews, technical trade studies, and consequential design decisions.\nExperience defining system boundaries, interfaces, integration strategies, and validation approaches.\nStrong understanding of software development, integration, deployment, and operational readiness.\nAbility to communicate effectively with software engineers, architects, product leaders, customers, senior leaders, and executives.\nDemonstrated ability to lead through influence and create alignment across multiple teams.\nPreferred Experience\nCloud-native platforms and Kubernetes.\nDistributed data systems and event-driven architectures.\nAI-assisted software development and agentic engineering workflows.\nHigh-availability, mission-critical, or operational software platforms.\nGeospatial, aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous systems, or other complex mission domains.\nSystems-of-systems integration.\nDeveloper platforms, platform engineering, or internal engineering infrastructure.\nSovereign, on-premises, disconnected, or hybrid deployment environments.\nModel-based or digitally enabled systems engineering practices.\nWhat Success Looks Like\nCreate clarity in highly ambiguous and complex technical environments.\nEstablish architectures that scale across products, domains, and engineering teams.\nAnticipate technical and organizational risks before they become systemic constraints.\nEnable teams to move faster while improving technical quality and operational confidence.\nEnsure independent teams deliver components that function as a cohesive system.\nUse AI to increase the speed, consistency, and reach of systems engineering.\nDevelop other senior technical leaders and improve how the organization makes technical decisions.\nPreserve long-term architectural flexibility while delivering near-term customer and mission outcomes.\nPay Transparency: To support pay transparency, Vantor includes salary ranges in all U.S. job postings. Starting pay for this role will fall within the listed range and will be based on factors such as experience, qualifications, skills, location, and market conditions. Candidates who meet the minimum requirements for the role should not expect to receive compensation at the top of the range. The listed range reflects the expected pay for this position, and final offers will be determined based on each candidate’s experience, expertise, and alignment with the role.\n•The base pay for this position within Colorado is: $122,000.00 - $162,000.00 - $178,200.00 annually.•The base pay for this position within the Washington, DC metropolitan area is: $134,000.00 - $178,000.00 - $195,800.00 annually.For all other states, we use geographic cost of labor as an input to develop market-driven ranges for our roles, and as such, each location where we hire may have a different range.\nBenefits: Vantor offers a competitive total rewards package that goes beyond the standard, including a robust 401(k) with company match, mental health resources, and unique perks like student loan repayment assistance, adoption reimbursement and pet insurance to support all aspects of your life. You can find more information on our benefits at: https://www.Vantor.com/careers\nAdditionally, this position is incentive eligible with a target based on contribution, company performance, and/or individual results achieved; the specific incentive plan and target amount will be determined based on the role and breadth of contributions.The application window is three days from the date the job is posted and will remain posted until a qualified candidate has been identified for hire. If the job is reposted regardless of reason, it will remain posted three days from the date the job is reposted and will remain reposted until a qualified candidate has been identified for hire.\nThe date of posting can be found on Vantor's Career page at the top of each job posting.\nTo apply, submit your application via Vantor's Career page.\nEEO Policy: Vantor is an equal opportunity employer committed to an inclusive workplace. We believe in fostering an environment where all team members feel respected, valued, and encouraged to share their ideas. 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