Sr. Systems Engineer - Ground Systems
- TS/SCI clearance
- Secret clearance
How this pay compares
This posting states $126k–$162k a year. Open systems engineer jobs in California post a median of $160k a year, the middle half $137k–$180k, across 211 jobs that state their pay, so this one is within the middle half of what they post.
About the job
Overview
Stellar Solutions, a nationally recognized “Great Place To Work,” delivers engineering solutions across commercial space and national security missions - from innovative new entrants to established space systems organizations.We bring talented, energetic, and immediately productive professionals to meet critical customer needs in systems engineering and integration, mission operations, program management, and strategic planning - helping teams deliver resilient capability to the mission with speed, quality, and focus.
Stellar Solutions is seeking a Senior Systems Engineer to support a Government customer’s space systems engineering and integration mission. This role will lead systems engineering analysis, requirements development, architecture definition, integration planning, and verification activities for satellite and ground systems supporting command and control and data processing. The Systems Engineer will work across customer, engineering, and leadership teams to maintain technical alignment and advance mission capabilities through disciplined systems engineering practices.
Role/Responsibilities/Qualifications
This role provides technical leadership across the systems engineering lifecycle for complex space and ground capabilities. The Systems Engineer will guide a multidisciplinary team, coordinate technical activities across stakeholder organizations, and develop decision-quality engineering products that support system acquisition, integration, test, and delivery.
Key responsibilities include
- Lead systems engineering analysis and product development for satellite systems and ground systems supporting command and control and data processing.
- Lead and coordinate a team of at least five personnel in the execution of systems engineering activities.
- Develop technical specifications, interface control documents, ground architectures, system designs, integration plans, schedules, and test plans.
- Author, analyze, and manage system requirements and associated testable criteria.
- Plan and support system validation, verification, integration, and technical analysis activities.
- Coordinate technical priorities, issues, and decisions among the customer, engineering team, related teams, and leadership.
- Evaluate system and network architectures to support integrated mission capabilities.
- Maintain alignment among requirements, architectures, interfaces, integration activities, and verification objectives.
- Apply Agile methodologies to organize engineering activities and support incremental capability development.
- Provide technical assessments and recommendations that support acquisition and systems engineering decisions.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics field.
- 10+ years of experience supporting DoD weapon systems acquisitions or systems engineering.
- 5+ years of experience performing systems engineering analysis and developing systems engineering products for satellite systems or ground systems supporting command and control and data processing.
- 3+ years of experience leading teams of at least five people.
- Experience communicating and coordinating among customers, engineering teams, related teams, and leadership.
- Experience developing technical specifications, interface control documents, ground architectures and designs, integration plans and schedules, and test plans.
- Experience authoring requirements, developing and managing testable criteria, performing system validation and verification, and conducting technical analysis.
- Knowledge of network architecture.
- Knowledge of Agile methodologies.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience modeling, simulating, or analyzing radio frequency systems, including space-to-ground and payload systems.
- Experience performing systems engineering, integration, and testing for space-based remote sensing, missile warning, missile tracking, environmental monitoring, or related mission systems.
- Experience planning and executing program reviews throughout the system lifecycle.
- Experience applying Model-Based Systems Engineering methods to manage system definitions and technical baselines.
- Knowledge of satellite ground system design, cloud architectures, DevOps, DevSecOps, and software frameworks.
- Knowledge of communications and networking, data processing, exploitation and dissemination, space system operations and tasking, mission planning, space-ground integration, or space system factory support.
- Knowledge of DoD 5000.01 and DoD 5000.02.
- Knowledge of systems engineering standards, including IEEE 15288.1 and IEEE 15288.2.
- Master’s degree in Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or Computer Science.
- INCOSE Systems Engineering Professional certification, including ASEP, CSEP, or ESEP.
Clearance & Additional Requirements
- Secret clearance required.
- Active TS/SCI clearance desired.
Location
El Segundo, CA
Compensation
The typical annual salary range for this position is approximately, USD $126,000 - $162,000. Individual pay is determined by many factors including work location, job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.
In addition to base salary, this position is eligible for a comprehensive total rewards package that includes an annual performance bonus, an employer-funded Profit-Sharing Plan (PSP) contribution based on base compensation, and comprehensive employer-paid medical benefits, PTO pay-out options, along with additional company-sponsored benefits. All of these benefits represent an additional 30-40% to your base compensation for a total compensation package.
Deliverable(s)
Deliverables could be in the format of a report, software file, briefing, spreadsheet, or other document as directed by the Government, using government approved and/or mandated systems/software and processes governed by guidance/instructions/policy or direction. The nature of this work will, at times, require quick responses to stringent deadlines and always in a high quality, professional manner.
From Stellar Solutions's job posting, checked 9 Nov 2026. The employer's own page is the final word on requirements and availability.
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About Stellar Solutions
Systems engineers for Space Force, NASA and commercial space programs, from GPS to missile warning satellites.
Pay on its listings: stated per posting
How it pays: Paid as an employee on Stellar Solutions's own payroll, as each posting states.
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