Systems Engineer; Senior

Anywhere

Type: Contract

Category: Engineer

Industry: Government

Workplace Type: Remote

Standard

Hours:

Open

Reference : JN -

Date Posted: 10/26/2026

Shortcut:

Hybrid in Ashburn, VA or Gaithersburg, MD

Our client seeks a Systems Engineer who understands how complex cloud-hosted software systems fit together and can provide engineering direction across architecture, integration, security, and verification. The role spans cloud architecture and technical planning, platform trade studies, integration and fielding in regulated environments, security architecture, networking, Dev Sec Ops , and AI-assisted engineering. Candidates will guide design, collaborate in Scaled Agile teams, and influence outcomes across multiple technical areas rather than focus on daily coding.

Due to federal security clearance requirements, applicant must be a United States Citizen with an active Public Trust clearance. Due to client requirements, applicants must be willing and able to work on a w2 basis. For our w2 consultants, we offer a great benefits package that includes Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits, 401k with company matching, and life insurance.

Rate: $60.00 to $70.00/hr. w2

• Lead technical planning and cloud architecture for hybrid on‑prem to AWS designs across VPCs, Gov Cloud and commercial regions, and multiple clusters.
• Conduct platform trade studies and sizing for ECS, EKS, and Open Shift with cost and effort modeling across Dev, Test, and Ops environments.
• Drive integration, verification and validation, and fielding within FISMA High boundaries, including cutover to Gov Cloud.
• Design security architecture including trust boundaries, segmentation, and control mapping to SSP and ATO boundaries.
• Engineer networking patterns including ALB, WAF, routes and ingress, Private Link and endpoints, and Zscaler or PIV considerations.
• Own requirements development and analysis, technical writing, and authoring of technical papers and white papers.
• Provide system and software design guidance to developers and testers within Scaled Agile teams.
• Lead hardware and software integration and cloud system design for Java and microservices ecosystems.
• Apply Dev Sec Ops  practices, CI/CD, security scanning, SBOM, image signing, secrets management, and policy as code.
• Incorporate AI for coding, requirements, test creation, debugging, and analysis, including AI-driven test script generation.

• Proven cloud architecture and technical planning experience for hybrid on‑prem to AWS systems.
• Hands‑on with Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, and Red Hat Open Shift, including Kubernetes, Helm, operators, policies, routes, and pipelines.
• Track record in integration, V&V, and fielding for regulated environments such as FISMA High or FedRAMP High.
• Security architecture experience with segmentation and control mapping to support SSP and ATO.
• Networking expertise across ingress, ALB, WAF, Private Link, endpoints, and related enterprise access patterns.
• On‑prem to AWS migration of containerized workloads, including re‑platforming, parallel runs, data connectivity for MongoDB or PostgreSQL, and rollback planning.
• AWS Gov Cloud and commercial multi‑account and VPC design, including DMZ and private tier segmentation.
• Dev Sec Ops  toolchain experience with Git Lab, Tekton, Argo CD, SAST, DAST, SCA, IaC scanning, SBOM, image signing and scanning, and secrets management.
• Scaled Agile experience collaborating within mixed teams and communicating technical decisions.
• Familiarity with Java ecosystems, microservices, REST, and cloud‑native development in Linux environments.
• Demonstrated AI-assisted engineering using tools comparable to Claude for development and testing.

Eliassen…