Sr. Space Development Agency Tracking Engineer

The Aerospace Corporation is the trusted partner to the nation's space programs, solving the hardest problems and providing unmatched technical expertise. As the operator of a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), we are broadly engaged across all aspects of space- delivering innovative solutions that span satellite, launch, ground, and cyber systems for defense, civil and commercial customers. When you join our team, you'll be part of a special collection of problem solvers, thought leaders, and innovators.

Join us and take your place in space.

The Defense Systems Group (DSG) provides analysis-based decision support to senior leaders on space architectures, policy and strategy, technology development, warfighter capability enablers, systems integration, defense industrial base, and threat reduction to help shape existing and future space missions across the national security space (NSS) enterprise. DSG is unique at Aerospace as it not only directly supports major customers, including the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Space Command, Air Force Materiel Command, and senior leadership at the Pentagon, but also provides a broad range of technical support across the national space enterprise, maintaining vertical responsibilities with customers' portfolios as well as horizontal, matrixed responsibilities across the corporation.

Additionally, DSG provides deep technical expertise to the Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) in the conception, design, acquisition, launch and operations of satellite, launch vehicle, ground control, and range systems.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) was established in 2019 by the Department of Defense to define and monitor the Department's future thread-driven space architecture and accelerate the development and fielding of new military space capabilities necessary to ensure our technological and military advantage in space for national defense. Aerospace support to SDA resides within the Agile Acquisition Division of the Defense Architectures and Integration office of the Defense Systems Group, which provides decision support at the enterprise level to senior Aerospace customers across the Department of War, as well as helping to connect and align customers and Aerospace across the space enterprise.

This position supports SDA's Tracking Cell, in which the selected candidate will provide expertise in Missile Warning (MW), Missile Tracking (MT), and Missile Defense (MD) mission architecture definition, performance modeling and evaluation, acquisition oversight, operations planning, and external stakeholder enterprise mission integration. We are looking for a Sr. Space Development Agency Tracking Engineer (Senior Project Engineer - Signal & Image Processing Engineering and Modeling & Simulation Engineering).

The selected candidate will be required to work full-time, on-site at our facility in Chantilly, Virginia.

What You'll Be Doing

* This position will support the SDA Tracking Cell Director and Tracking Tranche Program Managers, who work with other SDA cells as well as external mission stakeholders to focus on providing Warfighter capabilities to fill capability gaps.

* This cell provides Missile Warning, Tracking, and Defense (MWTD) technical leadership to SDA across all tranches, including understanding of MWTD architectural modeling and requirements as well as acquisition support, enterprise MWTD stakeholder coordination and partner system operational integration, warfighter mission involvement, and ensuring that SDA tracking space and ground efforts fulfill warfighter requirements.

* Tracking is the primary sensing mission for SDA's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) and its proliferated LEO tracking layer is a core component of the future MWTD system. This job includes daily interaction with SDA senior leaders, FFRDCs, SETAs, and UARC personnel across all SDA program cells and mission areas. This role may also include daily interaction with external mission stakeholders and partners across the DoD as well as regular engagement with industry partners on potential technology developments that support accelerated and enhanced missile defense mission capability.

* This role supports the SDA tracking cell director and program managers by providing MWTD mission systems engineering, integration, and test expertise to help guide contract execution, performance assessments and trades, on-orbit operations planning and analysis, PWSA space and ground system integration, technology roadmap development, and future tranche requirement definition.

* Responsibilities include assisting the government in monitoring contractor execution, providing direct systems engineering and subject matter expert (SME) support, and directing the Aerospace Engineering Technology Group (ETG) SME support to all tracking operations, integration, and acquisition efforts, including modeling, simulation, and analysis of operational capabilities of missile defense scenarios.

* The successful…