Modeling & Systems Architect, Missile Defense

YOUR MISSION

The Modeling & Systems Engineering Architect is responsible for establishing and owning the end-to-end digital twin architecture for the Missile Defense system. This includes defining the technical strategy, model hierarchy, fidelity progression, interfaces, and governance necessary to ensure that digital twins serve as authoritative representations of system performance throughout the program lifecycle.

In this role, the Architect leads the development, integration, and maturation of vehicle-level and subsystem-level models across all Missile Defense elements, including the Host Vehicle, Propulsion Units, and Kill Vehicles. Subsystem performance models—encompassing propulsion, guidance, navigation and control (GNC), seekers, and other critical disciplines—are coherently integrated and rolled up into system-level digital twins capable of evaluating end-to-end mission performance and design trades.

The Architect establishes and executes a regular digital twin release cadence, enabling continuous tracking of system performance maturity. These releases are used to assess requirement compliance, identify performance shortfalls, quantify technical risk, and inform engineering and program decisions. The role ensures that modeling assumptions, limitations, and uncertainties are well understood and that results are credible and decision-relevant.

A core responsibility of this position is the integration of digital twin models into the program’s Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environment. The Architect ensures consistency and traceability between analytical models, system architecture, requirements, and verification artifacts, and supports the delivery of MBSE products required to meet contractual obligations.

Operating within a matrixed functional engineering organization, the Architect serves as the technical authority for modeling and simulation across disciplines. This includes defining modeling standards and best practices, coordinating efforts across subsystem teams, and ensuring alignment between modeling activities and overall system architecture. The Architect works closely with systems engineering, software, test, and program leadership to ensure digital twins are effectively leveraged across design, analysis, and risk reduction efforts.

• Demonstrated ownership of modeling and digital twin architectures for complex, multi-element systems, such as: multi-stage launch vehicles, space vehicles with multiple deployable or interceptor elements, complex aircraft or integrated weapon systems. Single spacecraft experience alone is not sufficient.
• Prior responsibility for defining modeling strategy, not just executing individual analyses.
• Digital twins used for program decisions and contractual delivery often require credibility frameworks.
• Experience establishing model VV&A plans.
• Familiarity with model credibility assessment for decision support.
• Traceability between requirements, assumptions, and model outputs.
• Experience with uncertainty propagation, Monte Carlo methods, and sensitivity analysis.
• Ability to quantify confidence bounds on performance predictions.
• Experience integrating analytical models with SIL/HIL environments.
• Familiarity with real-time or near-real-time modeling constraints.
• Understanding of latency, communications, and data fusion impacts on performance.

• Mission-level or engagement-level modeling tools such as AFSIM and/or STK.
• Strong proficiency in Python and MATLAB.
• Experience developing or integrating high-performance models in C++.
• Hands‑on experience with FEA and multi-physics modeling tools (e.g., structures, thermal, propulsion, coupled effects).
• Experienced defining model governance frameworks and Dev Ops practices for model configuration control, versioning, and reproducibility (e.g., MLflow or similar frameworks).
• Experience modeling sensor‑to‑shooter, command & control, or fire control architectures.

• Systems thinker with the ability to balance model fidelity, schedule, and decision relevance.
• Comfortable operating as a technical authority across organizational boundaries.
• Able to translate…