Systems Engineer

JOB SUMMARY

MCSG Technologies is seeking a Systems Engineer Senior in support of Earth Observing missions at NASA GSFC. The candidate will provide senior-level systems engineering, Linux administration, virtualization, automation, containerization, and operational support for mission-critical ground systems used across Mission Operation Centers (MOC), I&T, development, and test environments. This position requires strong technical judgment, a security-minded approach, hands‑on troubleshooting experience, and the vision to help build a more efficient, resilient, and future‑ready ground system from both a technical and resource perspective.

Work Schedule:

Hybrid.

Location:

Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.

• Provide senior‑level systems engineering, administration, and operational support for mission operations and ground systems environments.
• Install, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot Linux‑based systems, including RHEL, Alma Linux, Rocky Linux, and similar enterprise distributions.
• Support NASA GSFC Code 580 and mission operations tools and applications, including ITOS, GMSEC, and related in‑house or project‑specific software.
• Perform system installation, configuration, capacity planning, performance monitoring, tuning, patching, and lifecycle management.
• Support virtualization platforms such as VMware ESXi, vSphere, XCP‑ng, and Xen Orchestra/XOA, including deployment automation, system migrations, and infrastructure sustainment.
• Develop and maintain automation using Ansible, Bash, Power Shell, PowerCLI, Python, and other scripting or configuration management tools.
• Support containerized environments and Dev Ops workflows using Docker, Kubernetes, RKE2, Git, Git Lab, Bitbucket, Jenkins, Atlassian Bamboo, CI/CD pipelines, and related tools.
• Maintain system, software, and security baselines using configuration management, version control, documented change management, and repeatable deployment practices.
• Support backup, recovery, and archive solutions for mission and engineering systems, including snapshot management, retention policies, and recovery validation.
• Troubleshoot complex operational issues, outages, and system anomalies using logs, monitoring tools, network analysis, and root‑cause investigation techniques.
• Coordinate with and support infrastructure, network, and security staff responsible for monitoring/logging platforms, firewalls, switches, and network services.
• Support observability and monitoring solutions such as Grafana, Prometheus, syslog, Elastic Stack, or similar platforms.
• Identify opportunities to improve system efficiency, reduce resource consumption, improve maintainability, and modernize the ground system for future mission needs.
• Create and maintain clear technical documentation, design diagrams, operational procedures, system architecture artifacts, and implementation plans.
• Collaborate with software, systems, security, database, network, and mission operations teams to support reliable, secure, and repeatable mission system operations.

• Strong understanding of enterprise Linux, system hardening, patch management, repository management, baseline configuration, and troubleshooting.
• Experience with container technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, and RKE
  2.
• Experience with virtualization and infrastructure platforms such as VMware ESXi, vSphere, XCP‑ng, Xen Orchestra/XOA, Horizon View, or similar technologies.
• Experience with automation, configuration management, and Dev Ops tools such as Ansible, Bash, Python, Power Shell, Git, Git Lab, Bitbucket, Atlassian Bamboo, Jenkins, and related CI/CD tools.
• Working knowledge of network protocols and services, including IP, TCP, UDP, DNS, SSH, SFTP, NFS, firewalls, routing, and switching concepts.
• Experience with monitoring, logging, and observability tools such as Grafana, Prometheus, Elastic Stack, syslog, or similar platforms.
• Ability to apply security best practices, including least‑privilege access, patch compliance, system auditing, encryption, data protection, vulnerability remediation, and secure configuration baselines.
• Ability to evaluate existing systems and recommend improvements that increase…