Senior APPA Systems Engineer

SMX is seeking a Senior APPA Systems Engineer to support the Naval Aviation Training Systems and Ranges Program Office (PMA-205) at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Lexington Park, MD.

PMA-205 provides full lifecycle acquisition of naval aviation platforms and general training systems, training range instrumentation systems, and distributed mission training centers. This Senior Systems Engineer candidate will support a new start program called APPA to assist with Live‑Virtual‑Constructive (LVC) architecture and the integration of APPA into the LVC system‑of‑systems. This is a local PAX hybrid position with local telework combined with an on‑site for meetings 2 to 3 times per week.

The APPA team is located at NAWCTSD Orlando, but the IPT Lead is in the PMA-205 Program Office at Pax.
The travel requirements will likely require travel once a quarter to Orlando, FL.

• Establishing processes for configuration control of interfaces between the APPA system and weapons models, constructive entity‑generating software systems, and the interface between the APPA system and aircraft.
• Address technical and architectural questions related to LVC, ensuring seamless interoperability across system‑of‑systems networks.
• Planning for and implementing APPA Systems Engineering Technical Review (SETR) documents, as well as developing scalable solutions for multi‑level security enterprise networks and cloud‑based databases to aggregate mission data.
• Assist in the integration of systems to harvest, ingest, and store data from live, virtual, and constructive entities, operators, and associated systems, ensuring high‑confidence data ingestion and reliable performance assessments.
• Additionally, the role involves integrating advanced analytics, visualization tools, and high‑fidelity modeling to support event reconstruction, performance analysis, and mission planning optimization, while adhering to DoN data governance policies and enabling adaptive learning systems for personalized training experiences.
• Performs programmatic or technical leadership roles in an organization, identifying, formulating, designing, and/or testing practical solutions to engineering problems

• Clearance Required:
  
  Top Secret
  • This position will likely require access to SAP
  • US Citizenship is required for work on DoW contract
• Technical or Scientific MS or MA degree from an accredited college or university
  • ALLOWABLE SUBSTITUTION:
    Technical or Scientific BS or BA degree from an accredited college or university and an additional four (4) years of recent and relevant experience
• At least ten (10) years of recent and relevant experience in an engineering position, three (3) of which must be directly related to DoD systems
• Demonstrated experience in the area of engineering expertise is required
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills
• Clear communications and teamwork skills working in a collaborative environment

4/20/2026

Some key components of our robust benefits include health insurance, paid leave, and retirement.

$87,600—$146,000 USD

SMX is an Equal Opportunity employer including disabilities and veterans.

Selected applicant may be subject to a background investigation and/or education verification.

SMX does not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization or immigration related support for this position (i.e. H1B, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, F-1 CPT, J-1, TN, E-2, E-3, L-1 and O-1, or any EADs or other forms of work authorization that require immigration support from an employer).