Mission Capability Leader

Mission Capability Leader for the HEX Mission Capability

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 Material 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.

DSG's Joint and Multi-Domain Subdivision supports a broad sponsor landscape, extending Aerospace's space-based technical expertise to operational end users. With projects ranging from state-of-the-art research and concept development, to prototyping, cutting-edge laboratory environments, fully integrated operational capabilities, and robust analytics and decision support tools, Aerospace's support to the military Services, Combatant Commands, and other government agencies helps to enable strategic decisions, explore new operational concepts, and drive toward integrated, multi-domain capabilities.

As the Mission Capability Leader for the HEX mission capability supporting the DAF Integrated Fires Command and Control (DIFC2) program, you will drive the technical vision, architecture, and delivery of advanced capabilities that integrate multi-INT data across the Command, Control, Communications, and Battle Management (C3BM) enterprise. Your work will directly enable Long Range Kill Chain and Sensor to Shooter workflows.

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

• Define and maintain the end-to-end technical design for the Hex mission capability, including network architecture, interfaces, data flows, and integration points across the C3BM enterprise, Sensor to Shooter workflows, and DAF Battle Network (DBN)
• Act as the primary technical focal point to the government product owner and stakeholders, bridging operational requirements with architectural and engineering solutions
• Advise a multi-disciplinary team of multi-INT analysts and developers; set technical expectations and direction, establish standards, review designs, and provide actionable feedback
• Provide direct technical contributions in areas such as cloud-based capabilities, UI/UX, integration and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), data integration, and communications systems
• Coordinate across direct program staff and technical reach-back (Systems Engineering Working Group, Data IPT), and support exercises and surge as needed to meet customer requirements

Minimum Requirements for the Project Engineer– Software Architecture Engineering:

• Bachelor's degree in relevant STEM discipline or closely related technical field
• Eight or more years of technical experience, including multi-disciplinary systems engineering and technical team leadership
• Several years of mission capability experience, ideally supporting Sensor to Shooter or comparable…