Senior Mission Systems Engineer/Technical Product Owner

Northstrat

5d

About The Position

Northstrat is seeking an experienced Systems Engineer to join our team supporting satellite broadband services. The ideal candidate has experience across systems engineering and agile product development disciplines, including CONOPS and use case development, system architecture, engineering trade studies, mission analysis and design, requirements engineering, and system validation testing.
This role partners closely with Product Management to translate mission and business objectives into implementable technical capabilities. Acting as a technical consultant and delivery lead, the selected candidate will decompose capabilities into architectural features, define agile requirements and acceptance criteria, and guide features through the engineering lifecycle: from concept through validation, deployment, and operational support. The role requires close coordination across product, business, UI/UX, security and engineering teams to ensure alignment and delivery.
While Product Management retains product ownership and prioritization authority, this role ensures the technical definition, traceability and successful implementation of the capabilities that support the product vision.
This Systems Engineer also advises Program Management on technical progress, risks and dependencies, supporting biweekly progress-to-plan reporting and Program Management Reviews (PMRs).

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in systems engineering or a related technical field, or equivalent experience
• Must have 8+ years of relevant experience
• Must be a U.S. citizen
• You must be able to demonstrate experience translating mission or business objectives into system capabilities, use cases, and technical requirements
• Experience decomposing complex capabilities into implementable features, user stories, and acceptance criteria within an agile development environment
• Hands-on experience applying systems engineering across the lifecycle, including architecture definition, requirements engineering, system integration, and validation
• Experience collaborating with Product Management and cross-functional teams
• Experience providing technical input to program or project management, including reporting on technical progress, risks, and dependencies
• Experience collaborating with project manager and managing system requirements, maintaining traceability across architecture, requirements, and implementation artifacts
• Strong ability to independently structure and execute loosely defined engineering tasks

Nice To Haves

• Top-Secret clearance with SCI eligibility
• Familiarity with systems engineering for spacecraft, ground processing, and data transport networks
• Familiarity with architectures leveraging AWS cloud infrastructure and services
• Experience supporting commercial Business-to-Government (B2G) SATCOM services
• Proficiency in Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) using SysML
• Experience using Atlassian tools (JIRA and Confluence) for requirements & product management

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Product Management to translate mission and business objectives into implementable technical capabilities
• Define and evolve the functional architecture for a satellite broadband operations center
• Develop CONOPS, operational workflows, and mission use cases
• Conduct engineering trade studies and mission analysis to support architecture and design decisions
• Decompose capabilities into architectural features, use cases, and user stories
• Define clear technical requirements and acceptance criteria for agile development
• Collaborate with project manager to maintain traceability between mission objectives, system architecture, features, and implementation artifacts
• Refine and clarify backlog items with development teams and Product Management
• Provide engineering insight to Product Management to support roadmap planning and capability prioritization
• Coordinate across product, business stakeholders, UI/UX, security, and engineering
• Clarify technical scope and resolve requirement ambiguities
• Guide features through the engineering lifecycle from concept through implementation, validation, deployment, and operational support
• Plan and support system validation activities including test procedure development and execution
• Develop and maintain requirements, capability specifications, and architecture documentation
• In collaboration with the JIRA project manager, manage the technical baseline
• Provide technical input on progress, risks and dependencies for program status reporting and Program Management Reviews (PMRs)

Benefits

• Northstrat values true work life balance. We offer power of choice benefits designed to best meet the needs of you and your lifestyle. Our benefits programs are designed to support and encourage wellness, healthy living, retirement investment, and lifetime learning.
• Flex Time: Northstrat does not mandate specific working hours. Although project requirements may dictate schedules, a Northstrat employee is only required to work an average of 8 hours per weekday over the course of a month.
• Individual Benefits Account (IBA): To attract and retain the highest quality staff, Northstrat provides a unique and versatile benefits package, the Individual Benefit Account (IBA), which places the power of choice in the hands of our greatest asset – the employee.
• The purpose of the IBA is to provide attractive benefits to all full-time employees of Northstrat on a flexible basis that enables each covered employee to select a package that best suits his or her needs. Whether those needs are paid time off, medical expenses, prescription drug expenses, cash disbursement, or a combination of any of these, the IBA provides flexibility to help you meet your specific goals.
• IBA Benefits accrue each month in the amount equivalent to 50% of the employee’s monthly compensation rate. That is, the effective dollar amount of this accrual is in addition to an employee’s salary.
• Profit Sharing Plan (PSP): The PSP is a qualified retirement plan that Northstrat funds quarterly on the employee’s behalf through the IBA in the amount equivalent to 25% (up to the IRS contribution limit) of the employee’s compensation. That is, of the 50% accrual in the IBA, half of the amount accrued is applied to the PSP.
• Stock Options: Because Northstrat is an employee-owned company, all new employees are offered stock options. Employees have the opportunity to receive additional stock options based on accomplishment of individual performance goals. Stock owners elect the Board of Directors and are directly impacted by the success of the company.
• Lifelong Learning: Our culture promotes and nurtures a growth environment. We hire and scale rapidly to meet the needs of our partner customers. Through periodic company sponsored training events, and the ability to use IBA funds for reimbursement of work-related education expenses you will have the opportunity to continually grow your skills and abilities.
• Join Our Talented Team: We hire the BEST employees and value each one. Since 2021, The Washington Post has recognized Northstrat among its "Top Workplaces". We think that your friends and family will like it here too, so we offer employee referral incentives.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level