System Engineer NC (TS/SCI Clearance with Full Scope Polygraph Required)

Position: System Engineer NC

Location: Fort Meade, MD

Employment Type: Full-Time

Clearance Requirement: Active TS/SCI with Polygraph

Salary Range: $182,000 – $217,000 / year (dependent on experience, education, and skill set)

About the Role

Seeking an experienced System Engineer to provide operational support, testing, and sustainment for an enterprise web-based mission application in Fort Meade, MD.

In this role, you will support a full-lifecycle media processing software suite delivering audio and video ingestion, storage, querying, playback, analysis, and automated transcription capabilities to national and tactical analysts. You will collaborate closely with DevOps, software engineering, and operations teams to monitor application telemetry, execute deployments, triage operational incidents, and ensure high system availability across deployments ranging from tactical laptops to large-scale server farms and cloud architectures.

Key Responsibilities

• Support DevOps and software teams in testing, diagnosing, and troubleshooting web application components and services.
  

• Collaborate with operations and development groups to formulate test plans and identify testing requirements.
  

• Triage reported operational anomalies, track defects, and log issues via ticketing systems.
  

• Monitor Tier 1 application health, performance metrics, and telemetry dashboards using Grafana and Kibana.
  

• Execute system and application installations, configurations, and version upgrades across virtual and cloud environments.
  

• Monitor and resolve customer support requests through Jira Service Desk, providing technical assistance and operational guidance to end users.
  

• Occasionally respond to mission-critical after-hours escalations as needed.
  

• Participate in periodic CONUS/OCONUS travel (approximately 1–2 times per year).
  

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Security Clearance: Active TS/SCI with a current Polygraph.
  

• Education & Experience:
  

  • Bachelor’s degree in a technical discipline from an accredited institution plus at least 10 years of systems engineering/technical experience, OR
    

  • 14 years of relevant systems engineering experience without a degree.
    

• Linux Administration: Strong hands-on experience working in enterprise Linux environments (RHEL 8/9, Rocky Linux 8/9).
  

• CI/CD & Version Control: Experience utilizing GitLab and CI/CD automated deployment pipelines.
  

• Monitoring & Collaboration: Hands-on experience with Grafana monitoring, Jira, Confluence, and Jira Service Desk.
  

Desired Qualifications

• Scripting experience in Bash, Python, or Ruby for task automation.
  

• Working knowledge of containerized architectures utilizing Docker and Kubernetes.
  

• Familiarity with Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) testing frameworks (Cucumber, Spock, Behave).
  

• Experience with automated configuration management tools (Ansible, SaltStack, Puppet).
  

• Familiarity with Elasticsearch, Kibana, Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI), and AWS cloud services.
  

• Experience with OS hardening, STE/STN compliance standards, and IT Instances Authoritative Data Sources (ADS).
  

Benefits & Compensation

This position offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support employees both personally and professionally:

• Comprehensive Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
  

• Basic Life and Disability Insurance
  

• Paid Time Off (PTO) and Paid Holidays
  

• Paid Parental Leave
  

• 401(k) Retirement Plan with Company Match
  

• Tuition Reimbursement for ongoing education and professional development
  

An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state, or local law.