Senior Principal Systems Engineer
Colorado Springs, COJob$160–200K/yrSeen todaySeen in employer's feed today
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At a glance
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Requirements
Credentials this posting asks for.
Job overview
SAIC seeks a Senior Principal Systems Engineer to support the US Space Force, Space Systems Command, with operational maintenance and sustainment of ground-based radars. The engineer plans and delivers UEWR radar hardware and software modifications in response to engineering change requests and system deficiency reports, supporting the government customer, program manager, and chief engineer. The position is on-site in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Skills & qualifications
Skills
Qualifications
Full job description
Description
SAIC seeks a highly experienced Senior Principal Systems Engineer to support the US Space Force, Space Systems Command, in performing operational maintenance and sustainment of ground-based radars critical to US and Allied strategic missile surveillance, warning, defense, and space surveillance missions. In support of the government customer, the SAIC Program Manager, and the Chief Engineer, the Systems Engineer is responsible for responsive and coherent planning, development and delivery of UEWR radar hardware and software modifications in response to engineering change requests and/or system deficiency reports. This position is located on-site in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Job Duties
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Ensures the logical and systematic conversion of product requirements into total systems solutions that acknowledge technical, schedule, and cost constraints.
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Performs functional analysis, timeline analysis, detailed trade studies, requirements allocation and interface definition studies to translate customer/operational requirements into system hardware and software engineering specifications.
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Provides specific, detailed information for selection, implementation techniques, and tools for the most efficient solution to meet business needs, including present and future capacity or capability requirements.
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Manages large Agile or DevSecOps teams/projects, to include support to cost estimating, risk management, schedule development, and execution.
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Designs, develops, delivers and deploys engineered solutions, following DoD Life Cycle engineering processes, and/or best practices.
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Supports team in delivering new capabilities to UEWR operational sites.
Qualifications
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Bachelor’s Degree with 14+ years’ related experience.
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Active Secret Clearance
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Experience with a broad range of system types: custom developed HW/SW, COTS/GOTS HW/SW, and/or specialty engineering.
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Experience with configuration and data management, hardware and software testing & evaluation of classified systems.
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Demonstrates expertise in at least one engineering field: software, hardware, network, cybersecurity, test, systems.
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Experienced problem-solver, creative thinker, with outcome-focused mindset.
Desired
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Experience sustaining UEWR, PARCS, or other radar system such as PAVE PAWS, BMEWS, AN/TPY-2, COBRA DANE, LRDR, Aegis, etc.
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Experience working with large system of systems legacy architecture, upgrading/modernizing outdated technology and/or mitigating supportability risks with creative solutions.
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Agile certification (SAFe, SCRUM, etc.)
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Experience with Jira, Confluence, DOORS, Gitlab, Cameo, or similar tools.
Target salary range: $160,001 - $200,000. The estimate displayed represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors.
REQNUMBER: 2618780
SAIC is a premier technology integrator, solving our nation's most complex modernization and systems engineering challenges across the defense, space, federal civilian, and intelligence markets. Our robust portfolio of offerings includes high-end solutions in systems engineering and integration; enterprise IT, including cloud services; cyber; software; advanced analytics and simulation; and training. We are a team of 23,000 strong driven by mission, united purpose, and inspired by opportunity. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SAIC has annual revenues of approximately $6.5 billion. For more information, visit saic.com. For information on the benefits SAIC offers, see Working at SAIC. EOE AA M/F/Vet/Disability
How this job compares
Set against the 11,497 open Systems Engineer jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 5, 2026.
- Pay
- This posting$160–200K/yr
- Colorado median$115–178K/yr928 salary ranges
- US median$116–190K/yr8,430 salary ranges
This range's midpoint, $180K, is 22% above the Colorado median midpoint ($148K) — in the top quarter of Systems Engineer salary ranges in Colorado.
- Openings
- Olive Jobs lists 1,078 open Systems Engineer jobs in Colorado and 11,497 across the US. 5% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
- Hiring the most in Colorado
- Lockheed Martin152 open
- BAE Systems93 open
- Northrop Grumman47 open
- Experience
- This posting asks for at least 14 years of experience — more than three in four Systems Engineer postings that state a minimum ask for (median 5 years, across 9,601 postings).
- Education
- This posting asks for a bachelor's degree; 4,536 of the 11,497 open Systems Engineer jobs (39%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.
Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 5, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.
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