Systems Engineer
US$133,000 / yr base salary
Posted 1 Oct 2026
Advertised as “Engineer Senior Principal – Systems - Mission Architect $15,000 SIGN-ON BONUS”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 8+ yrs
- Management level
- People management
- Employment
- On-Site
| Base salary | US$133,000 / yr |
|---|
Field of studyEngineering (or related)
Study levelBachelor's
Field of studyMathematics, Physics
Study levelMaster's or higher
Job Description
$15,000 SIGN-ON BONUS
BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems (SMS) is seeking a visionary leader to serve as a cornerstone of our Mission Engineering team. This is not a traditional systems engineering role; it is a strategic mandate to define the future architectures and technological trajectories of our business.
As a Mission Architect, you will operate at the critical intersection of technical excellence and business growth. You will lead the conceptualization of cutting-edge systems from the earliest stages of proposal and study through to implementation and launch. If you are an independent, action-oriented architect who thrives on ambiguity and possesses the technical gravity to guide multidisciplinary teams toward high-impact solutions, we invite you to shape the future of our mission capabilities.
You will be responsible for translating complex customer needs into discriminating technical architectures, ensuring BAE Systems SMS remains the partner of choice for the most challenging missions in the space and defense domains.
The Engineering, Science and Analysis (ESA) Strategic Capabilities Unit comprises the technical talent and organizational leadership that enables the successful delivery of high-impact discriminating technologies for our customers’ missions. Our collaborative, cross-functional teams are committed to innovation, integrity, continual learning and strong execution.
What You’ll Do:
- Architectural Vision & Strategy:
- Conceptual Leadership: Lead the end-to-end program lifecycle, transforming abstract concepts into rigorous designs and actionable requirement sets.
- Advanced Trade Analysis: Develop and execute sophisticated technical trade studies to define system architectures, balancing performance, risk, and cost to determine the optimal path forward.
- Operational Design: Define the System Concept of Operations (CONOPS), ensuring that technical architectures are grounded in operational reality and mission success.
- Future-Proofing: Stay at the vanguard of emerging trends in data analytics, modeling and simulation, and space architecture to ensure our technology roadmap remains competitive.
- Business Growth & Capture:
- New Business Architecture: Partner with business development teams to architect the technical responses for new pursuits, ensuring our proposals are both innovative and executable.
- IRAD & Tech Development: Contribute to the internal research and development (IRAD) pipeline, identifying the "gap" in current capabilities and designing the technologies to fill them.
- Customer Stewardship: Cultivate and expand strategic relationships with customers, aligning their mission needs with the BAE Systems SMS technology roadmap during both the capture and execution phases.