Job Description

An active Top Secret/SCI Clearance with a Full Scope Polygraph is required.

This job is onsite in Annapolis Junction, MD with 1 remote day each week.

We have an immediate need for a Junior Systems Engineer to support the planning, design, and implementation of mission-critical software capabilities. Candidates should be passionate about collaboratively solving challenging problems and have a track record of delivering high-quality solutions. Work directly with customers, systems engineers, developers, and the UX team to ensure mission-driven software capabilities are accurately defined, built, tested, and delivered. Engage tactically with the development team, maintain close collaboration with stakeholders, and actively participate in Agile delivery throughout the development lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Requirements Gathering & Decomposition: Elicit and document functional requirements from the government customer and stakeholders, decomposing them into detailed technical requirements.
• User Story Development: Translate technical requirements into well-defined user stories and acceptance criteria for the development team.
• Sprint Curation: Curate and groom the sprint backlog, ensuring stories are appropriately sized and sequenced so each developer has sufficient, well-scoped work.
• Developer Support: Serve as a point of contact for developers, addressing implementation questions and helping remove blockers throughout the sprint.
• Initial Testing: Conduct initial functional testing of new development to validate features against requirements before broader QA and customer review.
• Customer Presentation: Present new development and completed features to the government customer, gathering feedback for future iterations.
• UX Collaboration: Partner with the UX team on new designs, ensuring requirements and user stories reflect usability and design considerations.
• Agile Ceremonies: Participate actively in Agile ceremonies (sprint planning, demos, retrospectives) and support the broader development lifecycle.

Required Skills and Experience

• Ability to work directly with customers and stakeholders to elicit, analyze, and document functional requirements
• Ability to translate requirements into actionable Jira user stories and epics for development teams
• Experience conducting functional/manual testing of application features
• Familiarity with Agile software development methodologies and collaboration tools such as Jira and Confluence
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present technical work to non-technical stakeholders
• Familiarity with software development concepts (e.g., Java or JavaScript frameworks, RESTful microservices) sufficient to communicate effectively with developers

Desired Skills and Experience

• Familiarity with cloud-based architecture and deployment (Amazon Web Services)
• Exposure to UX/design collaboration or wireframing tools
• Familiarity with domain knowledge surrounding government agency reporting and dissemination policies