Senior Systems Engineer

Senior Systems Engineer - Washington, DC

Position Overview:

NIRA, Inc., a rapidly expanding women-owned small business, is seeking a Systems Engineer to join our team supporting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). You will work closely with government project managers and engineers to support transformational projects at the FAA. This pivotal role will drive cutting edge solutions leveraging cloud-based technologies and solutions to modernize the way the FAA manages and shares information with airlines and the aviation community. Be part of a mission that not only advances technology but also ensures the safety and efficiency of US aviation on a grand scale.

Key responsibilities include:

• Work with FAA programs to ensure a seamless transition of vital business services to the next generation network, maintaining continuity and service excellence.
• Collaborate closely with customers and operational teams to maintain and refine service protocols and deliverables in accordance with the latest industry standards.
• Assist with the development and configuration of new network environments. Work with network service providers to ensure the infrastructure meets FAA requirements.
• Support the transition of FAA business services to next-generation network and cloud environments, ensuring service continuity, scalability, and performance.
• Design, deploy, and manage AWS infrastructure, including VPCs, EC2, IAM, S3, CloudFront, CloudFormation, and other AWS-native services to support FAA mission systems.
• Implement infrastructure as code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform or AWS CloudFormation for environment automation, repeatability, and compliance.
• Collaborate with customers, technical teams, and stakeholders to refine cloud and network service delivery protocols in alignment with FAA and industry best practices.
• Assist in the design, development, and configuration of hybrid and cloud-native environments with service providers to meet FAA operational and security requirements.
• Serve as a technical liaison between the FAA program office and cloud service vendors to develop and optimize solutions that meet performance, availability, and FedRAMP-compliant security objectives.
• Configure and manage monitoring, logging, and alerting systems using AWS CloudWatch, CloudTrail, AWS Config, and other observability tools.
• Participate in federal configuration control boards and support configuration management activities for the production infrastructure.
• Provide lifecycle management, patching, and performance tuning for deployed systems, including enhancements and upgrades in AWS-hosted and on-premises environments.
• Participate in configuration control boards and manage configuration management processes for production environments.
• Ensure adherence to FAA security policies, including compliance with FAA Order 1370.121 (FAA Information Security and Privacy Program & Policy).
• Partner with Finance to create accurate cost estimates and AWS cost-optimization models for system enhancements and roadmap planning.
• Provide technical analysis and expertise to federal contracting and program office.

Key position requirements:

• BS/MS degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Information Science, Engineering or a related technical subject.
• 11+ years of experience as a System Engineer, Technical Architect, System Analyst, Software Engineer or similar role, preferably with API lifecycle management, governance, and standardization across the enterprise.
• 5+ years of experience with cloud computing environments such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).
• Hands-on experience with AWS networking, IAM policies, security groups, and VPC peering.
• Familiarity with containerized environments (ECS, EKS, Docker) and serverless architectures (Lambda).
• Profound knowledge of service metadata standards like OpenAPI, and familiarity with leading commercial API management platforms.
• Understanding of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and related governance issues.
• Knowledge enterprise application integration architecture, for example, Enterprise Service Bus (ESB).
• Strong scripting and automation skills using Python, Bash, or PowerShell.
• Exceptional communication skills, capable of effectively articulating complex technical concepts and collaborating across diverse teams.

Desired Experiences:

• Proven experience in supporting major federal acquisition programs, particularly with the FAA.
• Working knowledge of information security protocols, FedRAMP, and compliance frameworks (e.g., NIST 800-53, ISO 27001).
• Experience with AWS Well-Architected Framework and cost optimization best practices.
• Familiarity with IP network services and hybrid infrastructure integration.
• AWS certification(s) (e.g., AWS Solutions Architect - Associate/Professional, SysOps Administrator) is a strong plus

This position is a hybrid role that requires a flexible schedule, with the expectation of working one to two days per week on-site in our Washington, DC office.

NIRA, INC. is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, age, national origin, disability, Protected Veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

Job Type: Full-time

Education:

• BS or MS in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Information Science, Engineering or a related technical subject. (Required)

Experience:

• System Engineer, Software Engineer or related: 7 years (Required)

Ability to Commute:

• Washington, DC 20024 (Required)

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Washington, DC 20024