Chief Software Engineer (Secret)

ARKA Group L.P. is an advanced technologies company serving the U.S. military, intelligence community, and commercial space industry delivering next-generation solutions to support the national security space domain. ARKA has a 60-year legacy reaching back to the very beginning of our country’s space endeavors. We’re a legacy of mission excellence built on ground-breaking technologies. Join the ARKA mission and discover your next career opportunity now!

Position Overview:

This position is for a Chief Software Engineer.  This role will offer some work from home flexibility.  This role will require up to 20% travel.

 In this role, you will be responsible for technical direction and oversight, up to and including the requirement decomposition into features and epics for development.  You will be in a key role to define the "what” aspects of what the system will do.  This responsibility is expected to evolve over the course of a program and includes fostering customer intimacy to ensure full understanding of the customer's needs and then working with the chief architect to realize that vision.

We are looking for someone who is customer mission focused and passionate about providing technical leadership in software architecture and design of complex government systems. Additionally, you should have the ability to perform requirements analysis, develop system CONOPs for enterprise level systems, create and maintain interface definition APIs, perform software design tasks, lead integration activities, and perform verification of systems across multiple programs. This candidate will be joining our team of distributed engineers to help shape the development and delivery of custom applications and advanced R&D solutions for our customers. In addition, you'll have the opportunity to grow and hone your skills with other talented members at ARKA. 

Responsibilities:

Our ideal candidate is proficient technical leader that has previous experience with government mission systems and is passionate about providing technical leadership to a team of software and system engineers.   You should possess deep knowledge of the system engineering “V” and apply that to government programs, the ability to create system architecture definitions, and perform trade analysis.   You will leverage forward-leaning system design and integration concepts across multiple programs to enable system reuse, expedite system delivery schedules, and clearly communicate technical status to program leadership. This candidate will be joining our team of engineers to shape the development and delivery of custom applications and advanced R&D solutions for our customers. 

As Chief Engineer, your responsibilities include:

• Leading engineering teams in all aspects of program development in order to achieve program and technical success through the entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
• Continuously apply technical knowledge to determine and set technical objectives to analyze, investigate, and resolve advanced engineering problems
• Chairing all engineering boards on program
• Evaluating the integration of the engineering solution development, documentation, and deployment to ensure compliance with program statement of work in terms of content and schedule
• Communicating engineering status, risks or issues involving system performance, availability, or security to program leadership and the customer
• Holding technical exchange meetings with government customer to brief engineering design for government review and approval mechanisms

Basic Qualifications:

• You have an active Secret Clearance
• Prior experience as a Chief Engineer, Associate Chief Engineer, or proven track record of providing technical leadership for teams throughout the whole software development lifecycle and transitioning capabilities into a classified government operational environment
• Effective cross-organizational communicator with the ability to work well on a small team in a fast-paced environment that includes the ability to multi-task across efforts and still ensure program milestones and deadlines are met
• Proven track record of leading agile software and systems engineering efforts across the entire lifecycle including operational analysis, requirements generation, design, configuration and integration, testing, requirement verification and demonstration with the end user and customer
• Has the ability to perform in depth system engineering activities and then translate those into actionable software development concepts
• Proven track record of successfully deploying new capabilities into a classified government operational environment
• Proven track record of supporting and coordinating factory test support of Enterprise Test activities and delivery of complex gov’t systems: Factory Acceptance Test (FAT), Site Acceptance Test (SAT), Enterprise Integration Test (EIT)
• Experience chairing various engineering review boards: Engineering Review Board (ERB), Discrepancy Review Board (DRB), Risk & Opportunity Management Board (ROMB)
• Demonstrated experience working projects across dispersed organizations and geographical locations
• Demonstrated excellent interpersonal skills and engagement with virtual teams 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated business acumen and ability to balance technical requirements with business needs
• Familiarity with software development in AWS, AZURE or a similar cloud and architecture concepts that dedicate those system designs and architecture
• Familiarity with cloud services for a Kubernetes software deployment and management solution, virtual machine management, object management, serverless function management, etc.
• Experience in software application deployment, virtualization, and containerization
• Experience with any of the following concepts:
• Satellite communication planning for both individual satellite scenarios and constellations
• SIGINT and GEOINT data processing
• Satellite command and control / C2
• Satellite tasking for GEOINT / SIGINT collection concepts
• Advanced mission planning for satellite base operations and payload operation / integration layers

Location:

This position is based out of ARKA’s King of Prussia, PA campus.  Situated less than an hour outside of Philadelphia and hosting the largest mall on the east coast, King of Prussia offers the urban feel sought in the city, while also giving opportunities to experience the beauty and history found only in Pennsylvania.

What We Offer:

• Comprehensive medical/vision/dental insurance packages
• Company contributions to qualified HSA accounts
• 401k retirement plan with industry leading company contributions
• 3 weeks of vacation accrual per year plus time off for sick leave and unscheduled life events
• 13 paid holidays
• Continuing education benefit up to $25k/year for approved programs
• Annual bonus program based on company and employee performance
• Company paid life insurance, AD&D, Short-Term and Long-Term disability insurance
• 4 weeks paid Parental Leave
• Employee assistance program (EAP)

EHS/Environmental Requirements:

This job operates in a professional office environment. While performing the duties of this job, the employee routinely is required to use hands to keyboard, communicate, listen to, and interpret instructions and remain stationary for extended periods of the time. This would require the ability to move around the campus and occasionally move/lift items weighing up to 25 lbs. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job.

Applicants are invited to apply for a reasonable accommodation to perform the essential duties of the job. To apply, send a request to staffing@arka.org or contact 203-797-5000 and press 2 for Human Resources.

ITC & Security Clearance Requirements:

This position requires an active US Government Security Clearance.

Visa Restrictions:

No visa sponsorship is available for this position.

Employment with any of the ARKA Group companies in the US is contingent upon satisfactory completion of several pre-employment requirements to include a credit check, background check and drug screen.

ARKA Group L.P. is 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 or veteran status, age, or any other federally protected class.