ASCEND Aerospace & Technology, LLC (ASCEND) is an All-Small Mentor-Protégé Program (ASMPP) Joint Venture (JV) between Aerodyne Industries, LLC and Amentum Technology Inc. (pending name change to Amentum Technology, Inc.), that leverages our 12+ year collaboration as award-winning NASA contractors. Through our ASCEND partner companies, we have 62+ years of experience working for NASA and currently manage 5,500 employees across nine NASA Centers. With this foundation of expertise, we are dedicated to helping every mission succeed—today and into the future.

Job Description

This role is as a Systems Engineer in support of the Systems Engineering Department for the Contract for Organizing Spaceflight Mission Operations and Systems (COSMOS), which is NASA’s next-generation mission operations contract located on-site at Johnson Space Center. COSMOS ensures the continuity of critical human spaceflight support by providing mission control services, advanced training systems, and full-scale spacecraft mockups for astronaut preparation and engineering analysis.

Description of Duties

The Systems Engineer facilitates design changes to NASA Johnson Space Center’s Mission Training Center (MTC), though Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF) and/or Mission Control Center Systems (MCCS) work may also be required.

The Systems Engineer works in a dynamic team environment and collaborates with COSMOS and NASA Systems Engineers and Platform/OS Engineers to evaluate requirements/designs and to facilitate changes across the MTC’s hardware and software systems. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both oral and written, are required for customer interactions. Strong initiative, teamwork and problem-solving skills are also required.

Primary Responsibilities:

Work with customers, users, and engineers to effectively analyze user requirements, user stories, and operations concepts,
Perform high level requirement assessments and facilitate the detailed assessments performed by the implementing technical organizations,
Develop and maintain schedules for work components,
Create and/or update documentation for design and change instruments,
Perform post data processing, post data reduction, and data mining,
Perform system analysis, assessments, trade studies, requirements allocation and interface definition studies to translate customer requirements into hardware and software specifications,
Lead systems architecture design and integration efforts,
Provide Systems Engineering support to the implementing organizations and external customers,
Work effectively in a team setting to develop collaborative ideas.

The successful candidate will:

Be a highly motivated individual willing to learn and apply new concepts, tools, and software,
Possess strong personal initiative,
Have good problem solving and troubleshooting skills,
Possess strong team-building skills across multi-functional areas that establish a collaborative operational structure including active listening, prompt service and follow-up,
Exhibit a proven track record of working under tight deadlines,
Possess a high degree of self-motivation and the ability to work independently,
Have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal,
Exhibit professional behavior that promotes teamwork, fosters cooperation, and enhances productivity in the workplace,
Be well organized with the ability to coordinate, prioritize and execute multiple tasks simultaneously in a high-pressure environment,
Possess the ability to communicate verbally and in writing to work eﬀectively with a variety of government and contractor personnel at all levels.

Job Requirements

Must have one of the following combinations of education and experience: a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or similar technical degree plus 0 – 5 years of related experience.

Must be able to obtain a NASA Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Badge for NASA credentials.

Desired Skills/Experience

Understanding of human spaceflight requirements,
Leadership skills,
Knowledge of the NASA JSC Mission Training Center subsystems,
Experience with ServiceNow or similar ITIL workflow toolset,
Experience across various areas of the systems engineering lifecycle, including requirements analysis, design, and documentation,
Experience with agile development practices,
Experience with Office 365 Tools.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, marital status, pregnancy, genetic information, or other legally protected status.

Final compensation is determined through a comprehensive evaluation of several key factors, including the candidate’s educational background, specialized technical expertise, and relevant professional experience. We also consider internal equity, prevailing market data, and specific contractual or funding requirements to ensure competitive and equitable offer alignment.