Job Title: Senior Mission Assurance Lead (USSF) | The Guardian

Location: The Pentagon

Who You Are

You are an experienced Mission Assurance leader who understands that protecting critical missions requires more than identifying technical vulnerabilities. It requires understanding how systems, threats, dependencies, operational requirements, acquisition decisions, and programmatic risk come together to affect mission success.

You have spent your career working across complex Department of Defense (DoD) environments and know how to lead Mission Assurance efforts from both technical and programmatic perspectives. You understand how to assess mission-critical capabilities, identify vulnerabilities and dependencies, evaluate risk, and translate technical findings into actionable priorities for senior government leaders.

Just as importantly, you know how to operate alongside senior government stakeholders. You are comfortable serving as a trusted advisor, working side by side with government Mission Assurance leadership to organize priorities, drive initiatives, coordinate across organizations, and ensure actions move from assessment to execution.

You can move seamlessly between conversations with engineers, cyber professionals, intelligence analysts, operators, program managers, acquisition professionals, and senior leaders. You understand the technical details well enough to challenge assumptions and ask the right questions, while maintaining the programmatic perspective necessary to keep complex Mission Assurance efforts aligned with mission objectives.

The bottom line: You are a senior Mission Assurance professional who can connect mission, threat, vulnerability, engineering, and programmatic risk to help government leaders turn that understanding into action.

What You'll Do

You will serve as a senior Mission Assurance lead supporting U.S. Space Force efforts to identify, understand, prioritize, and mitigate risks to mission-critical space capabilities and their supporting infrastructure.

Working side by side with senior government Mission Assurance leadership, you will help drive the execution and maturation of Mission Assurance activities across the organization. You will serve as a trusted technical and programmatic advisor, helping government stakeholders translate Mission Assurance objectives into coordinated assessments, priorities, decisions, and actions.

You will lead and integrate Mission Assurance activities spanning mission decomposition, criticality analysis, threat assessment, vulnerability assessment, dependency analysis, mission impact assessment, risk characterization, mitigation planning, and resilience.

You will work to translate complex technical and programmatic risks into clear mission impacts and actionable recommendations. You will drive Mission Assurance activities from assessment through mitigation, coordinate stakeholders and priorities across organizations, and develop executive-level products and briefings that enable senior government leaders to make informed risk decisions. Ultimately, you will help ensure Mission Assurance findings lead to action. Strengthening the resilience and protection of critical U.S. Space Force missions.

Minimum Qualifications / What You'll Bring

• 7-10+ years of relevant experience supporting Mission Assurance, systems assurance, mission risk, critical infrastructure protection, resiliency, systems engineering, or closely related national security efforts.
• Demonstrated experience leading Mission Assurance programs, initiatives, assessments, or integrated teams within the Department of War or Intelligence Community.
• Experience supporting Department of War, Intelligence Community, U.S. Space Force, or U.S. Air Force programs.
• Strong understanding of Mission Assurance principles and methodologies, including mission criticality, vulnerability, threats, dependencies, consequences, risk, mitigation, and resilience.
• Ability to understand complex technical architectures, systems, dependencies, vulnerabilities, and threats and translate them into mission and programmatic risk.
• Demonstrated understanding of both technical and programmatic risk, including how engineering, acquisition, schedule, resources, dependencies, and organizational decisions can affect mission assurance.
• Experience integrating inputs from engineering, intelligence, cybersecurity, operations, acquisition, and program management organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively alongside senior government stakeholders and serve as a trusted technical and programmatic advisor.
• Strong leadership and facilitation skills, including the ability to drive cross-functional activities in environments where authority and responsibility span multiple organizations.
• Excellent analytical writing and briefing skills with demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical issues to senior government decision-makers.

Education / Credentials

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Systems Engineering, Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Intelligence Studies, National Security, Program Management, or a related technical or national security field.
  • Equivalent combination of education, military experience, and relevant professional experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• U.S. Citizenship is required for consideration, as this position requires a U.S. government security clearance.
  • Required - Active TS clearance with SCI eligibility.

Nice to Haves

• Direct experience supporting U.S. Space Force Mission Assurance organizations or programs.
• Experience leading Mission Assurance activities for space systems or other highly complex mission-critical DoW capabilities.
• Experience with systems engineering, systems-of-systems analysis, mission engineering, or mission-thread analysis.
• Experience integrating intelligence and threat information into Mission Assurance and engineering assessments.
• Working knowledge of space and counterspace threats, including kinetic, non-kinetic, electronic warfare, cyber, supply chain, and infrastructure threats.
• Experience developing or implementing Mission Assurance governance, processes, frameworks, or assessment methodologies.
• Prior experience briefing senior government leaders, SES-level executives, General/Flag Officers, or equivalent senior decision-makers.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary contractor and government teams.

Physical Demands:

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position and work on a computer for prolonged periods.
• Ability to travel up to 10% as required to support customer meetings, program reviews, and mission activities

This job description provides a high-level review of the responsibilities of the position and is not intended to be a complete list of all responsibilities, duties or skills that may be required for the job. The job description is subject to review and change at any time and other job-related duties or requirements may be assigned as necessary.

What We offer:

As a nationally recognized Great Place to Work® and Military Times® Best for Vets: 2025 Employer, we prioritize employee well-being and experience, fostering a culture that values dedicated teams and committed individuals. Our premier total compensation package for eligible employees includes:

• Comprehensive health benefits encompassing medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Company-paid disability and life insurance
• Generous 401(k) plan with guaranteed company contribution
• Paid time-off options including floating holidays, personal time, and community service opportunities.
• Investment in employee growth and development through tuition reimbursement and discounted tuition programs with select colleges.
• In support of Virginia pay transparency laws, the estimated salary range for this position is $140,000-$200,000. Individual pay will be determined on a wide variety of job-related factors permitted by law, such as experience and training, location, licensure and certifications, skills, budgets, and market.