Senior Systems Engineer

Systems Engineer - Senior

Chantilly, VA, United States (On-site)

Job Title: Systems Engineer - Senior

Job Code: ITS967

Location: Chantilly, VA

Reports to: Program Manager

FLSA Status: Exempt

Supervisory: No supervisory/management authority

Prepared Date: 11/5/2026

A government contract requires that this position be restricted to U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. You must provide documentation that you are a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident to qualify.

This position requires an active TS/SCI with Polygraph clearance.

Position Summary:

Cherokee Preting is seeking a Systems Engineer to support our government client.  The Systems Engineer will support the enterprise PKI program, and their associated cloud infrastructures located on a secure network. The Systems Engineer will work with a team of engineers, developers, cybersecurity engineers, systems architects, and testers.

Compensation & Benefits:

Starting Salary Range for Systems Engineer - Senior: $170,000 – $205,000

Benefits That Set Us Apart

When considering your next opportunity, compensation is only part of the picture. We offer a benefits package designed to invest in your future and support your life outside of work.

Highlights include:

• Up to a 6% 401(k) company match to help you build long-term financial security

• Paid time off as part of our comprehensive benefits package, so you have the flexibility to rest, recharge, and enjoy what matters most

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, plus prescription drug coverage

• Basic life and AD&D insurance, with supplemental life options

• Short-term and long-term disability coverage

• Paid holidays

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA) options

• Professional development, training, and certification support

• Voluntary benefits including accident, critical illness, and identity theft protection

Because taking care of our employees isn’t just a promise, it’s part of who we are.

Benefits are subject to change and eligibility requirements apply.

Essential Functions, Duties & Responsibilities:

Includes the following:

• Perform regular maintenance of cloud infrastructure resources, to include patching, configuration, upgrading as needed

• Ensure designs are compatible with the architecture and security requirements

• Integrate systems and services for firewall and network components

• Work with team's security engineer to address, mitigate security findings stemming from system security scans

• Experience with relational databases such as PostgreSQL and MySQL

Strong, hands-on experience with Linux (CLI):

• Maintain and deploy containerized solutions

• Perform other job-related duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

No supervisory/management authority

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree

• Minimum of six (6) years of relevant experience

• Experience with scripting and programming languages like BASH and Python

• Experience working on teams utilizing Agile workflows and processes

• Willingness to explore and learn new technologies

• This position requires an active TS/SCI with Polygraph clearance.

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer; may occasionally require standing or moving about the office for extended periods.

• Must pass pre-employment qualifications of Cherokee Federal.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and understanding key concepts like digital certificates, Certificate Authorities (CAs), Registration Authorities (RAs), key management practices, cryptographic algorithms, certificate revocation procedures, and trust models

• Experience working with CloudFormation/Puppet/Groovy, or other configuration and automation tools

• Experience with maintaining Jenkins

• Network engineering troubleshooting between Cloud environments and non-Cloud environments

• Experience working with Infrastructure as (IaC) solutions such as Ansible/Terraform, or other configuration and automation tools

• Solid understanding of Web Application Firewall (WAF) configuration and management

• Experience with networking (e.g. ports, routing tables, subnets, VPNs, firewalls, routers, etc) to include design, integration and troubleshooting issues

• Experience in working in a cloud-based environment (AWS)

• Experience with the installation, configuration and other configuration management alerting capabilities

Work Environment:

Work is performed primarily in a climate-controlled environment.