Senior Technical Advisor/DoD Engineering & Test - Secret

DAWSON

$145K — $190K *
Aerospace & Defense
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5-7 years of relevant experience in complex defense programs
  • Bachelor's degree in engineering or equivalent technical background
  • Demonstrated interaction with engineers, operators, and Government stakeholders
  • Strong understanding of engineering principles from a systems perspective
  • Proficiency in rapidly grasping new technologies and mission requirements
  • 10+ years of experience with DoD or Federal programs
  • Exceptional verbal and written communication skills for diverse audiences
  • Willingness to travel for project needs and security clearance eligibility

Responsibilities

  • Serve as a senior technical SME for DoD contracts and missions
  • Provide expertise in T&E, RDT&E, engineering, and systems integration
  • Support project teams in navigating complex technical requirements and challenges
  • Engage in various technical meetings and design reviews
  • Assess test support needs and develop execution strategies
  • Participate in developing technical solutions for proposals
  • Collaborate with teams to translate requirements into actionable solutions

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work in a complex and impactful defense environment
  • Engagement with Government technical leadership and various engineering disciplines
  • Access to professional development opportunities in defense acquisition
  • Potential for involvement in high-stakes technical program decisions
  • Collaborative work on mission-critical defense projects
Full Job Description
The Senior Technical Advisor/ DoD Engineering & Test serves as a senior technical Subject Matter Expert (SME) supporting complex Department of Defense programs, customer engagements, capture efforts, and proposal development.

The position is particularly focused on technically complex engineering, Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E), Test & Evaluation (T&E), systems integration, and lifecycle support efforts supporting DoD customers.

This individual brings a strong engineering or technical foundation combined with broad experience supporting complex defense missions. The Technical Advisor must be capable of rapidly understanding unfamiliar technical challenges, engaging credibly with engineers, scientists, test personnel, operators, and Government technical leadership, and helping teams translate mission requirements into practical and executable solutions. The Technical Advisor provides technical expertise wherever needed to strengthen contract execution, customer engagement, solution development, and competitive pursuits.

Primary Responsibilities:

Customer & Contract Technical Support:
  • Serve as a senior technical SME and advisor supporting complex DoD contracts and customer missions.
  • Provide technical expertise to programs involving T&E, RDT&E, engineering, systems integration, logistics, sustainment, configuration management, and mission support.
  • Support Program Managers and project teams in evaluating complex technical requirements, risks, challenges, and potential solutions.
  • Participate in customer meetings, technical interchange meetings, design reviews, test planning activities, program reviews, and other technical engagements.
  • Engage directly with Government engineers, scientists, test personnel, operators, acquisition professionals, and technical leadership.
  • Assist teams in evaluating technical requirements and determining the personnel, equipment, facilities, processes, partners, and specialized expertise necessary for successful execution.
  • Provide independent technical perspective on complex or high-risk program issues and help identify practical paths forward.
  • Support technical reviews of plans, approaches, deliverables, and other work products when senior technical expertise is required.
  • Help bridge communication between Program Managers, engineers, specialized SMEs, customers, subcontractors, and operational personnel.

Test & Evaluation and Engineering Support
  • Provide senior-level technical support to major DoD Test & Evaluation and engineering programs.
  • Assist with development and evaluation of test concepts, technical approaches, test support requirements, and execution strategies.
  • Support planning for complex test environments involving combinations of systems, platforms, facilities, instrumentation, equipment, logistics, personnel, data, and operational resources.
  • Evaluate technical dependencies and risks that could affect test readiness, execution, schedule, cost, safety, or mission outcomes.
  • Participate in technical and engineering reviews to assess solution feasibility, integration considerations, execution risks, and resource requirements.
  • Apply systems-level thinking to understand how individual technical disciplines, systems, organizations, and operational requirements interact.
  • Bring appropriate specialized SMEs into technical discussions when deeper disciplinary expertise is required.

Capture & Proposal Support
  • Serve as a senior technical SME supporting capture and proposal efforts for complex DoD opportunities.
  • Review solicitations, PWSs, SOWs, technical requirements, and other acquisition documentation to identify critical technical requirements, risks, and solution considerations.
  • Participate in capture strategy sessions and technical solutioning workshops.
  • Develop and contribute to technical approaches, solution concepts, execution methodologies, staffing strategies, test strategies, transition approaches, and technical proposal narratives.
  • Work with capture teams to translate customer mission requirements into credible, differentiated, and executable solutions.
  • Support development of technical questions, assumptions, risks, discriminators, and win themes.
  • Write and review proposal technical volumes for technical accuracy, feasibility, completeness, and credibility.
  • Help identify the specialized personnel, partners, subcontractors, facilities, equipment, or capabilities required to execute proposed solutions.
  • Support customer meetings, capability briefings, industry days, oral presentations, and other pre-award technical engagements.
  • Evaluate prospective technical partners and subcontractors based on capabilities, experience, and applicability to specific mission requirements.

Ideal Candidate Profile:

The ideal candidate is a highly experienced engineering or technical professional with significant exposure to complex DoD systems, engineering, and Test & Evaluation environments.

They should be capable of entering an unfamiliar technical environment, rapidly understanding the mission and technical problem, asking the right questions, identifying risks and dependencies, and engaging credibly with specialized engineers and SMEs.

The successful candidate should be equally comfortable:
  • Discussing a complex system or test requirement with Government engineers.
  • Participating in a technical or design review.
  • Walking a test site, laboratory, range, shipyard, facility, or operational environment.
  • Advising a Program Manager on a technical execution challenge.
  • Working with specialized SMEs to develop an executable solution.
  • Helping a capture team understand how a technically complex requirement should be approached.
  • Writing or reviewing the technical approach for a major DoD proposal.
  • Briefing technical concepts and recommendations to Government or corporate leadership.

The position requires someone who can move fluidly between engineering, operations, program execution, customer engagement, and business development.

Qualifications:

Required:
  • Significant Professional experience supporting complex engineering, T&E, RDT&E, systems integration, defense acquisition, or related technical programs.
  • Bachelor's degree in an engineering or closely related technical discipline, or an equivalent of advanced technical relevant experience.
  • Demonstrated experience working directly with engineers, technical SMEs, operators, and Government technical stakeholders.
  • Strong understanding of engineering principles and the ability to evaluate complex technical problems from a systems perspective.
  • Demonstrated ability to rapidly understand new technologies, systems, platforms, and mission requirements.
  • 10 years experience supporting complex DoD or Federal programs.
  • Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to engineering, operational, program management, business development, and executive audiences.
  • Strong technical writing skills and the ability to contribute meaningfully to technical proposals, plans, reports, and briefings.
  • Ability to travel to customer, test, operational, and project locations as required.
  • Ability to obtain and maintain the security clearance required for assigned programs.

Highly Desired:
  • Experience with developmental and/or operational Test & Evaluation.
  • Experience supporting test planning, test execution, systems integration, technical reviews, engineering analysis, or test infrastructure.
  • Familiarity with DoD acquisition and systems engineering processes.
  • Experience supporting capture and proposal development for complex technical Federal opportunities.
  • Experience developing technical approaches from PWS, SOW, SOO, or other Government requirements.
  • Experience working across multiple engineering disciplines rather than exclusively within a single narrow technical specialty.

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