FTS has an opportunity for a Space Systems Telecommunications Engineer in Chantilly, VA.
The Space Systems Telecommunications Engineer will support the development, modeling, analysis, and integration of advanced telecommunications architectures that include space relays, space-to-ground communication systems, ground station terminals, terrestrial transport networks, and cloud-hosted mission services.
Responsibilities- Perform engineering analysis and design assessments for end-to-end communications systems, including space, ground, and cloud-based mission segments
- Model and assess telecommunications system performance including link budgets, network throughput, latency, availability, routing, QoS, and resilience strategies
- Support architecture development for RF and Optical space relay networks, space-to-ground communications, crosslink solutions, and global terrestrial transport paths
- Evaluate network architectures leveraging IP networking, SD-WAN, virtualization, cloud infrastructure, and secure enterprise networking technologies
- Define interfaces and integrate products across space vehicle payloads, ground entry points, teleport gateways, fiber backbones, and cloud hosting environments
- Develop analyses, assessments, visualizations, and documentation used to brief internal leadership and external customer stakeholders
- Collaborate with government, contractor, and multi-organization mission partners to identify system risks, capability gaps, and technology improvement opportunities
- Contribute to modeling and simulation activities and to integration of MS&A data with MBSE and digital engineering artifacts across the digital thread ecosystem
Required Skills/Qualifications- TS/SCI with polygraph
- BS STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math) in engineering discipline
- 10+ years of experience in telecommunications engineering, satellite communications, RF/Optical communication systems, or network engineering
- Understanding of DoD SATCOM, commercial SATCOM, relay networks, or proliferated communications
- Experience modeling telecom system performance including link budgets, throughput, availability, bandwidth, and resiliency
- Engineering analysis experience involving data organization, interpretation, and performance evaluation
- Strong communication skills for briefings to technical and non-technical audiences
Desired Skills/Qualifications- Experience with free-space optical links and optical space-to-ground transport
- Experience with cloud architectures
- Familiarity with STK, MATLAB, Python, or network simulation tools
- Knowledge of transport security technologies, encryption devices, and network resiliency techniques
- Experience developing and maintaining MBSE models
