Systems Engineer (SETA)
SAIC · Aurora, CO
$120,001–$160,000from the description
Jul 16, 2026
Aurora, CO
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A SETA role embedded within a government program office, advising on the full acquisition lifecycle for space and ground systems programs — from drafting acquisition documents and evaluating contractor proposals to monitoring contract performance and ensuring operational readiness for satellite missions. The position suits an experienced acquisition engineer with deep knowledge of SIGINT space architecture, government procurement regulations, and systems engineering, who can independently coordinate across government, contractors, and mission partners.
Senior level · 7+ years · Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO · Bachelor's required · TS/SCI clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
What the occupation pays Median $164,050 (middle half $109,925–$164,050). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The posting lists a 'targeted compensation' of $170,000 in the body, but the formal salary range at the bottom reads $120,001–$160,000. Both figures are preserved here; the structured compensation fields reflect the formal stated range.
Degree requirement: a Bachelor's in STEM plus 9 years OR a Master's in STEM plus 7 years is required. The minimum degree is set to Bachelor's (the lower gate), and total experience is set to 7 years (the lower bound when a Master's is held). Candidates with only a Bachelor's must have 9+ years.
The active TS/SCI with CI (Counterintelligence) polygraph is a hard gate explicitly stated as required to start and must be maintained. This is classified as TopSecretSci.
The role is primarily a non-software advisory/SETA function (acquisition strategy, contract oversight, technical advising). It does not map cleanly to a single computer/mathematical SOC; 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is used as the closest fit, with 15-1211 (Computer Systems Analysts) as a plausible alternative given the systems engineering and technical analysis duties.
Jira and Confluence appear in the required qualifications section phrased as 'Familiar with Jira and Confluence,' which is softer language, but because they sit under the Required Qualifications heading they are treated as hard gates.
SIGINT space and ground architecture expertise and acquisition process/contracts management knowledge are required but name no specific tool or technology, so they are not emitted as discrete skills.
Digital Engineering/Model Based Systems Engineering and AI applications are listed under Desired Qualifications and are marked as preferred.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): Digital Engineering.
Requires a TS/SCI clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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