System Engineer 4
Columbia Technology Partners · Annapolis Junction, MD
$165,000–$190,000
Jul 13, 2026
Annapolis Junction, MD
Jul 20, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
Senior level · 10+ years · Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD · 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.
Why we read it this way (9)
The role title is 'System Engineer 4' — a numeric level suffix, but '4' does not map cleanly to a standard seniority band (Junior/Mid/Senior/Staff/Principal); the title states no level accordingly, as the number is an internal grade rather than a conventional level label.
The experience requirement is tiered by education: 10+ years with a Bachelor's, 8+ years with a Master's or PhD, or 14+ years with a High School diploma. The minimum across all paths is 8 years; 10 years is used as the overall years minimum since it represents the most common path (Bachelor's).
A degree is not strictly required — a High School Diploma/GED with 14+ years is explicitly accepted — so the degree requirement is set to None.
The posting states 'active Security Clearance with appropriate Polygraph' and 'security background investigation and polygraph,' which maps to TS/SCI.
REST APIs appear in both the required responsibilities section and the Desired Skills section; they are treated as a hard gate given their prominence in the core responsibilities.
GraphQL, Apache NiFi, Apache Camel, messaging platforms, Java/Spring Boot, and AI/ML all appear exclusively under 'Desired Skills' and are marked preferred.
The SOC classification is Medium confidence: this role blends systems engineering, integration architecture, and customer-facing technical leadership — it sits between Computer Systems Analysts (15-1211) and the broader 'Computer Occupations, All Other' (15-1299) category sometimes used for systems engineers.
No salary figures are provided despite the posting's stated commitment to compensation transparency.
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.
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