Strategic Technical Campaign Lead - C5ISR Director

As a Systems Engineering Leader with a focus on strategic innovation, you'll drive the design of future warfighting systems-guiding big ideas from concept to capability, and directly influencing how national defense technology is shaped. This is a rare opportunity to lead and merge engineering innovation and strategic impact, while shaping the direction of our business and our customer's missions.

We are seeking a visionary Systems Engineering Leader to serve as a principal architect of enterprise-level innovation-leading the transformation of cutting-edge R&D (CRAD and IRAD) into mission-ready, operationally resilient systems. This role is pivotal in fusing deep technical leadership with strategic foresight to deliver impactful solutions aligned with national security priorities and campaign-level initiatives such as GoldenDome, C5ISR modernization, TCPED optimization, and spectrum operations dominance.

This position is more than technical oversight-it's a senior engineering, customer facing role with strategic influence, where end-to-end system thinking, mission integration, and technology vision converge. You will play a leading role in shaping enterprise campaigns, architecting innovative pipelines, and building the systems that will define future warfighting advantage.

Key Responsibilities:

Lead End-to-End System Design & Concept Engineering: Own the technical architecture and system engineering solutions from concept through operational transition, ensuring integration, scalability, and mission readiness of emerging technologies.
• Drive Innovation-to-Impact Transformation: Translate R&D outputs into executable, fieldable systems that address mission-critical needs across ISR, Cyber, EW, and Spectrum Operations domains.
• Architect Across Mission Domains: Engineer interoperable, cross-domain solutions that integrate cyber-resilient C5ISR platforms, multi-INT TCPED pipelines, spectrum-aware sensors, and real-time analytics architectures.
• Shape and Support Enterprise Strategy: Collaborate with corporate strategy, technology leadership, and our customers to align engineering direction with strategic campaign priorities and investment roadmaps, particularly around GoldenDome objectives and new major national security objectives.
• Guide Technical Capture & Business Development: Serve as senior engineering lead on high-priority captures, providing solution architecture, system performance analysis, technical narratives, and differentiators that resonate with mission buyers. Brief advanced technical topics to both customers and internal stakeholders.
• Support High-Value Campaigns and R&D Strategy: Lead engineering planning for major enterprise campaigns, ensuring alignment between R&D portfolios, customer needs, and opportunity timing.
• Build & Leverage Innovation Ecosystems: Drive collaboration with external technology sources including national labs, FFRDCs, universities, and commercial innovators to accelerate system evolution and mission impact.
• Champion Mission-Driven Tech Insertion: Prioritize and guide transition of emerging technologies-such as AI-enabled signal processing, cross-domain data flows, and low-latency exploitation systems-into resilient, deployable architectures.
• Conduct Technical Reviews and Mission Assurance Assessments: Serve as senior design authority on internal reviews, engineering gates, and readiness evaluations across key programs and R&D initiatives.
• Advise Senior Leaders: Influence executive-level decisions with technical insight into system feasibility, risk, integration timelines, and transition pathways.

Education:

• Bachelors or Master's in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.

Experience:

• 16+ years in mission-focused systems engineering roles within the Defense, Intelligence, or national security ecosystem.
• Proven track record leading system development and transition efforts across C5ISR, cyber, and spectrum domains.
• Experience influencing corporate or enterprise strategy through technical leadership and engineering planning.
• Experience delivering engineering solutions in accordance with Federal Acquisition the Regulation (FAR).

Technical Expertise:

• Deep understanding of ISR technologies and capabilities, including: TCPED workflows, platform integration, and multi-domain operations.
• Strong background in spectrum operations, RF systems, electronic protection, and sensor fusion.
• Familiarity with cyber defense protocols.
• Familiarity with all-domain operations, including CEMA, denied environment communications, and cloud-to-edge exploitation.
• Experience with MBSE, DoDAF/UAF, system trades, architecture analysis, TRLs, and federal R&D transition vehicles (OTAs, SBIR/STTR, etc.).

Strategic and Business Acumen:

• Ability to connect system engineering outcomes to mission value, cost-benefit tradeoffs, and enterprise growth strategies.
• Experience supporting high-value proposals, customer shaping activities, and enterprise investment decisions.

Leadership & Communication:

• Excellent ability to communicate complex systems concepts to technical and executive audiences.
• Skilled in leading diverse technical teams, mentoring engineering talent, and driving outcomes across organizational boundaries.

Clearance Required - Active Top Secret with ability to obtain SCI

Peraton is a next-generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world's leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees do the can't be done by solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers. Visit peraton.com to learn how we're keeping people around the world safe and secure.