Senior Principal Digital Engineer

Senior Principal Digital Engineer

Job ID: 2614110

Location: Chantilly, VA, United States

Date Posted: Jul 13, 2026

Category: Engineering and Sciences

Subcategory: Systems Engineer

Schedule: Full-Time

Shift: Day Job

Travel: Yes - 10% of the time

Minimum Clearance Required: TS/SCI with Poly

Clearance Level Must Be Able to Obtain: None

Potential for Remote Work: On-Site

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Job Description

Description

SAIC seeks a Senior Principal Digital Engineer to own the technical strategy and delivery of advanced digital engineering transformation initiatives supporting national security and intelligence missions. You will drive end-to-end digital engineering efforts, from problem framing and architecture design through production, deployment, and operational excellence-while serving as the trusted technical advisor for mission-critical systems. This is a role for someone who raises the bar across teams through mentorship, technical and thought leadership.

Primary responsibilities:

• Serve as SAIC's lead technical advisor for digital engineering projects, including model-based systems engineering (MBSE), cloud integration, and digital thread development. Set technical direction and drive stakeholder alignment on architecture decisions that reduce acquisition risk.

• Identify mission needs, operational concepts, and requirements to influence acquisition and budget efforts.

• Assess integration activities across technical, resource, and schedule dependencies to present unbiased findings, analysis, and recommendations to government and SAIC managers.

• Provide technical assessments of project reviews, milestones, and decision gates then identify risks, issues, opportunities, and mitigations to represent interests with stakeholders.

• Support requests for systems engineering and integration studies, process analysis and design, project management assessments.

• Provide analysis, recommendations, and take necessary actions.

• Support development or assessment of system Concept of Operations, Requirements Documents, Test Plans, Contract Statements of Work, Systems Engineering Plans, and contribute to staff work needs (e.g., action items, weekly reports, etc.), including support to acquisitions and source selections.

• Mentor systems engineers on requirements traceability, design validation, and digital thread implementation. Elevate team capabilities through peer feedback, design review, and technical leadership and actively shape the technical culture of the team.

• Collaborate proactively with SAIC personnel and other contractors across multiple sites and organizational levels. Drive alignment across concurrent programs on conflicting technical requirements.

Qualifications

Required:

• Must be a US Citizen.
• Active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph.
• Bachelor's degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM)* and thirteen (13) years or more experience; or master's in STEM field and eleven (11) years or more experience.
• *STEM degree is a contractual requirement/must have.
• Technical knowledge and practical experience with digital engineering tools (MBSE, SysML UAF etc.), cloud platforms, Agile development).
• Experience with space and ground and systems, and mission data processing.
• Familiarity with mission readiness processes, control gates, and associated entry/exit criteria.
• Forward-thinking self-starter able to address customer requirements with minimal supervision and define solutions for broad, abstract topics.
• Polished communicator (written/verbal), master at collaboration and coordination with multiple stakeholders.
• Impeccable interpersonal skills and personal judgment-demonstrated success in interacting with senior executives.

Desired:

• Real-time operations experience as a digital engineer, systems engineer, or ground systems operator.
• Familiarity with space operations, digital policies, and cloud technologies.

Target salary range: $160,001 - $200,000. The estimate displayed represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors.

Overview

SAIC accepts applications on an ongoing basis and there is no deadline.

SAIC is a premier mission integrator focused on advancing the power of technology and innovation to serve and protect our world. Our robust portfolio of offerings across the defense, space, intelligence, and civilian markets includes secure high-end solutions in mission IT, enterprise IT, engineering services, and professional services. We integrate emerging technology, rapidly and securely, into mission critical operations that modernize and enable critical national imperatives.

We are approximately 23,000 strong; driven by mission, united by purpose, and inspired by opportunities. SAIC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, SAIC has annual revenues of approximately $7.3 billion. For more information, visit saic.com. For ongoing news, please visit our newsroom.

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