Strategic Planner - Space Operations

Responsibilities

As a Planner supporting a critical national security space warfighting mission, you will help transform strategic objectives into operational outcomes. Serving within the Plans & Strategy Division, you will lead and support Joint Planning Process (JPP) and Combatant Command (COCOM) planning efforts that shape the protection, resilience, and employment of vital space capabilities.

In this role, you will bridge strategy and execution by developing plans, procedures, and courses of action that enable mission success across the space domain. You will assess operational effectiveness, capture lessons learned from real-world events and exercises, and drive continuous improvement across planning, training, and mission assurance activities. Working closely with Intelligence Community (IC), Department of Defense (DoD), and interagency partners, you will influence decision-making, support contingency planning efforts, and help advance effects-based operations against threats to critical national security systems.

The ideal candidate is an experienced space operations professional with a strong background in operational planning, strategic analysis, and interagency collaboration who thrives in a dynamic, mission-focused environment.

Responsibilities

• Support the development and refinement of strategic orders, plans, reports, and operational planning products using Adaptive Planning and Execution (APEX), Joint Planning Process (JPP), and Joint Operational Planning and Execution System (JOPES) methodologies.
• Develop and enhance tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), courses of action (COAs), and operational criteria that optimize effects-based operations.
• Assess the effectiveness of current plans, procedures, and mission systems; identify opportunities to improve operational performance and mission outcomes.
• Capture, analyze, and document lessons learned from exercises, training events, and real-world operations to drive procedural and capability improvements.
• Advise on the integration of emerging Indications and Warning (I&W) systems, collection capabilities, and mission tools into operational planning processes.
• Monitor and assess evolving terrestrial and space-based threats, adversary patterns of behavior, collection priorities, and operational risks impacting mission success.
• Support collection management activities and provide planning expertise to optimize mission effects against threats to agency assets.
• Coordinate and provide logistical support for contingency planning meetings, operational workshops, and senior leader engagements.
• Identify intelligence, operational, procedural, and capability gaps that could impact mission effectiveness and provide recommendations to leadership.
• Collaborate with government, military, intelligence, and interagency partners to ensure unity of effort and mission readiness.
• Work full-time on-site at a government facility in Springfield, Virginia.

This position is contingent upon contract award.

Qualifications

Required

• Minimum of 12 years w/o a degree or 10 years with AS/AA or 8 years with BS/BA; or 6 years with MS/MA; or 3 years with PhD
• Active TS/SCI clearance with adjudicated Polygraph.
• Demonstrated experience supporting operational planning, strategy development, and mission execution within national security environments.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to develop and brief complex planning products to senior leaders and stakeholders.

Preferred

• 3+ years of Intelligence Community (IC) and/or Department of Defense (DoD) planning and exercise experience, including Joint Planning Process (JPP), Adaptive Planning and Execution (APEX), and Joint Operational Planning and Execution System (JOPES).

• 10+ years of combined space operations, intelligence, and operational planning experience.

• Experience integrating Joint Special Technical Operations (STO) and Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) methodologies.

• Prior military service in relevant operational specialties, including:

• U.S. Space Force (5S)

• U.S. Air Force (13S Officer or 1C6 Enlisted)

• U.S. Army Functional Area 40 or 59

• U.S. Marine Corps 8866 or 0540 specialties (Weapons School graduate or instructor preferred)

• Experience leading projects, planning large-scale exercises, and developing operational TTPs.

• Advanced understanding of foreign and domestic space and ground-based threat capabilities, space surveillance networks, and space domain awareness operations.

• Experience tasking and leveraging space surveillance resources in support of operational objectives.

• Knowledge of orbital mechanics, flight safety tools, collection management processes, and Indications and Warning (I&W) systems.

Worklocation:

• Fort Belvoir

Peraton Overview

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.

Target Salary Range

$112,000 - $179,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual's experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.

EEO

EEO: Equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veterans, or other characteristics protected by law.