Career Overview: Within DoD contracting the Systems Engineering career field is one of the most in demand career fields to work in. Engineers with degrees in Aerospace, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, Industrial, Nuclear, Computer Engineering, and Math or other STEM degrees are excellent candidates for a career in Systems Engineering.
Systems engineers coordinate and lead engineering activities across a programs approved system development lifecycle. Nominally this includes Requirements, Design, Build, Integration, Test, Deployment and Sustainment. Likewise systems engineers integrate activities of primary engineering disciplines (Hardware, Software) and supporting engineering disciplines (manufacturing, reliability, maintainability, availability, logistics, safety, risk, quality, and configuration management) to address program and project objectives.
Systems engineers bring an overall systems view to project work and prevent programs and projects from solving problems in isolation without considering the broader engineering/systems environment the project operates in.
In my experience the best Systems Engineers usually start out doing engineering work in a specific engineering discipline and then transition into the Systems Engineering career field. Systems Engineers are responsible for coordinating and leading end to end engineering solutions.
Their specialty is being able to work across and coordinate activities across engineering disciplines. They must have a strong technical background and excellent people and leadership skills. Senior Systems engineers are often the key advisors to Program Management and government customer leadership. They frequently chair contract Engineering Review Boards (ERB) and are the final approving authority for Engineering Change Proposals (ECP) and System Modifications.
For people with requisite education and experience there are multiple jobs opportunities as Systems Engineers across all sectors of DoD contracting
Career Path: There are several career paths for Systems Engineering professionals. The majority of Systems Engineering professionals have a college engineering degree and start out as an entry level engineers in the civilian or DoD contractor business sectors right after college. Some opt for a career in the military and upon retirement or separation from service pursue a bachelor degree or specialized training in an engineering discipline. After starting out and excelling in a particular engineering discipline many engineers convert over into systems engineering.
Some DoD Contractors have a systems engineering career path based on years of experience and responsibilities.
Similarly some DoD contractors systems engineering career paths will have numerical grade levels.
Salaries: Systems Engineering salaries vary but start around ~$70k for entry level engineers and can be in excess of $150k for senior level engineers.
Professional Organizations: The primary professional organization for systems engineers is
The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
Training & Certifications: For systems engineers there are several options for advanced training and INCOSE offers the Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) Certification.
Likewise, obtaining a masters or doctorate degree in your chosen career field helps improve your competiveness when seeking systems engineering jobs and career advancement opportunities. I encourage you to select a few of the DoD contractors profiled on this site and search for systems engineering jobs to see what educational and certifications they are requiring.
Education: Most software positions require a bachelors degree and having a masters or doctorate degree is highly recommended.
Job Search: To review currently open engineering jobs that DoD contractors are actively hiring for I recommend going to the career page of several of the DoD contractors profiled on this site and searching for jobs with the titles “Systems engineer” and reviewing the jobs and job requirements that come up.