Mission Architect

Mission Architect

ID: 2026-76084
US-Telework-Telework
Required Clearance: Secret
Posted Date: 11/12/2026
Category: Business Development/Sales/Marketing
Employment Type: Full Time
Hiring Company: General Dynamics Mission Systems, Inc.


Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant work experience is required plus a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience; or Master's degree plus a minimum of 8 years of relevant experience to meet managerial expectations

CLEARANCE REQUIREMENTS:
Department of Defense Secret security clearance is required at time of hire; ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI clearance is preferred. Applicants selected will be subject to a U.S. Government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information. Due to the nature of work performed within our facilities, U.S. citizenship is required

Responsibilities for this Position

General Dynamics Mission Systems has an immediate opening for a Mission Architect focused on embedded security, anti-tamper, operating system and hypervisor security, avionics, and tactical radios and networks. This role pairs deep technical mission architecture with business development responsibility: the successful candidate will serve as a principal technical authority who shapes government customer requirements, architects winning technical solutions, and leads capture of new government-funded R&D programs. This is an opportunity to grow a portfolio of defense cyber R&D and anti-tamper business by combining credible technical leadership with the relationship-building, capture, and proposal skills of a business development leader. General Dynamics Mission Systems employees work closely with esteemed customers to develop solutions that allow them to carry out high-stakes national security missions.

REPRESENTATIVE DUTIES AND TASKS

• Directs business development activities for embedded security, OS/hypervisor security, and anti-tamper R&D offerings to government agencies and firms performing government business
• Serves as principal technical architect and capture manager for assigned new-business opportunities, translating mission needs into research roadmaps, technical solutions, and win strategies
• Maintains key business development and technical relationships with government program offices, research laboratories, defense industrial base primes, and subcontractor teams
• Partners with account teams on fielded embedded security and anti-tamper programs to identify incremental sustainment and technology-refresh opportunities, while prioritizing new R&D program capture
• Evaluates and manages new business opportunities, initiatives, partnerships, alliances, and joint ventures in secure computing, embedded OS, avionics, and tactical networking
• Oversees market analysis, monitors competitive R&D activity, and identifies emerging mission gaps and new program starts across the embedded security and anti-tamper customer base
• Defines vision, strategy, and tactics for assigned business development pursuits, including technology roadmaps spanning embedded security, secure processing, anti-tamper, and cyber resilience
• Authors and directs proposal development for government R&D opportunities, drawing on direct technical expertise to strengthen technical volumes and win themes
• Advises higher management on status and recommended action for existing and potential business development opportunities across the embedded security portfolio
• Provides technical and business leadership in the planning, design, due diligence, and implementation of strategic objectives for the embedded security and tactical systems portfolio
• Represents the company at technical conferences, industry days, and government technology demonstration events
• Leads and mentors multidisciplinary engineering teams supporting technical capture and solution development
• Develops and monitors profitability, productivity, and growth targets for the assigned technology and business area
  
  

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Demonstrates tremendous experience defining and executing successful strategies to grow government R&D business in embedded security, anti-tamper, or related technical domains
• Able to articulate examples of having conceived, architected, and led novel technical research efforts through to funded programs and transitioned capabilities
• Able to articulate examples of having identified, pursued, and won large capture efforts in areas related to GDMS business
• Possesses broad market awareness, including government budgets, customer priorities, mission gaps, and market dynamics across embedded security and anti-tamper
• Credible as a technical authority among engineering peers, program customers, and executive leadership on operating systems / hypervisors, anti-tamper, and embedded security topics
• Demonstrates tremendous interpersonal, communication, collaboration, and leadership skills; thrives in a highly interactive team environment spanning technical, program, and business development functions
• Recognized ability to build relationships with senior-level customers and internal counterparts
• May require an understanding of international business and export processes
• Works well under pressure with the ability to simultaneously deliver on multiple tasks and priorities
• Top level of management below the Executive Team, usually reporting to a Vice President; directs the activities of a functional area, business area, or major program through lower management levels
• Participates with other senior managers to establish strategic plans and objectives; expected to make final decisions in conjunction with the Executive Team on business, operational, or programmatic matters
• Works on complex technical and business issues where analysis requires in-depth knowledge of the company and of embedded security domain
• Regularly interacts with executives and/or major customers, conducting business and technical briefings for senior and top management and external representatives
• Interactions frequently involve negotiating with customers, partners, or management, and influencing senior-level leaders regarding matters of significance to the organization
• Performance metrics visible at the GDMS, business, or functional level; erroneous decisions will have a serious impact on the overall success of functional, division, or company operations
• Has overall control of planning, staffing, budgeting, and managing expense priorities; responsible for managing people, including performance evaluations, pay increase recommendations, and hire/fire decisions
  
  

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent is required plus a minimum of 10 years of demonstrated experience generating and capturing government-funded research and development business; or Master's degree plus a minimum of 8 years of demonstrated experience.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience authoring and leading proposal captures for government-funded research and development programs, with demonstrated success winning funded awards
• Minimum of 5 years of experience serving as a principal investigator or technical authority on funded government research efforts
• Experience leading or directly contributing to multiple concurrent government research programs
• Direct, hands-on research and engineering experience not solely oversight or program management in at least two of the following mission areas: operating system or hypervisor security; embedded or tactical computing platform security; avionics or other flight-safety-critical embedded systems; tactical radio and tactical network systems
• Direct experience developing, integrating, or transitioning Anti-Tamper (AT) or cyber security technologies into customer systems, including familiarity with DoD Anti-Tamper policy and DoD Cyber Security / Zero Trust policy
• Experience growing and leading a technical team supporting research capture and / or program delivery
• Experience directing or technically evaluating subcontractor support on government research programs
• Working knowledge of government contracting and acquisition practices
  

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Direct, hands-on research and engineering experience spanning all the mission areas above operating system/hypervisor security, embedded/tactical platform security, avionics, and tactical radio/network systems rather than a subset
• Graduate degree with a completed thesis or other sustained research effort directly relevant to secure systems, distributed systems, or network security
• A record of authored or co-authored technical publications or conference proceedings in relevant government or industry venues
• Experience curating and presenting research at government-sponsored technology demonstration events (e.g., Service-sponsored conferences, rodeos, technology interchange meetings, or similar government/industry technical forums)
• Experience growing an internal research organization from an individual-contributor effort into a multidisciplinary engineering team, including mentoring staff into senior or technical-lead roles
• Experience serving as a technical interface across multiple simultaneous government customer contracts and organizations
• Background spanning both classified defense program work and product-oriented R&D transition into fielded or commercial capabilities
• Familiarity with GDMS Idaho Scientific's product portfolio, including Helios, Bedrock, and Keystone

Salary Note

This estimate represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors (geographic location, etc.). Actual pay may vary. This job posting will remain open until the position is filled.

Combined Salary Range

USD $214,091.00 - USD $231,654.00 /Yr.

Company Overview

General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) engineers a diverse portfolio of high technology solutions, products and services that enable customers to successfully execute missions across all domains of operation. With a global team of 12,000+ top professionals, we partner with the best in industry to expand the bounds of innovation in the defense and scientific arenas. Given the nature of our work and who we are, we value trust, honesty, alignment and transparency. We offer highly competitive benefits and pride ourselves in being a great place to work with a shared sense of purpose. You will also enjoy a flexible work environment where contributions are recognized and rewarded. If who we are and what we do resonates with you, we invite you to join our high-performance team!

Equal Opportunity Employer / Individuals with Disabilities / Protected Veterans

PI288401537