Astrodynamics

Job ID: 2613664

Location: Chantilly, VA, US

Date Posted: 2026-06-15

Category: Engineering and Sciences

Subcategory: Modeling/Sim Engr

Schedule: Full-Time

Shift: Day Job

Travel: No

Minimum Clearance Required: TS.SCI_wPoly

Clearance Level Must Be Able to Obtain: None

Potential for Remote Work: ORA_ON_SITE

Description

SAIC has a funded need for a Astrodynamics Modeling and Simulation Analyst to support the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in Chantilly, VA.

This position offers a flexible work schedule, with core collaboration hours from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., allowing you to balance mission demands with personal flexibility while still engaging deeply with a world‑class engineering team.

Clearance Requirements: Top Secret/SCI with active Polygraph. (Note: The current Security Clearance must be held by an IC Customer.)

Role Overview

As the Astrodynamics Modeling and Simulation Analys you will develop and model very sophisticated high fidelity satellite maneuvering and orbit determination CONOPS in all Earth orbit regimes. You will work with satellite developers and operators who will use your modeling and simulation products to inform their spacecraft designs, mission planning, and system-of-systems interactions.

Your work will include designing maneuvers to modify the dynamics of accesses to ground sites, multi-satellite Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO), launch analyses, high fidelity orbit propagation, as well as orbit determination for Space Domain Awareness. Your results will be used by senior Government leaders, system architects, and program managers to chart the path for next-generation space capabilities.

Key Responsibilities to include:

• Astrodynamics modeling and simulation — Build, refine, and maintain physics-based advanced mathematical models.
• End-to-end mission modeling — Integrate astrodynamics and system-level interactions to evaluate mission performance across full operational scenarios.

• Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) — Leverage existing tools that generate high fidelity maneuvering sequences using sophisticated optimization algorithms that incorporate a variety of operational constraints.

• Space Domain Awareness (SDA) — Simulate orbit determination using observations from space surveillance and RPO sensors including associating detections to space catalog objects and detecting maneuvers. Propagate orbits at high fidelity and predict conjunction probabilities.

• Automate modeling workflows at scale — Use and extend the capabilities of existing advanced custom Python and C modeling tools that run in Cloud Computing and High Performance. Computing (HPC, parallel processing supercomputing) environments to rapidly generate statistical results covering very large numbers of possible scenarios..
• Produce technical artifacts — Generate clear, defensible technical documentation, simulation reports, and visualizations that support engineering decisions, analysis reviews, and customer briefings.
• Support design reviews & trade studies — Provide modeling-driven insights that quantify performance impacts, evaluate CONOPS alternatives, and inform system-level tradeoffs across spacecraft and mission architectures.

Qualifications

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or a related field with 5+ years of professional technical experience (Master’s degree with 3+ years, or PhD)
• Current and Active Top Secret/SCI with Polygraph (Note: The current Security Clearance must be held by an IC Customer.)
• 2+ years of Astrodynamics modeling experience — High fidelity maneuvering, propagation, orbit determination
• Coding, mathematics & estimation — Solid foundation in coding in Python or C, applied math and state estimation techniques used in modeling and simulation