The professionals at the National Security Agency (NSA) have one common goal: to protect our nation. The mission requires a strong offense and a steadfast defense. The offense collects, processes and disseminates intelligence information derived from foreign signals for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. The defense prevents adversaries from gaining access to sensitive classified national security information.

With the ever-accelerating technological advances and growing system complexity, NSA needs System Engineers to integrate systems and reduce the cost to operate and maintain systems. To meet these demands, the NSA hires and trains talented and highly motivated junior systems engineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, computer engineers, and other related professionals.

System Engineers are hired into positions directly supporting a technical mission office or one of two Development Programs (The System Engineer Development Program (SEDP) or the Information Technology Development Program (ITDP)).

The SEDP prepares recent college graduates and junior level technical staff for a career in Systems Engineering at NSA. During the three-year program, participants will rotate assignments, attend training that covers the full breadth of systems engineering disciplines, and earn DoD DAWIA and other important credentials.

The ITDP is a three-year full-time development program designed to provide entry-level information technology specialists (that is, individuals with degrees in computer science, information systems, information technology, and related degrees and experience) the opportunity to learn the various facets of the NSA mission, including:

- Systems Engineering/Security Engineering
- Software Engineering
- SW Project Management
- System Architecture
- Database Design


As a System Engineer at the NSA responsibilities may include:

- requirements definition, requirements analysis and requirements management
- system architecture and design
- integration and testing
- configuration management
- risk management
- decision analysis
- security engineering