Over the years, many issues have complicated the tasks of systems engineers. These include evolving legacy and off-the-shelf components, contextual specificity, extensively large structures, and lack of clarity in multiple expectations and outcome. Thus, there is a need to develop an effective systems engineering workforce that can efficiently work in complex system problem domains. Two important questions that are not well defined in the existing body of literature: (1) What are the fundamental attributes of systems engineering that would impact the performance of individual system engineers? (2) What are the leading indicators for appraising the performance of an individual systems engineer? To answer the aforementioned questions, we conducted an extensive review of the literature on systems engineering to identify the fundamental attributes of systems engineering and the corresponding performance indicators that can measure each attribute. This review supports the development of a new systems engineering performance measurement tool that captures and assesses the performance of individual systems engineers. This performance is based on assessing the leading indicators of the fundamental systems engineering attributes. The outcome of this instrument will generate a unique profile for individual systems engineers and allows engineers to improve their systems engineering skills to better deal with the increasing intricacies of the design and operation of complex systems.