Department Chief Engineer - NORAD/NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, and STRATCOM

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The MITRE NORAD/NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, and STRATCOM (N558) Department is seeking a strategic, technically accomplished, and operationally focused Department Chief Engineer (CE). The selected candidate will play a critical leadership role in shaping and advancing a growing work program and MITRE technical staff that reinforces MITRE's position as a trusted partner in homeland defense, strategic deterrence, and Western Hemisphere security. The CE will help align MITRE's technical expertise, innovation investments, and mission-focused solutions with sponsor priorities, enabling operational success today while addressing emerging challenges of the future.

As a member of MITRE's NORAD/NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, and STRATCOM leadership team, the Department Chief Engineer will collaborate with geographically distributed staff across MITRE to address some of the nation's most complex security challenges. Working in partnership with the U.S. Department of War (DoW), interagency organizations, and international partners, the CE will help apply advanced technologies, engineering expertise, and mission-driven innovation to real-world operational needs. The role also requires a strategic perspective to position sponsors to meet evolving threats and long-term defense challenges across the homeland, the Western Hemisphere, and the global strategic environment.

Roles and Responsibilities

The N558 Department Chief Engineer (CE) is a Senior Principal Engineering position responsible for partnering with the Department Manager and Project Leaders to ensure the execution of a high-quality, high-impact technical work program that achieves sponsor mission outcomes. The CE serves as a key member of the NORAD/NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, and STRATCOM Leadership Team and works closely with N550 Division leadership to guide the technical direction, quality, and impact of current work; shape future opportunities; and support workforce growth and development.

The CE collaborates with Project Leaders across the department, providing technical leadership, strategic guidance, and significant individual contributions to advance capability development, innovation, and mission impact. The position is accountable for leading the Department's Technical Quality Program, participating in deliverable reviews, and partnering across MITRE National Security (MNS), MITRE Public Sector (MPS), and MITRE Technology and Engineering (MTE) to improve the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of N558's delivery to sponsors.

The CE is also responsible for establishing and sustaining strategic partnerships within MITRE and with external organizations to strengthen workforce capabilities, enhance technical quality, and leverage MITRE's full range of expertise and resources in support of solving sponsors' most challenging problems.

Highly competitive candidates will possess a broad and deep technical background, demonstrated record of technical leadership, strategic thinking, growing technical staff, and mission impact ideally for Joint programs and efforts.

Chief Engineer Key Responsibilities:

• Advance MITRE's Strategy, Vision, and Mission: Translate MITRE's strategy, vision, and mission into technical direction, execution priorities, and measurable outcomes that deliver mission impact.

• Drive Strategic Outcomes: Partner with organizational and sponsor leadership to shape, refine, and execute sponsor, corporate, and functional strategies, ensuring technical efforts align with enterprise and mission priorities.

• Define and Oversee the Right Work: Lead the development, prioritization, and oversight of the technical work program, ensuring work is mission -driven, technically sound, innovative, and aligned with sponsor needs and MITRE objectives.

• Develop and Empower Our People: Build technical talent by identifying mentoring, coaching, and developing staff; foster an inclusive, high -performing environment that enables growth, collaboration, and technical excellence.

• Build Trusted Strategic Relationships: Establish and sustain strong relationships with sponsors, partners, and key stakeholders; serve as a trusted technical advisor on major initiatives, policy matters, complex challenges, and strategic priorities. the MITRE enterprise on major initiatives, policies, challenges, and priorities.

• Uphold the MITRE Brand: Ensure the highest standards of technical quality, integrity, innovation, and impact across products, programs, and deliverables, consistent with MITRE's reputation and values.

• Steward Resources Responsibly: Partner with leadership to manage resources effectively, including people, funding, and organizational capacity, to maximize mission value, operational efficiency, and long-term sustainability.

Chief Engineer Technical Quality Performance Objectives

• Lead and mature the Department's Technical Quality Program by establishing, implementing, and continuously improving technical quality standards, review processes, and expectations across mission functions, technical disciplines, and work programs.

• Strengthen a culture of technical excellence by driving rigorous technical reviews, promoting continuous improvement, and engaging senior technical talent to contribute to and independently assess key products, solutions, and deliverables.

• Partner with business and people leadership to build organizational technical strength by assessing and influencing workforce planning, hiring, staff development, and training priorities needed to sustain critical capabilities and advance technical excellence.

• Ensure technical rigor, consistency, and quality across execution by providing oversight of project activities, technical products, and mission outcomes, and by addressing quality risks early and effectively.

• Serve as the senior technical authority for the organization by setting expectations for engineering excellence, guiding resolution of complex technical issues, and ensuring alignment between technical work, sponsor needs, and MITRE standards.

• Improve technical quality and organizational effectiveness over time by using reviews, lessons learned, feedback, and performance indicators to identify gaps, strengthen practices, and increase mission impact

The N558 Department Chief Engineer is responsible for leading and supporting project leaders and staff in the following areas:

Technical Quality

• Lead the Department's Technical Quality Program and establish technical quality standards across mission functions, technical specialties, and work programs.
• Drive a culture of technical excellence through rigorous reviews, mentoring, and continuous improvement and bring technical talent to be part of and review products.
• Partner with business and people leadership to assess the quality of organizational goals, workforce planning, hiring decisions, staff development, and training initiatives necessary to sustain technical excellence.
• Ensure technical rigor, consistency, and quality across project execution, deliverables, and mission outcomes.

Technical Impact

• Ensure integrated portfolios and centers are aligned and driving coherent technical advancement across the mission space.
• Partner with Project Leaders to ensure projects address the right problems, are appropriately scoped during inception, and produce meaningful technical and operational impact.
• Ensure Mission Value Chains (MVCs) and Division and Center level captures of N558 work contain the appropriate technical substance and effectively support project execution, product delivery, and sponsor outcomes.
• Drive innovation and technical change across the NORAD/NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, and STRATCOM work programs.
• Represent MITRE's capabilities, technical achievements, and strategic direction to senior sponsors and stakeholders to maximize mission impact and influence future opportunities.

Strategy Development

• Develop and implement strategies to enhance a technical field and its application within MITRE, including research efforts, internal and external initiatives, and strategic partnerships.
• Develop and implement strategies to advance a technical specialty and its utilization within MITRE, including the authority to initiate technical reviews of projects within the appropriate organizational scope.

Staff Development

• Mentor, train, and develop staff across multiple locations, including Colorado Springs, Omaha, and Miami.
• Contribute to staff development, talent assessment, workforce planning, hiring, mentoring, and training initiatives, including support for senior staff across Centers.
• Identify and promote training and educational opportunities for N558 staff and other members of the work program.
• Support the Department Manager (DM) and Division Chief Engineer in developing and executing strategies to increase N558 staff awareness of and participation in MITRE's Internal Research and Development (IRAD) Program, with an emphasis on hands-on experimentation, prototyping, and transitioning successful IRAD efforts into the NORAD/NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, and STRATCOM work programs.

Partnerships and Initiatives

• Lead regional and cross-division technical initiatives of significant complexity, including the development of execution strategies and technical approaches.
• Lead cross-program and project-level technical initiatives to advance mission outcomes and organizational objectives.
• Maintain and strengthen partnerships with MITRE Labs to enhance staffing, capability development, and alignment with technical strategies, while introducing innovative solutions into the work program. Ensure MITRE Labs subject matter experts are effectively leveraged across the Department's work program and technical quality initiatives.
• Collaborate with MITRE Labs and external partners to design and execute experiments, pilot efforts, and field evaluations that inform sponsor decisions, mature prototypes, and demonstrate mission utility in operationally relevant environments.

Leadership Expectations

In addition to the responsibilities above, the N558 Department Chief Engineer is expected to exemplify and mentor the following leadership attributes:

Senior Sponsor Engagement

• Build and sustain trusted relationships with senior DoW and international military leaders, engineers, other FFRDCs and UARCs, commercial executives, and managers to advance sponsor priorities and mission outcomes.
• Partner across MITRE to bring relevant capabilities, prior work, and technical expertise to sponsors, strengthening sponsor impact and enterprise value.
• Enable effective senior-level engagement by shaping strategic interactions and positioning MITRE leadership to deepen sponsor relationships and influence key decisions.

Interpersonal Skills

• Serve as a proactive team member and trusted leader, partnering closely with senior military leaders and action officers to identify operational and engineering challenges, develop potential solutions, and clearly communicate project goals, impacts, and outcomes.

Collaboration

• Foster a collaborative team environment that leverages a broad network of MITRE and external professional relationships. Engage effectively with engineers, planners, subject matter experts, international programs (including Foreign Military Sales), and defense acquisition professionals.
• Continue to leverage MITRE Technology & Engineering (MTE) expertise, MITRE Platform capabilities, and research and development efforts from the MITRE Innovation Program (MIP) to support project execution and mission delivery.

Adaptability

• Adjust priorities, approaches, and technical focus in response to evolving sponsor needs, mission demands, and operational conditions.
• Leverage MITRE's enterprise reach-back capabilities to connect the right expertise to the right mission challenges at the right time, improving responsiveness and mission impact.

Basic Qualifications

• Typically requires a minimum of 12 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 10 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 7years' experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience
• Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline, such as Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace, Manufacturing, Computer), Computer Science, or related fields.
• Must have held a Project Leader, Group Leader, Technical integrator position (or equivalent experience)
• Demonstrated ability to lead and develop technical talent and multidisciplinary teams to achieve solutions to complex technical challenges.
• Demonstrated ability to exemplify cultural drivers - operates with speed, urgency, and decisiveness; takes appropriate risks and bold actions; demonstrates adaptability and seeks out the hardest challenges; demonstrates collaboration, grace, and respect
• Demonstrated ability to proactively identify and successfully solve complex technical challenges across business lines and stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to apply conceptual and innovative thinking to develop multidisciplinary solutions.
• Success developing strategic relationships with senior leaders and sponsors - and converting those into impactful outcomes on critical national security initiatives, technical challenges, and priorities.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex programs and synthesize how disparate activities support a strategic mission objective or outcome.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate highly complex technical challenges effectively.
• Demonstrated ability to work across stakeholders and resolve complex issues.
• Understanding of national security priorities and intelligence community organizational policies, priorities, and missions.
• Active Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance.
• U.S. Citizenship required.
• This position has an on-site requirement of 5 days a week on-site.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree (MS/MEng) in engineering, science, mathematics, computer science, or other related fields.
• Five or more years of experience with command-and-control (C2) processes, architectures, and systems.
• Experience serving as an enterprise architect or systems-of-systems integrator.
• Current knowledge of Joint Staff and or Combatant Command (ideally NORAD/NORTHCOM, SOUTHCOM, and/or STRATCOM) missions, priorities, and challenges.
• Experience with and/or understanding of the Nuclear NC2/NC3 enterprise
• Familiarity with the Southern Border Mission (JTF-Southern Border), SOUTHCOM Autonomous Warfare Command (SAWC), Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S), and/or Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel (JIATF-CC)
• Familiarity with MITRE project management processes, capabilities, and supporting tools.
• Demonstrated strategic planning skills and the ability to translate strategy into actionable plans for government sponsors.

This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):

Top Secret/SCI

This requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):

Top Secret/SCI

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

$190,000 - $237,500 - $285,000 Annual

Work Location Type:

Onsite

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local or international law.

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