Systems Engineer, Lead

At MITRE, your passion fuels work that impacts our nation and improves lives. This is where your skills strengthen national security, cybersecurity, health, transportation, and citizen services. We're a nonprofit engineering, applied research, and advanced technology organization working in the public interest. With objectivity and integrity at our core, we lead federally funded research and development centers for U.S. government agencies - collaborating with industry and academia to deliver integrated, high-impact solutions that advance our nation's health, security, and prosperity. Our people tackle the toughest technical challenges, supported by competitive benefits, meaningful career development, and a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence. Choose MITRE for a career with purpose - and help shape the future.

The Technical Intelligence and Integration Department (N963) within MITRE's Intelligence Center seeks a Lead Systems Engineer to advance the delivery of high quality, high impact work for our sponsors, drive innovative solutions, develop Department talent, support business development activities, and provide thought leadership as part of the Department leadership team. N963 manages, guides, and directs 40 staff-years of technical and domain-specific work focused on Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Targeting, and enterprise-wide solutions to various modernization challenges. The work requires operating at senior-levels of government across a diverse set of Department of Defense and Intelligence Community sponsors. Our efforts directly support the U.S policymaking, acquisition, and warfighting communities, and require a comprehensive understanding of the IC, its partners, and stakeholders operating in the technical analysis and foundational military intelligence spaces. This role will be a key part of defining and executing MITRE's enhanced focus on ensuring our business tightly enables our sponsor's top mission priorities.

Roles & Responsibilities:

As a Lead Mission Engineer, you will support DIA sponsors in the development of mission architectures, operational concepts, and system-of-systems solutions that address critical warfighting challenges. You will collaborate across the IC and DOW Mission Division as well as Systems Engineering Division and broader MITRE enterprise to apply multidisciplinary engineering approaches, evaluate mission needs, and deliver data-driven recommendations that improve intelligence mission effectiveness. As a technical leader, you will tailor MBSE frameworks to the sponsors need, lead engineering analyses, architecture development efforts, and small multidisciplinary teams while helping shape technical approaches that support DIA future capability development and operational priorities.

Key responsibilities include:

• Partner with DIA sponsors and the government chief architect to execute mission engineering, architecture development, and capability assessment activities aligned to operational priorities.
• Collaborate across the IC and DOW Missions, Systems Engineering Division and MITRE technical community to integrate expertise in systems engineering, digital engineering, communications, modeling and simulation, data analytics, and operational analysis.
• Develop and assess mission architectures, operational concepts, and system-of-systems solutions using mission engineering, MBSE, digital engineering, and quantitative analysis techniques.
• Evaluate capability gaps, mission effectiveness, operational risks, and technical tradeoffs to support government decision-making.
• Develop and tailor modern engineering methods and tools, including Digital Engineering, MBSE, AI/ML, data analytics, and modeling and simulation, to support architecture development, requirements analysis, and modernization efforts.
• Conduct qualitative and quantitative evaluations of alternative architectures, technologies, and investment options.
• Identify technical risks and uncertainties and support experimentation, prototyping, and risk-reduction activities.
• Support requirements management, architecture development, interface management, integration planning, and test and evaluation efforts.
• Lead small multidisciplinary teams of engineers and analysts to develop mission-focused technical products and recommendations.
• Communicate technical findings and recommendations to government stakeholders, operational users, and MITRE leadership.
• Contribute to research, innovation, and capability development activities that advance MITRE's systems engineering practice.

Basic Qualifications:

• Typically requires a minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 6 years with a Master's degree; or 3 years with a PhD; or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Systems Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience leading technical tasks or small multidisciplinary engineering teams.
• Expertise in Systems Architecture, Mission Engineering, Digital Engineering, Systems-of-Systems Engineering, Modeling & Simulation, or Operational Planning.
• Experience with Space, C2 and communications architectures and mission-level analysis.
• Ability to assess mission effectiveness, cost-performance tradeoffs, and technical risk.
• Experience collaborating with operational users, government stakeholders, industry, and technical teams.
• Strong communication skills and ability to convey technical findings to diverse audiences.
• Must have an active Top Secret/SCI w/Poly U.S Government issued Security Clearance. Per the U.S. Government's eligibility requirements, you must be a U.S Citizen to be considered for a security clearance.
• This position requires a minimum of 4 days a week on-site

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in a relevant technical discipline.
• Experience in mission, systems, or enterprise architecture.
• Experience supporting DIA modernization, mission engineering, operational analysis, C2, or communications systems.
• Proficiency with MBSE and Digital Engineering tools (e.g., Cameo, SysML, DOORS, Rhapsody).
• Experience with quantitative analysis, modeling and simulation, and data analytics tools (e.g., MATLAB, Python, R, AFSIM, STK, Command PE).
• Experience leading systems engineering analyses in complex systems-of-systems environments.
• Demonstrated innovation, research, publications, or prototype development in systems, mission, or digital engineering.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build effective working relationships with government and technical stakeholders.

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

Top Secret/SCI/Polygraph

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/Polygraph

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

$146,400 - $183,000 - $219,600 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.

MITRE intends to maintain a website that is fully accessible to all individuals. If you are unable to search or apply for jobs and would like to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of MITRE's employment process, please email recruitinghelp@mitre.org for general support and collegerecruiting@mitre.org for intern positions. This service is for individuals requiring reasonable accommodation requests. Please note that vendor solicitations will not receive a reply.

Benefits information may be found here.

Copyright 1997-2026, The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. MITRE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. Material on this site may be copied and distributed with permission only.