Mission 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.

MITRE Technology and Engineering (MTE) System Engineering Technical Division is seeking a Lead Mission Systems Engineer to support defense mission engineering, system of systems analysis, experimentation, and decision-support activities for complex operational missions. The candidate will develop and deliver integrated mission capabilities that enable the Air Force, Space Force, Joint Force, and Coalition partners to operate at the speed of relevance. The candidate will decompose missions into mission elements, characterize operational scenarios and vignettes, develop mission threads, and define mission measures and metrics that will help shape the future of command and control (C2) capabilities supporting Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) and Long-Range Kill Chains (LRKC).

The candidate will be supporting the Department of the Air Force Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications and Battle Management (DAF PEO C3BM) providing technical guidance for the architecture of the Department of the Air Force Battle Network (DBN) - one of the AF’s highest modernization priorities.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Frame mission engineering problems and investigative questions: Define the mission problem, analysis purpose, decision context, assumptions, constraints, and investigative questions that guide the mission engineering effort.
• Engage with DAF CEO C3BM maintaining awareness of Architecture Systems Engineering (ASE) Mision Increments and other evolving operational and acquisition architecture efforts to ensure architectural consistency.
• Characterize missions, CONOPS, scenarios, threats, environmental conditions, timelines, stakeholders, and constraints to establish a common understanding of the operational problem.
• Develop Measures of Success, Effectiveness, and Performance, along with key mission indicators, to connect system capabilities and technical performance to measurable mission outcomes.
• Create operational, functional, logical, and system-of-systems architecture products that describe mission activities, actors, systems, interfaces, dependencies, information exchanges, and operational relationships.
• Compare current mission execution with alternative concepts, technologies, capabilities, and architectures, using modeling, simulation, sensitivity analysis, and experimentation to identify gaps, risks, dependencies, and improvement opportunities.
• Evaluate quantitative and qualitative results with stakeholders and subject-matter experts, assess uncertainty, and produce recommended architectures, reports, models, visualizations, datasets, and reusable digital artifacts that support acquisition and capability decisions.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in systems engineering, modeling and simulation, software engineering, computer science, or related disciplines.
• Typically requires a minimum of 8 years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree; or 6 years and a master’s degree; or a PhD with 3 years’ experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Experience supporting defense, aerospace, intelligence, national security, or other mission-critical technical programs.
• Familiarity with model-based engineering methods and tools such as MBSE, iGrafx, CAMEO, Rhapsody, or other related tools.
• Familiarity with modeling frameworks and languages such as UAF/UAFML, SysML, BPMN, or equivalent.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze complex missions, operational scenarios, system dependencies, system of systems interactions, or capability gaps.
• Experience developing or supporting at least several of the following: mission threads, operational scenarios, vignettes, CONOPS, use cases, functional flows, system architectures, interface concepts, requirements, measures and metrics, run matrices, trade studies, or analysis reports.
• Experience evaluating kinetic and non-kinetic mission operations, including one or more of the following domains: air, maritime, land, space, cyber, electromagnetic spectrum operations, communications, command and control, fires, logistics, ISR, autonomy, or integrated air and missile defense.
• Ability to communicate and lead complex technical and operational findings clearly through briefings, white papers, visualizations, technical reports, and stakeholder discussions.
• Ability to work with cross-functional teams that may include operators, engineers, software developers, modelers, data scientists, test personnel, subject matter experts, and government customers.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Must have an active Top Secret U.S Government issued Security Clearance and must be eligible to obtain and maintaina Top Secret/SCIU.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:

• Master’s degree in systems engineering, modeling and simulation, software engineering, computer science, or related disciplines.
• Experience supporting Department of Air Force (DAF), Joint, Combatant Command, acquisition, science and technology, prototyping, test, or experimentation organizations.
• Experience developing mission architectures that connect operational mission outcomes to system-level functions, capabilities, interfaces, dependencies, and performance parameters.
• Experience with analysis and data tools such as but not limited to Python, MATLAB, R, SQL
• Experience with architecture/modeling tools: iGrafx, CAMEO, Rhapsody, or equivalent
• Experience with modeling languages and frameworks: SysML, BPMN, UAF/UAFML, or related methods
• Experience with simulation and mission analysis tools: Simulink, AFSIM, ITASE, NGTS, STL/Systems Tool Kit, OneSAF, or similar tools
• Experience defining and applying MOSs, MOEs, MOPs, key performance parameters, operational measures, technical measures, and mission outcome metrics.
• Experience conducting tradespace analyses, gap analysis, sensitivity analysis, capability assessments, portfolio assessments, campaign analysis, operational analysis, or system of systems performance analysis.
• Experience with live, virtual, and constructive experimentation; test event planning; wargaming; red/blue/green force representations; operational scenario development; or data collection in operationally relevant venues.
• Experience with data pedigree, uncertainty quantification, model verification and validation, configuration management, and curation of reusable mission engineering artifacts.
• Active DoD Top Secret clearance with access to Secure Compartmented Information (TS/SCI).

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

Top Secret

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:

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

Work Location Type:

Onsite

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

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 [email protected] for general support and [email protected] 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.