Mission Systems Engineer, Senior

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 Senior Mission Engineerto support defense mission engineering, system of systems analysis, experimentation, and decision-support activities for complex operational missions. The candidate will help decompose missions into mission elements, characterize operational scenarios and vignettes, develop mission threads, define mission measures and metrics, analyze baseline and alternative mission approaches, and translate analytic findings into actionable recommendations for government and program stakeholders.

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 stakeholders and subject matter experts: Coordinate with operators, government customers, engineers, modelers, intelligence analysts, test teams, and program leadership to validate mission context, assumptions, data sources, and analytic findings.
• Characterize missions, scenarios, and operational environments: Develop mission context descriptions, CONOPS, scenarios, vignettes, threat representations, environmental conditions, operational timelines, and relevant mission constraints.
• Develop mission measures and analytic metrics: Define and apply Measures of Success, Measures of Effectiveness, Measures of Performance, key mission indicators, and supporting metrics to evaluate mission outcomes and system contributions.
• Create and assess mission architectures: Develop operational, functional, logical, and system of systems architecture products that capture mission activities, actors, systems, interfaces, dependencies, information flows, and operational relationships.
• Analyze baseline and alternative mission approaches: Compare current-state mission execution against alternative architectures, concepts, capabilities, technologies, or operational approaches to identify gaps, risks, dependencies, and improvement opportunities.
• Conduct mission analysis using modeling and simulation capabilities: Develop run matrices, excursions, sensitivity cases, experiment objectives, data collection plans, and analysis methods to evaluate system of systems performance in mission context.
• Evaluate results and assess mission impacts: Analyze quantitative and qualitative results, validate findings with stakeholders and SMEs, assess uncertainty and confidence, and determine how systems, capabilities, or changes affect mission success.
• Deliver decision-ready recommendations and reusable mission engineering artifacts: Produce briefings, reports, visualizations, models, datasets, assumptions, findings, recommended mission architectures, and curated digital artifacts that support acquisition, prototyping, experimentation, and capability decisions.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree and 5 years of experience in systems engineering, modeling and simulation, software engineering, computer science, or related disciplines.
• Experience supporting defense, aerospace, intelligence, national security, or other mission-critical technical programs.
• Experience with analysis and data tools such as but not limited to Python, MATLAB, R, SQL
• Exposure to architecture/modeling tools: iGrafx, CAMEO, Rhapsody, or equivalent
• Exposure to modeling languages and frameworks: SysML, BPMN, UAF/UAFML, or related methods
• Exposure to simulation and mission analysis tools: Simulink, AFSIM, ITASE, NGTS, STL/Systems Tool Kit, OneSAF, or similar tools
• 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.
• Ability to communicate 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.
• Active DoD Secret.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Top Secret SCI 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 and 8 years of experience in systems engineering, modeling and simulation, software engineering, computer science, or related disciplines.
• Experience using architecture/modeling tools: iGrafx, CAMEO, Rhapsody, or equivalent
• Experience using modeling languages and frameworks: SysML, BPMN, UAF/UAFML, or related methods
• Experience using simulation and mission analysis tools: Simulink, AFSIM, ITASE, NGTS, STL/Systems Tool Kit, OneSAF, or similar tools
• Experience leading mission engineering workstreams or small technical teams.
• Experience supporting Joint, Service, 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 defining and applying MOSs, MOEs, MOPs, key performance parameters, operational measures, technical measures, and mission outcome metrics.
• Experience conducting tradespace analysis, 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 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.
• Experience with data pedigree, uncertainty quantification, model verification and validation, configuration management, and curation of reusable mission engineering artifacts.
• INCOSE ASEP, CSEP, or ESEP certification; DAWIA certification; test and evaluation certification; or relevant modeling and simulation certification.
• 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):

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:

$121,200 - $151,500 - $181,800 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.