Lead Systems Engineer

Location: McLean, Virginia; Chantilly, Virginia

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 Systems and Operations Department (L626) within MITRE’s Systems Engineering Division in the Center for Engineering and Analysis delivers innovative, mission-focused solutions using a multidisciplinary systems engineering approach to address sponsor challenges critical to national security missions. We advance engineering rigor, operational relevance, and mission effectiveness across complex systems and enterprises, with core focus areas in Domain Systems Engineering, Lifecycle Systems Engineering, and Acquisition Systems Engineering. Our teams develop, assess, and transition engineering solutions, provide strategic technical vision, and deliver data-informed recommendations that enable sponsor mission success from tactical through enterprise levels.  

Roles & Responsibilities:

The Systems and Operations Department is seeking a Lead Systems Engineer to support government sponsor mission needs across complex and evolving national security environments. The selected candidate will help define, design, architect, integrate, and transition complex mission systems by applying both Traditional Systems Engineering (TSE) and Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methods. The role requires the ability to work across technical, operational, acquisition, and programmatic stakeholders to translate mission needs into executable system concepts, architectures, requirements, roadmaps, integration plans, acquisition artifacts, and engineering recommendations. The selected candidate will be expected to:

• Apply systems engineering principles across the system development lifecycle, including mission analysis, concept development, system design, architecture definition, requirements development, integration, verification, validation, deployment planning, and technical transition
• Lead system design and architecture activities by translating sponsor mission needs, operational constraints, and capability gaps into system concepts, functional designs, technical approaches, and implementation options
• Develop, assess, and refine system architectures for complex mission systems, including operational views, functional architectures, logical and physical architectures, interfaces, data flows, dependencies, and integration points
• Apply TSE and MBSE methods to capture system behavior, structure, requirements, interfaces, constraints, verification relationships, trade space, risks, and technical decisions
• Conduct stakeholder engagements, workshops, interviews, and technical working groups to elicit, analyze, document, and validate clear, testable, and traceable mission, system, product, interface, performance, security, and operational requirements
• Perform engineering studies, trade analyses, and gap assessments to evaluate current-state systems, operational processes, technology limitations, interoperability challenges, and opportunities to improve mission outcomes  
• Steer integration, test, verification, validation, deployment planning, and technical transition activities for complex systems, including integration sequencing, test objectives, success criteria, interface dependencies, and deployment readiness considerations
• Perform alternative analysis for government sponsors and program managers on mission context, capability needs, technical priorities, system roadmaps, technology insertion opportunities, acquisition strategies, and engineering approaches that support program objectives
• Lead acquisition planning and execution by contributing to Statements of Work, Statements of Objectives, Performance Work Statements, market research, acquisition strategies, evaluation criteria, technical evaluation plans, source selection documentation, and vendor assessments
• Facilitate multidisciplinary teams to develop and present technical artifacts, architecture briefings, decision papers, trade study results, requirements packages, interface documentation, and engineering recommendations for sponsor and leadership review
• Serve as a mentor to junior staff by providing guidance, feedback, and knowledge-sharing to support their professional growth and strengthen team capabilities
• Support to Intelligence Community

Basic Qualifications:

• 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 applying systems engineering practices to complex technical, operational, or mission-focused systems
• Experience with system design, system architecture modeling, requirements development, interface analysis, integration planning, verification and validation, and technical documentation
• Familiarity with both MBSE and traditional systems engineering approaches, including requirements analysis, functional decomposition, interface control, trade studies, risk analysis, technical reviews, and engineering decision support
• Ability to develop or review architecture products, requirements specifications, trade studies, technical plans, acquisition artifacts, and engineering recommendations
• Experience leading technical tasks, facilitating stakeholder workshops, coordinating multidisciplinary engineering teams, or advising senior technical and program leadership
• Ability to collaborate directly with government sponsors, program managers, technical teams, acquisition stakeholders, and mission users
• Strong analytical, verbal, and written communication skills, including the ability to define ambiguous problems, structure technical options, and brief technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to work both collaboratively and independently in a dynamic sponsor environment
• Willingness to work at various sponsor locations in the Northern Virginia area as needed
• Must have an active Top Secret/SCI with Polygraph 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 has an on-site requirement of 5 days a week on-site

Preferred Qualifications:

• Knowledge of intelligence operations, the intelligence lifecycle, and intelligence systems
• Experience applying MBSE methods using modeling languages and tools, such as SysML, Cameo, MagicDraw, Rhapsody, Sparx EA, or similar platforms
• Experience developing SysML diagrams, including block definition diagrams, internal block diagrams, activity diagrams, sequence diagrams, state machine diagrams, requirement diagrams, and parametric models
• Experience developing or applying systems architecture frameworks, architecture views, interface models, operational models, or enterprise architecture products
• Experience advising the federal government on acquisition lifecycle activities, including SOW/SOO development, market research, acquisition planning, technical evaluations, source selection support, or adoption of innovative acquisition approaches
• Experience supporting system integration, test planning, verification and validation, deployment readiness planning, or technical transition of mission systems  
• Experience with digital engineering, mission engineering, enterprise architecture, software-intensive systems, cloud-based systems, data platforms, cybersecurity, or command-and-control systems
• Experience researching, assessing, prototyping, integrating, or supporting the transition of mission technologies such as secure communication protocols, mobile devices, terrestrial and space-based networking, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, or related technologies

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

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

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

Work Location Type:

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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