Research Associate

Location: McLean, Virginia; Bedford, Massachusetts

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.

Department Summary:

The Market Intelligence and Research team

MITRE is seeking a curious and collaborative early career Research Analyst, Research Associate, Information Professional, or Librarian to join our Research Services team, a part of MITRE’s Market Intelligence & Research organization. This individual will be responsible for providing, locating, gathering, and analyzing information from third-parties, open-source news and articles, published research papers, subscription and public databases and other sources in support of MITRE’s work programs, and specific sponsor and MITRE initiatives. 

As a research associate, this key team member will need a growing understanding and/or interest in databases, digital research libraries, query techniques and short cuts, research and information management practices, and OS intelligence platforms (news alerts, dashboards). This role focuses on desk research, secondary research, literature searching/review, open-source and subscription-based research, and synthesis of existing information for internal clients. This is not a primary research, laboratory, engineering, scientific, or product research role.

This role will translate internal client questions into tangible research objectives to meet the needs of our customers and will engage with internal clients to scope and prioritize tasks, collecting and working with a variety of research outputs, and performing additional desk and secondary research as necessary. This position supports other department capabilities in business analyses, strategy, and sponsor and market intelligence as needed. This role will interact with all levels of the company, including senior level managers, technical SMEs, and analysts. 

The ideal candidate is intellectually curious, highly motivated to find answers, and eager to develop a consultative approach to research support by helping clients refine questions, identify the most relevant sources, and shape actionable outputs. The ideal candidate will have interest in performing research on a broad range of topics, an entrepreneurial approach to generating and creating value and impact, and an appreciation for a nonprofit/public interest environment.

Research Analyst

• Secondary Research • Research Services Analyst • Information Research Analyst • Research Librarian / Information Specialist • Knowledge & Research Analyst

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Provide research support, with guidance, as part of a team serving a diverse customer base across the entire organization
• Conduct research using publicly available, licensed, library, legal, business, government, news, and other authoritative information sources
• Perform literature searches, environmental scans, background research, source discovery, and information synthesis in response to client requests
• Summarize, synthesize, and present findings clearly in written deliverables, briefings, dashboards, alerts, newsletters, and other research products; grow towards having a perspective on direction and next steps based on the research
• Approach research requests with curiosity, persistence, and sound judgment, seeking to understand the underlying business need and identify the most useful sources and outputs
• Communicate effectively and responsively with customers and colleagues to build and maintain collaborative working relationships; able to evolve from order-taker to consultative research partner
• Apply best practices for utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to support research activities and improve research and departmental processes
• Collaborate with team members to develop and maintain OS and research dashboards, alerts, and newsletters within the organization's content aggregation platform
• Assist department leadership with administrative activities related to vendor relationship management
• Manage incoming research requests through the organization's request intake platform and participate in the request management process
• Process interlibrary loan requests using the OCLC Interlibrary Loan platform and distribute requested materials to customers
• Apply knowledge of copyright and licensing restrictions when providing research materials and communicate applicable requirements to staff
• Solve research challenges by identifying appropriate sources, refining search strategies, evaluating source quality, and recommending practical solutions
• Develop a consultative service mindset by engaging with requestors to clarify needs, refine research questions, and provide responsive, solution-oriented support

Please note: This role centers on secondary research and the synthesis of existing information. It does not involve primary data collection, survey design, field research, laboratory research, scientific experimentation, engineering analysis, or product development research.

Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum of 1 year of related research experience with a bachelor’s degree; with relevant experience who can immediately contribute at this job step; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Strong research and organizational skills with the ability to prioritize tasks.
• Intellectually curious, resourceful and persistent in pursuing answers.
• Proactive in clarifying research needs.
• Excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills; ability to communicate information to technical and non-technical professionals.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a team environment, to solve problems creatively, and to effectively build partnerships.
• Ability and interest to grow into a consultative research partner by asking thoughtful questions, clarifying client needs, and tailoring research support accordingly.
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Secret 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 3 days on-site.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 3 - 5 years of professional experience conducting market or federal research.
• Active Secret Security Clearance.
• Master's degree.
• Understanding of the federal government and the federal contracting industry.
• Experience in a corporate, government, or non-profit library or research environment.
• Familiarity with subscription databases and research tools, and appropriate use cases for them.

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:

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 recruitinghelp@mitre.org?subject=Employment%20Process%20Accommodation%20Request" target="_blank">recruitinghelp@mitre.org for general support and collegerecruiting@mitre.org?subject=Employment%20Process%20Accommodation%20Request" target="_blank">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.