Cost Analyst

MITRE; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

MITRE is seeking an intermediate Cost Analyst to join the Acquisition Affordability and Business Analytics Department. You will build models, perform economic analyses, and support cost estimation for multiple government projects.

The role emphasizes data-driven decision making, sponsor engagement, and clear communication of findings. You will work on life-cycle cost estimates, affordability analyses, and portfolio analyses, collaborating with a multidisciplinary team in a dynamic, on-site

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Economics, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Operations Research, Data Science/Analytics, or related fields.
• Proficient with statistical methods including regressions, forecasting, and hypothesis testing.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proficient with MS Office Suite, especially Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Must have an active Top Secret U.S. Government security clearance; U.S. citizenship required.
• On-site work four days per week.

Responsibilities

• Develop models and perform qualitative and quantitative analyses of investments and cost/economic impacts.
• Collect and analyze financial, cost, and economic data.
• Develop life cycle cost estimates and cost/schedule risk analyses.
• Create innovative cost-estimating techniques for a broad range of elements.
• Support source selection with Independent Government Cost Estimates (IGCEs).
• Conduct data cleaning, visualization, and analysis using statistical tools and Excel.
• Translate findings for sponsor audiences in written and verbal form.
• Support in developing data visualizations to present complex data clearly.

Skills

Statistical analysis

Time series analysis

Exploratory data analysis

Data visualization

Communication skills

Problem solving

Education

Economics

Engineering

Mathematics

Statistics

Operations Research

Data Science/Analytics

Quantitative Sciences

Tools

MS Excel

MS Word

MS PowerPoint

Python

SQL

Job description

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

We are seeking an intermediate cost analyst to join our team. The MITRE Corporation’s Acquisition Affordability and Business Analytics Department is seeking a cost analyst to support multiple projects solving our sponsors’ most critical economic and financial challenges. This department serves as a vanguard for MITRE to meet the future needs of our sponsors requiring technical excellence while encouraging creativity and fostering interest in the intersection of emerging technologies, cost, business, and economic impacts across its diverse membership. Expect a multi‑disciplinary team environment with self‑motivated, highly trained professionals. The work includes engaging with sponsors to scope and prioritize tasks, collecting large datasets to perform data‑driven analyses, conducting market research, investigating relevant policies and regulations, understanding the current budgetary and political environment, and performing additional research and analysis as necessary. This is a project‑oriented position that may require project management, collaboration, communicating to technical and non‑technical audiences, and direct sponsor engagement.

The Acquisition Affordability and Business Analytics Department within the Acquisition Division in MITRE Technology and Engineering solves our sponsor’s problems by leveraging our capabilities within:

• Cost Estimation and Analysis
• Strategic Business & Financial Analytics
• Investment Economics & Decision Analysis

This position supports the department’s capabilities in cost, economic, business analyses, and data science as needed. That work could include life‑cycle cost estimating, trade‑off and affordability analyses, decision analysis, portfolio investment analysis, economic analysis and modeling, research, business case analysis, modeling and simulation, advanced statistical techniques, and constrained optimization.

• Expect a dynamic team environment where tasks are rarely routine and often require novel approaches.
• Expect to work on multiple projects simultaneously, with limited structure and supervision.

Candidates should expect a dynamic and collaborative environment where tasks are rarely routine and often require innovative and adaptive approaches. Successful team members are comfortable working across multiple projects simultaneously, operating with limited structure or supervision, and engaging directly with sponsors to solve complex, ambiguous problems.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Key functions include developing models and performing qualitative and quantitative analyses to understand the cost/economic/financial impact of investments, risk mitigation strategies, options and other government actions
• Collecting and analyzing financial, cost, and economic data
• Develop and/or evaluate program technical and programmatic baselines
• Develop innovative development, production and operating and support (O&S) cost estimating techniques for a broad range of cost elements
• Develop independent or program life cycle cost estimates (LCCEs) and accompanying cost and schedule risk, uncertainty, and sensitivity analysis
• Develop cost estimates in support of source selection, including Independent Government Cost Estimates (IGCEs)
• Perform cost-related studies and analysis, e.g,, on rate reasonableness
• Develop investment economic and decision analyses, including business case analyses, cost/benefit analyses, analysis-of- alternatives, and portfolio analysis
• Develop strategic business and financial analyses, including but not limited to economic studies, cost recovery strategies, budget development & planning, and affordability analysis
• Assess the credibility of government and industry cost estimates using benchmark guidance, such as the GAO 12 steps and the Cost Estimating Body of Knowledge (CEBoK)
• Assess the credibility of government and industry cost savings initiatives data.
• Conducting surveys and utilizing various sampling techniques.
• Researching various fields including politics, national security, healthcare, education, energy, etc.
• Making use of historical data and analyzing market trends.
• Assist in identifying sources of information and gathering a wide range of quantitative and qualitative data to support decisions that have implications for MITRE and its government sponsors
• Apply analysis skills, including exploratory data analysis, time series analysis, and linear regression
• Draw conclusions from analyses and clearly and concisely articulate key findings in both written and verbal form
• Assist in developing data visualization products that improve the presentation of complex data sets
• Translate unstructured data and nontraditional sources of information into business insights
• Performing data cleaning, visualization and analysis in standard statistical and graphics software languages such as R, Stata and Excel

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor of Arts/Science degree in one of the fields (or related) listed below, or equivalent knowledge and skills with related experience.
  • Economics
  • Engineering
  • Mathematics
  • Statistics
  • Operations Research
  • Data Science/Analytics
  • Quantitative Sciences
• Proficient at use of statistical methods including regressions, forecasting, and hypothesis testing
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Proficient with MS Office Suite, especially Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Must have an active Top 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 4 days a week on‑site.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with software engineering best practices and agile devops software development processes
• Experience with econometric/economic modeling and analysis
• Working knowledge of federal budgeting and spending mechanics, processes, and data.
• Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) and OMB Circular A-11
• Acquisition reform and PPBE reform initiatives
• Federal Acquisition Regulations
• Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC)
• Federal spending data, including: USASpending.gov, SAM.gov, or FPDS-NG
• Investment modeling and analysis, cost benefit analysis, experience in handling large datasets for data driven analysis, policy and investment analysis, and economic analysis in support of regulatory policy, pre- and post-implementation analysis, forecasting, and applied research
• Source selection cost evaluation experience
• Expertise in using parametric cost estimating tools (PRICE, SEER SEM, etc.)
• ICEAA Certification or Defense Acquisition Workforce Initiative Act (DAWIA) certification desired
• Knowledge and understanding of federal government budget and spending rules, processes, and procedures
• Demonstrated interest in public service and advancing mission-focused outcomes.
• Strong foundation in Python and SQL and familiarity with modern data processing tools or frameworks (e.g., Pandas, Spark, Databricks, Airflow).

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)

Not Applicable

Salary compensation range and midpoint

$90,000 - $112,500 - $135,000 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.

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