Senior Defense OR Analyst - Modeling & Simulation

Aether Aerospace; Newport News (VA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Aether Aerospace seeks a Senior Operations Research and Systems Analysis (ORSA) to lead analytical design, evaluation, and interpretation of modeling and simulation studies for a six-month effort supporting a commercial client in military capability assessment.

The analyst will develop study methodologies, establish measures, design scenarios, analyze results, and translate findings into actionable conclusions for customer decision-making, requiring strong quantitative skills.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field with 10+ years in ORSA or modeling and simulation.
• Experience designing and executing comparative studies using simulations or quantitative methods.
• Strong knowledge of experimental design, statistical inference, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis.
• Proficiency with Python, R, MATLAB and Excel for analysis and reporting.
• Ability to translate domain knowledge into explicit assumptions and analytical requirements.
• Experience communicating findings to technical and executive audiences.

Responsibilities

• Develop analysis plans with study questions, hypotheses, measures, and criteria for interpretation.
• Translate objectives into defined scenarios and measurable outcomes with SMEs.
• Establish baselines and design controlled comparisons to isolate effects.
• Create experimental designs including replication, sensitivity, and uncertainty handling.
• Coordinate with staff to define inputs, outputs, event records, and data requirements.
• Assess model representations and data gaps; ensure credible estimates.
• Analyze mission metrics such as time to completion, success probability, and losses.
• Differentiate outcomes and prevent unsupported conversions between them.
• Develop automated workflows to ingest, clean, and process simulation outputs.
• Provide analytical reports and executive briefings with clear significance.
• Collaborate with SMEs to interpret mechanisms and drive conclusions.
• Support reviews and propose further data collection or follow-on studies.

Skills

Simulations

Experimental design

Quantitative analysis

Stakeholder collaboration

Technical reporting

Active Secret Clearance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in operations research, mathematics, statistics, engineering, systems analysis, or related quantitative discipline

Master’s degree in operations research, statistics, engineering, or related field (preferred)

Tools

Python

R

MATLAB

Excel

Job description

Aether Aerospace seeks a Senior Operations Research and Systems Analysis (ORSA) to lead analytical design, evaluation, and interpretation of modeling and simulation studies for a six-month effort supporting a commercial client in military capability assessment.

The analyst will develop study methodologies, establish measures, design scenarios, analyze results, and translate findings into actionable conclusions for customer decision-making, requiring strong quantitative skills.