Senior Principal Project Leader – National Space Program – System Engineering Directorate

MITRE; Chantilly (VA); On-site; USD 206,000 - 309,000; Full time

Job summary

MITRE’s National Space Program seeks a Senior Principal Project Leader to drive cross-disciplinary digital engineering for national space systems. You will oversee governance of systems engineering across the agency, enforce standards, and guide baselines for space and ground architectures while ensuring mission assurance across acquisition and operations lifecycles.

You will apply MBSE, lead prototype development, and enforce zero-trust cybersecurity and secure cloud adoption.

Qualifications

• Typically requires extensive experience in systems engineering and MBSE.
• Active Top Secret/SCI w/ Poly clearance is required.
• Experience with DoD/IC space sponsors and acquisition lifecycle is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and technical leadership to sponsor and shape the System Engineering Team scope.
• Build relationships with NSP senior leadership and government stakeholders across the mission space.
• Define and execute technical objectives aligned with sponsor priorities and mission outcomes.
• Translate project strategy into actionable outcomes, deliverables, and technical products.
• Lead architecture concept development, mission utility evaluations, and requirements traceability across complex contracts.

Skills

MBSE

Systems engineering

Leadership

Strategic planning

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in space cybersecurity or related field

Master’s degree preferred

PhD optional

Tools

MBSE tools

Modeling & simulation tools

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.

MITRE’s National Space Program brings together leading technical talent and deep mission expertise to help shape the future of space operations. We partner with organizations across the space enterprise to design, deliver, and advance next-generation capabilities that strengthen national security and support critical civil and defense missions. Through systems engineering, advanced analytics, and mission-focused research, our teams solve complex challenges, reduce risk, and accelerate innovation across the full space life cycle.

Joining the National Space Program means contributing to work of national and global importance. Our people help strengthen the digital and physical foundations that enable resilient, effective, and trusted space operations. Together, we are advancing mission assurance and empowering operators with the confidence and capabilities needed to succeed in an increasingly dynamic space environment.

Roles & Responsibilities:

MITRE is seeking a technically exceptional Senior Principal Project Leader to drive the NRO’s strategic transition from siloed engineering practices toward an integrated, cross-disciplinary Digital Engineering (DE) ecosystem. In this role, you will play a critical role in providing enterprise engineering excellence to ensure the end-to-end mission success of the nation's reconnaissance satellite systems. As a leader supporting the National Reconnaissance Office’s Systems Engineering Directorate (SED) you will oversee the comprehensive governance of all systems engineering and management processes across the agency. This includes directing independent programmatic assessments, enforcing corporate technical standards, and institutionalizing strict quality and reliability frameworks. The candidate will guide technical baselines across space and ground architectures, ensuring rigorous mission assurance protocols are applied throughout the acquisition and operational lifecycles of high-consequence intelligence platforms.

In addition to foundational engineering governance, the SED This role requires expertise in overseeing advanced enterprise modeling, simulation, and analysis (MS&A) to deliver the independent analytic rigor required for senior-level decision-making. The successful candidate will drive architecture concept development, execute mission utility evaluations, and enforce strict requirements decomposition and traceability across complex, multi-vendor contract transitions to ensure absolute capability gap closure.

Crucially, this leadership position is central to the SED’s enterprise-wide mandate for Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) and industrial base security. The candidate will orchestrate joint oversight initiatives alongside intelligence and defense partners to identify and mitigate systemic vulnerabilities impacting multi-agency space acquisitions. By integrating technical risk assessments with industrial base strategy, the leader will ensure the resilience of critical vendor networks, protecting the integrity of the hardware and software components that secure the United States' strategic intelligence advantage.

This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of space mission operations through a system of systems lens. The work includes applying model-based systems engineering (MBSE) to define mission threads, system behaviors, dependencies, and interfaces; leading prototype development to evaluate new operational concepts and technology insertion; and ensuring space cyber-security is designed into the architecture from the outset, including zero-trust principles, secure cloud adoption, and resilient cross-domain data flows.

In partnership with staff across MITRE’s Intelligence Center, you will help evolve stovepiped legacy engineering environments into an integrated digital enterprise built on modular architectures, agile delivery, DevSecOps, and AI/ML-enabled automation.

The selected candidate will be expected to:

• Provide strategic and technical leadership as a trusted advisor to the sponsor and help shape the full scope of work for the System Engineering Team
• Build and sustain strong relationships with NSP senior leadership, division leadership, branch chiefs, and government stakeholders across the mission space
• Define and execute technical objectives based on sponsor priorities and mission outcomes, with an emphasis on areas where MITRE can deliver the greatest value through its technical depth and cross-cutting capabilities
• Translate overall project strategy into clear, actionable outcomes, deliverables, and technical products
• Identify and integrate relevant research and innovation efforts from across MITRE, including internal innovation programs, to strengthen project impact and advance sponsor objectives
• Ensure the technical quality of products and recommendations by establishing clear team expectations aligned with division quality practices, conducting in-progress reviews, incorporating peer review, implementing effective knowledge management, and participating in regular program execution reviews
• Partner with MITRE staff resourcing organizations to develop and execute a mission-focused staffing strategy for the project
• Collaborate across MITRE and with sponsors to identify, assess, and inform operational trade space decisions for the NSP mission
• Lead project administration activities, including financial tracking, project documentation, meeting coordination, status reporting, facility management, task tracking, and contributor expectation setting
• Oversee staff management activities, including onboarding and access coordination for required systems, networks, collaboration environments, and classified facilities.
• Collaborate across the NSP work program with other PLs to ensure cohesive, well-aligned delivery

Basic Qualifications:

• Typically requires a minimum of 12 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 10 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 7 years’ experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Degree in space cybersecurity, system engineering, physics, applied mathematics, aerospace, software development for engineering/physical systems, mechanical engineering, or related discipline.
• Background or experience with the National Reconnaissance Office, it’s strategy, missions, and priorities.
• Understanding of space-related physics and engineering concepts, for example, orbital mechanics, satellite propulsion, space-based ISR, satellite communications, space domain awareness, etc.
• Knowledge of enterprise data architectures.
• Knowledge of Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) and associated tools, techniques, and processes
• Ability to proactively formulate key analytical questions to drive modeling, simulation, experimentation, and prototyping.
• Proficiency in DoD and IC space sponsors and their role in the development, acquisition, and operational lifecycle and the ability to work across to achieve higher level strategic objectives.
• Experience with understanding & presenting technical studies to senior decision-makers to drive action and outcomes.
• Must have an active Top Secret/SCI w/Poly 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 5 days a week on-site.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s or PhD with research experience in Space Cyber Security or Systems Engineering
• Experience with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) – to include AI strategy and engineering
• Knowledge of intelligence operations, the intelligence lifecycle, and intelligence systems
• 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 (emphasizing software acquisitions), including SOW/SOO development, market research, acquisition planning, technical evaluations, source selection support, or adoption of innovative acquisition approaches
• Experience with digital engineering, mission engineering, enterprise architecture, software-intensive systems, cloud-based systems, data platforms, cybersecurity, or command-and-control systems

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

Top Secret/SCI/Polygraph

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/Polygraph

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

$205,500 - $257,000 - $308,500 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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