Senior Systems Engineer

MITRE; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 121,000 - 182,000; Full time

Job summary

MITRE in McLean, Virginia, is seeking a Systems Engineer to apply advanced systems engineering, software, and data engineering skills to solve mission-critical problems across national security, cybersecurity, health, transportation, and citizen services.

You will develop clear deliverables, communicate technical concepts to senior decision-makers, and align capabilities to enterprise-wide mission needs, with on-site work four days a week and an active TS/SCI clearance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, or related field.
• Strong systems thinking and analytical problem solving skills.
• Ability to translate complex technical information for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience integrating commercial, government, and open-source technologies to solve operational problems.
• Active Top Secret/SCI clearance required.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deliver systems engineering solutions for mission problems.
• Communicate technical concepts to senior decision makers.
• Identify and resolve complex problems with lasting impact.
• Support cloud and HPC initiatives across enterprise compute/storage.
• Analyze capacity, storage options, and workload behavior to identify risks and bottlenecks.
• Identify critical workloads and document compute/storage dependencies.
• Recommend workload orchestration and hosting approaches, including containerization.

Skills

Systems thinking

Analytical reasoning

Technical communication

Stakeholder collaboration

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Cloud platforms

Containerization tools

Monitoring 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.

Department Summary:

MITRE’s Systems Engineering Analytics department is looking for qualified applicants to bring their advanced systems engineering, software engineering and data engineering skills to bear on solving problems of critical national importance. MITRE’s diverse work program provides opportunities to apply your expertise and creative thinking in challenging domains such as national security, intelligence, transportation, and healthcare. Employees may also participate in MITRE’s internal research and development program, which provides funding for innovative applied research that addresses our sponsors’ hardest problems.

Roles & Responsibilities:

The successful candidate for this position is a Systems Engineer who combines strong foundations in systems engineering with hands‑on experience designing and implementing systems to solve mission problems. Our organization values innovation and believes that keeping up with the latest research and technologies is essential.

The candidate will be expected to develop clear, concise, and actionable deliverables; communicate technical concepts to senior decision makers; and align capabilities to enterprise‑wide mission needs.

Expectations for this position are as follows:

• Identifies and resolves complex problems in ways that have lasting impact for an organization.
• Support strategic cloud and HPC initiatives by assessing enterprise compute and storage platforms across cloud and on‑premise environments.
• Analyze infrastructure capacity, storage options, and workload behavior to identify risks, constraints, optimization opportunities, and performance bottlenecks affecting utilization, availability, and throughput.
• Identify critical workloads within NGA, understand and document their compute and storage dependencies.
• Assess and recommend workload orchestration and hosting approaches, including scheduling, containerization, and pipelining.
• Translate complex technical findings into clear recommendations for both technical and non‑technical audiences.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, or related field with 5 years of relevant experience.
• Ability to rapidly understand unfamiliar mission problems and translate them into technical approaches
• Strong systems thinking and analytical problem‑solving skills
• Experience integrating commercial, government, and open‑source technologies to solve operational problems
• Ability to analyze complex technical information and communicate findings and recommendations clearly to technical and non‑technical audiences
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Experience collaborating with multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders
• Must have an active Top Secret U.S Government issued Security Clearance. Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI 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:

• Active DoD TS/ SCI security clearance
• Experience supporting enterprise infrastructure strategy, performance analysis, or capacity planning.
• Familiarity with hosting infrastructure and technologies, including cloud, on‑premise datacenter, and HPC solutions.
• Experience working with workload observability, tracing, and performance monitoring tools.
• Experience collaborating across infrastructure, operations, engineering, and architecture teams.
• Understanding workload hosting techniques such as scheduling, containerization, and pipelining.
• Ability to assess enterprise‑scale compute and storage environments and identify performance and capacity considerations.
• Ability to influence technical decisions through clear analysis and well‑supported recommendations.
• Ability to operate independently in a sponsor‑facing environment with minimal supervision
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both lay and expert audiences.
• Ability and willingness to successfully complete a CI polygraph within 12 months from the date of hire

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

Top Secret/SCI

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

Top Secret

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

$121,200 - $151,500 - $181,800 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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