Strategic Operational Analyst & Project Leader

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab; Laurel (MD); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (JHU/APL) seeks an experienced Operational Analyst within the National Security Analysis Department. The role focuses on leading multidisciplinary teams to assess mission risk, optimize DOTMLPF outcomes, and deliver rigorous analytic insights for sponsors across national security domains.

The successful candidate will manage project scoping, execution, and stakeholder communication, while growing into higher leadership responsibilities and advancing analytic

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in operations research, mathematics, physical or social sciences, engineering, economics, or related field.
• At least seven years of relevant technical, operational, or national security analysis experience.
• Experience conducting national security analyses focused on operations, mission risk, force structure, readiness, sustainment, or related challenges.
• Ability to frame complex, ambiguous problems into tractable analytic questions and defend approaches.
• Experience leading technical or analytic tasks, projects, or multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability to collaborate across organizations and analytic disciplines.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with sponsors and stakeholders.
• Sound judgment, initiative, and accountability in complex environments.
• Willingness to travel occasionally; citizenship and clearance eligibility.

Responsibilities

• Conduct and lead operational analyses and mission risk assessments addressing complex national security challenges.
• Build and lead multidisciplinary project teams; coordinate with line managers and technical leaders; address barriers to success; delegate; foster accountability and shared ownership.
• Define project scope, objectives, deliverables, analytic approaches, and success criteria with sponsors and technical teams.
• Lead disciplined project execution: staffing, schedules, milestones, budgets, dependencies, quality, scope and delivery.
• Work with technical leads to ensure analytic rigor and integrate with mission engineering, modeling, and adversary analysis.
• Translate analytic results into insights about mission risk and operational tradeoffs for sponsor decisions.
• Serve as primary sponsor interface; conduct status meetings and clearly communicate findings and needs.
• Develop sponsor relationships and identify follow-on opportunities; contribute to proposals and new analytic efforts.
• Support data-driven and AI-enabled analytic workflows balancing innovation with rigor and sponsor trust.
• Mentor junior team members and help develop future leaders.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Collaboration

Problem solving

Travel availability

Security clearance eligible

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree or Ph.D.

Job description

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (JHU/APL) seeks an experienced Operational Analyst within the National Security Analysis Department. The role focuses on leading multidisciplinary teams to assess mission risk, optimize DOTMLPF outcomes, and deliver rigorous analytic insights for sponsors across national security domains.

The successful candidate will manage project scoping, execution, and stakeholder communication, while growing into higher leadership responsibilities and advancing analytic