Lead Software Engineer (Intelligence Center)

Why choose between doing meaningful work and having a fulfilling life? At MITRE, you can have both. That's because MITRE people are committed to tackling our nation's toughest challenges-and we're committed to the long-term well-being of our employees. MITRE is different from most technology companies. We are a not-for-profit corporation chartered to work for the public interest, with no commercial conflicts to influence what we do. The R&D centers we operate for the government create lasting impact in fields as diverse as cybersecurity, healthcare, aviation, defense, and enterprise transformation. We're making a difference every day-working for a safer, healthier, and more secure nation and world. Our workplace reflects our values. We offer competitive benefits, exceptional professional development opportunities for career growth, and a culture of innovation that embraces adaptability, collaboration, technical excellence, and people in partnership. If this sounds like the choice you want to make, then choose MITRE - and make a difference with us.

The MITRE Corporation's National Space Program operates at the intersection of technological innovation and deep domain expertise. Our mission is to engineer end-to-end solutions for organizations developing, deploying, and operating next-generation space capabilities. By leveraging systems engineering, advanced analytics, and cross-cutting research, we mitigate risk and accelerate modernization across the entire space life cycle. Ultimately, the National Space Program serves as a foundation for global mission assurance. By reinforcing the digital and physical infrastructure underpinning space superiority, we empower operators to execute their objectives with absolute confidence-ensuring the success of critical national security, civil, and defense missions.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Deliver modern software capabilities, improving architecture, platforms, and developer workflows with strong engineering practices (secure coding, reviews, testing, maintainable design).
• Partner with UX, Architecture, Data, Security, and Operations to define technical strategy and influence roadmaps with a customer-centric mindset.
• Champion architectural excellence (cloud-native, event-driven, microservices where appropriate) across AWS/Azure, balancing long-term vision with pragmatic execution.
• Design and integrate backend services and RESTful APIs, ensuring reliable data flows for mission workflows and downstream consumers.
• Build and operate data pipelines (ETL/ELT) for ingestion, transformation, validation, and publishing to analytics and operational APIs (including Airflow orchestration as needed).
• Develop and optimize data models, SQL, and database access patterns (PostgreSQL/MongoDB), including migrations and data quality strategies.
• Implement containerized deployments with Docker/Kubernetes, including configuration, deployment patterns, and troubleshooting.
• Engineer DevSecOps/CI/CD pipelines with security and quality gates and repeatable release processes.
• Provision and manage Linux environments using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/Ansible) for reproducible dev/test/prod deployments.
• Communicate clearly via high-quality design docs/RFCs and runbooks; lead architecture reviews, incident response, post-incident learning, and compliance/observability integration (e.g., Splunk); mentor engineers and raise standards through reviews and design sessions.

Basic Qualifications:

• Typically requires a minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 6 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 3 years' experience or equivalent combination of related education and work experience. The individual should be able to immediately contribute to this job step
• Strong Python development experience with modern software engineering practices
• Experience building distributed systems in AWS or multi-cloud environments
• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Experience implementing DevSecOps and CI/CD pipelines
• Experience designing and integrating RESTful APIs and data pipelines
• Familiarity with databases such as PostgreSQL or MongoDB
• Experience with Linux environments and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible)
• Experience with modern web technologies (React, JavaScript, HTML/CSS)
• Ability to work in Agile development environments with strong documentation practices
• Active TS/SCI clearance with a polygraph
• U.S. Citizenship required
• This position has an on-site requirement of 5 days a week on-site

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in a technical discipline (including but not limited to Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, etc.)
• Experience delivering software in compliance-aligned environments and hardening systems to standards such as NIST 800-171 and/or NIST 800-53, including producing audit-ready evidence
• Experience building and operating AWS data platforms (e.g., Glue, EMR) and implementing automated data quality validation and monitoring
• Experience with workflow orchestration and streaming/event platforms such as Airflow and/or Kafka
• Experience with cloud automation and Infrastructure as Code beyond baseline use (e.g., reusable Terraform modules, AWS CDK patterns, environment promotion strategies)
• Experience with observability platforms such as Splunk, including onboarding data sources, parsing, dashboards, and alerting to support security/compliance and operational readiness
• Experience supporting mission analysis, test and evaluation, operational systems, and/or integration with external mission partners or vendor solutions
• Experience with simulation environments such as AFSIM
• Experience administering or operating production systems (applications, databases, and/or networks), including incident response practices and reliability improvements
• Experience using agentic software development tools and technologies, including Codex / ChatGPT, Cursor, Windsurf, or other similar models and agent-based tools

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:
$156,800 - $196,000 - $235,200 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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