Principal Systems Engineer

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MITRE Technology and Engineering's Systems Engineering Division provides innovative, multidisciplinary systems engineering solutions in support of MITRE and its broad sponsor community. Within this division, the Systems Performance and Evaluation Department offers expertise in designing, assessing, and evolving complex solutions across the systems engineering life cycle. By applying technical rigor, systems thinking, performance measurement, and emerging AI-enabled engineering practices, the department helps ensure solutions address sponsor needs, deliver mission outcomes, and remain effective in dynamic operational environments.

MITRE's Systems Performance and Evaluation Department is seeking an accomplished, proactive professional to serve as a sponsor-facing work leader and strategic shaper of efforts supporting government officials, with a particular emphasis on advancing the science of test and evaluation (T&E). This role also offers the opportunity to apply your expertise and creativity to challenging problems in domains such as national security, intelligence, transportation, and healthcare. In addition, employees may contribute to MITRE's internal research and development program, which funds innovative applied research focused on solving sponsors' most difficult problems.

Roles & Responsibilities:

The successful candidate for this Principal Systems Engineer position will bring a strong foundation in systems engineering, system-of-systems (SoS) engineering, test and evaluation (T&E), and digital engineering. This individual will help develop new approaches to modernizing T&E by creating practical methods for linking T&E activities to acquisition, technical, programmatic, and operational decisions.

In this role, the candidate will work closely with key government stakeholders, cross-functional working groups, and partner organizations across the department, Service developmental and operational organizations, and industry to shape new policy, guidance, strategies, and frameworks that support fast, iterative T&E. The candidate will also collaborate across mission engineering, systems engineering, and T&E disciplines to develop and pilot new tools and methodologies in partnership with MITRE's Technology and Engineering experts.

The successful candidate will serve as a trusted technical advisor and may act as a primary point of contact for senior government sponsors. This individual will be expected to produce clear, concise, and actionable deliverables, communicate complex technical concepts effectively to senior decision-makers, and align advanced systems engineering and T&E capabilities with enterprise-wide mission needs.

Responsibilities include:

• Conducting research, tool development, and methodological studies to identify innovative approaches to agile, iterative, and decision-focused T&E, including early campaigns of learning, continuous evaluation, integrated testing, and data reuse and management.
• Providing objective, technical contributions in collaboration with senior government leaders and multi-organization working groups, including stakeholders from government, FFRDCs/UARCs, and industry, to support the development, revision, and coordination of T&E policy, guidance, and implementation products.
• Co-authoring policy language, guidebook content, decision-support frameworks, briefing materials, issue papers, and implementation recommendations.
• Collaborating across multidisciplinary areas, including developmental test, operational test, cyber, digital engineering, artificial intelligence, and modeling and simulation.
• Translating emerging T&E best practices, digital engineering concepts, agile acquisition methods, data strategies, and modeling and simulation approaches into continuous evaluation techniques.
• Leading functional teams or projects with significant risk, complexity, and resource requirements.
• Serving as a recognized technical expert in systems engineering and/or test and evaluation.
• Applying expert-level knowledge of theories, practices, and procedures within systems engineering disciplines and transferring that knowledge to others.
• Communicating complex ideas effectively, anticipating potential objections, and influencing others to adopt new perspectives in support of enterprise-level mission objectives.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, science, mathematics, cybersecurity, or a related technical field, with a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience; or 6 years of relevant experience with a Master's degree; or 3 years of relevant experience with a PhD; or an equivalent combination of education and related work experience.
• Experience with and knowledge of adaptive acquisition frameworks, Test and Evaluation Master Plans (TEMPs), T&E strategy development, developmental and operational testing, integrated testing, and decision-support planning.
• Familiarity with DoD policy and guidance, including DoDI 5000.89 and related specialized topic manuals.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in an interdisciplinary team environment, collaborating with government stakeholders, cross-functional teams, and working groups, and integrating contributions from a variety of resources, including people, tools, and organizations.
• Strong critical thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to operate effectively in dynamic environments where objectives may evolve, require refinement, or demand creative solutions to overcome challenges.
• Excellent interpersonal and technical communication skills, including the ability to write technical reports, deliver briefings, and communicate persuasively with audiences at all levels, including executives and senior government customers.
• Ability to travel to sponsor sites at the Pentagon and Mark Center on a biweekly basis.
• Must have an active Top Secret U.S Government issued Security Clearance and 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 3 days per week on-site.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Information Systems, or related field with 8 years of relevant experience; PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, or related field with 5 years of relevant experience.
• Active DoD Top Secret / SCI clearance
• Ability to operate independently in a sponsor-facing environment with minimal supervision
• Technical experience with systems engineering, agile acquisition, software pathway, middle-tier acquisition, digital engineering, model-based systems engineering, modeling and simulation, mission engineering, data strategies, multi-domain operations, or automated test approaches.

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

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

Salary compensation range and midpoint:
$162,400 - $203,000 - $243,600 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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