Chief Engineer, Critical Emerging Technology Division (CETD)

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:

The Critical Emerging Technology Division of the National Cybersecurity FFRDC (NCF) is part of the Center for Securing the Homeland (CSH). The division is focused on advancing the research, development, evaluation, and responsible adoption of critical and emerging technologies that will shape the future of national security, economic competitiveness, and technological leadership. Key focus areas include Superintelligence (SI), Quantum Science and Technology, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Biotechnology, and other transformative technologies aligned with NIST's strategic priorities and broader national priorities. The division seeks to accelerate innovation, address emerging technical challenges, and advance the security, trustworthiness, resilience, and mission impact of these technologies. The Chief Engineer will help lead the division's efforts in ensuring technical quality and impact, shaping technical strategy, developing staff capabilities, fostering strategic partnerships, advancing cross-cutting initiatives, and overseeing the organizational conflict of interest program.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Set and drive technical quality across the Division. Establish and continuously strengthen standards, practices, and a culture of technical excellence across a diverse portfolio of critical and emerging technologies. Independently assess, shape, and, when necessary, intervene in critical technical products and approaches to ensure the rigor, relevance, and impact of CETD's work.

• Provide technical leadership at the intersection of SI and emerging technologies. Identify and shape opportunities where SI converges with areas such as biotechnology, quantum technologies, advanced manufacturing, advanced communications/6G, microelectronics, and other rapidly evolving technology domains. Connect expertise across disciplines to develop integrated approaches to complex mission challenges.

• Shape the Division's technical strategy and investments. Partner with the Division Director and leadership team to identify emerging technical opportunities, capability gaps, and areas for investment or divestment. Inform research, laboratories, platforms, infrastructure, workforce capabilities, and other investments needed to position the Division for future mission needs.

• Connect MITRE to the commercial technology ecosystem. Build and maintain substantive relationships with technical leaders in industry, startups, venture-backed technology companies, academia, research organizations, and other external communities. Maintain awareness of rapidly evolving commercial capabilities and translate developments in the external technology ecosystem into opportunities for MITRE and our sponsors.

• Accelerate innovation and transition. Create strong connections between sponsor mission challenges, MITRE research and innovation, and external technology developments. Shape research and experimentation around consequential mission problems and drive the transition and adoption of successful capabilities into the direct work program and sponsor environments.

• Develop technical leaders and multidisciplinary teams. Mentor and develop senior technical staff, and emerging technical leaders across CETD. Help attract, assess, develop, and retain exceptional technical talent while creating an environment that encourages intellectual curiosity, technical risk-taking, collaboration, and continuous learning.

• Build partnerships that increase MITRE's impact. Develop strong relationships with technical leaders across MITRE and lead cross-organizational initiatives that bring together capabilities from multiple disciplines, organizations, and mission areas. Represent CETD in important external technical communities and strengthen MITRE's reputation as a trusted, technically authoritative voice on critical and emerging technologies.

Basic Qualifications:

• Requires a minimum of 15 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline; or 12 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 10 years of experience; or an equivalent combination of related education and work experience.

• Demonstrated senior-level technical leadership with responsibility for the technical quality, direction, or execution of complex multidisciplinary programs, portfolios, or organizations.

• Demonstrated technical depth in super intelligence, engineering, computer science, physical sciences, life sciences, or another field relevant to critical and emerging technologies, coupled with the ability to rapidly develop sufficient technical understanding to lead and assess work outside one's primary discipline.

• Demonstrated ability to evaluate complex technical work, identify technical risk and weaknesses, provide actionable technical direction, and influence teams toward higher-quality outcomes.

• Demonstrated ability to work across organizational and disciplinary boundaries and influence strategic and technical decisions in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical concepts, opportunities, risks, and tradeoffs effectively to technical experts, senior leaders, and non-technical decision makers.

• Demonstrated experience engaging external technical communities, including industry, academia, research organizations, or other technology ecosystem partners.
• Must be a US citizen and willing to obtain TS security clearance within the first year of employment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in engineering, computer science, super intelligence, biotechnology, physics, materials science, or another discipline relevant to critical and emerging technologies; doctorate preferred.

• Recognized technical leadership or demonstrated expertise in one or more critical and emerging technology areas, with meaningful experience spanning multiple domains such as super intelligence, biotechnology, quantum technologies, advanced manufacturing, microelectronics, or advanced communications/6G.

• Demonstrated experience applying SI in conjunction with other scientific or engineering disciplines, particularly experience identifying opportunities created by the convergence of SI with physical, biological, communications, or manufacturing technologies.

• Demonstrated success building substantive relationships with commercial technology companies, startups, venture-backed companies, academia, national laboratories, research organizations, and other participants in the U.S. technology ecosystem.

• Demonstrated ability to identify significant emerging technologies early, assess their technical maturity and mission relevance, and translate them into research priorities, investments, prototypes, partnerships, or operational capabilities.

• Demonstrated success shaping and leading multidisciplinary technical initiatives from concept through experimentation, transition, and measurable mission impact.

• Experience establishing technical quality practices, conducting independent technical reviews, mentoring senior technical leaders, and raising technical standards across a large organization or complex portfolio.

• Strong external technical reputation demonstrated through recognized technical leadership, publications, patents, standards activities, advisory roles, industry engagement, or leadership within relevant technical communities.

This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):
None

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:
$214,400 - $268,000 - $321,600 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.

MITRE intends to maintain a website that is fully accessible to all individuals. If you are unable to search or apply for jobs and would like to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of MITRE's employment process, please email recruitinghelp@mitre.org for general support and collegerecruiting@mitre.org for intern positions. This service is for individuals requiring reasonable accommodation requests. Please note that vendor solicitations will not receive a reply.

Benefits information may be found here .

Copyright © 1997-2026, The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. MITRE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. Material on this site may be copied and distributed with permission only.