Lead Space Scientist

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 Intelligence Center's Technical Capabilities Department is looking for a seasoned multi-discipline systems engineer and space scientist to provide expert subject matter expertise to shape and develop opportunities for direct sponsor work on capability development, technical evaluation, and SME advisory projects across MITRE's Intelligence Center sponsor base. This person will work with their project leader to represent MITRE to experienced operational stakeholders and help manage MITRE's relationships with their organizations. The lead subject matter expert will also establish and maintain relationships with MITRE Labs organizations to maintain a wide, capable resource pool to support frequently shifting mission priorities. This is a full-time position in either McLean, VA; Colorado Springs, CO; or Bedford, MA with expected travel up to 25%. Roles & Responsibilities: As a Lead Space Scientist specializing in Astrodynamics, you will serve as a subject matter expert supporting Department of Defense and US Intelligence Community sponsors. The position requires technical expertise and leadership in a relevant field and a willingness to apply that expertise to customer priorities. You will apply your specialized knowledge to help deliver more resilient space/counterspace technologies, expand measures and signatures intelligence (MASINT) techniques and procedures, and accelerate left-of-launch capabilities by conducting space science technology maturation and modeling and simulation (M&S) analyses. Responsibilities will include: Developing, testing, and employing physics-based orbit theories and principles to support space and counterspace related missions, architectures, operations, and sponsor-defined problem sets.
Engineering future space intelligence collection architecture(s), focused studies, and analysis.
Developing astrodynamics high performance computing software to improve physics-related analysis tool capabilities to assess M&S tools against sponsor requirements.
Documenting work via technical reports and briefing team members, company officers, stakeholders, and technical conferences on analysis results/findings, options, and recommendations.
Providing technical insight and direction to a diverse group of technical contributors, while developing and maintaining a broad network across MITRE and other professional connections to engage and collaborate with engineers, subject matter experts, international program (foreign military sales) specialists, and defense acquisition professionals. Basic Qualifications: 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.
A current, active Top Secret / SCI clearance with polygraph and ability to maintain classified sponsor network access is required. Technical background in one or more of the following disciplines: physics, aerospace, space, and defense engineering, electrical engineering or computer science. Excellent communication skills with ability to share knowledge and solve problems across teams. Focused and self-motivated with the ability to work independently and with distributed teams. Demonstrated ability to develop and foster trusted relationships with sponsors at a senior level to identify key technical problems and innovative approaches to solving those problems. Strong interpersonal skills as well as strong verbal and written communication skills. Ability to lead a geographically distributed team to achieve impactful sponsor outcomes. This position requires a minimum of 4 days a week on-site. Preferred Qualifications: This position requires a minimum of 80% time on-site.
Master or PhD in Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, Systems Engineering or equivalent a technical field with 3+ years related space/counterspace intelligence analysis, systems engineering or acquisitions experience. Understanding of astrodynamics principles and their impact to the space/counterspace mission.
Understanding of the National Security Space Community missions and organizations, especially within the US Intelligence Community, and their space operations and systems.
Ability to work with highly dynamic, fast-paced teams comprised of numerous companies and organizations distributed asynchronously.
Experience in Space Command and Control, PNT, Intelligence Collections.
Experience working with general space and astrodynamics tools (STK, GMAT, etc.) or libraries (SAL, SGP4, etc.).
Proven ability to simultaneously lead a set of complex tasks/projects and dynamically adapt as needed. Ability to code using C , Python, Mathematica, or similar languages and knowledge of specialized libraries (CUDA, etc.) for high performance computing environments. 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:
$153,000 - $191,500 - $230,000 Annual Work Location Type:
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