Earth Systems Scientist Lead

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:MITRE's Quantum, Earth, and Energy Systems & Technologies Department is seeking a senior Earth Systems Scientist to work in a dynamic analytical environment focused on solving earth systems science and resilience challenges. This department serves as a vanguard for MITRE to meet the future needs of our customers, requiring technical excellence while encouraging creativity and fostering interests in current and emerging capabilities and technologies across its diverse membership. Your future colleagues are a collegial team of environmental engineers, systems engineers, physicists, Earth scientists, data scientists, geospatial analysts, and other technical experts who work across MITRE's diverse sponsors and partners.MITRE's energy and earth systems group provides innovative solutions to strengthen earth systems analysis and resilience to improve national security, protect lives, and safeguard property. We are expanding our program to address key challenges and opportunities such as climate and weather risk, environmental resilience, hazards analysis, hydrology, remote sensing, geospatial analytics, and decision support for critical infrastructure and operations.Roles & Responsibilities:Characterize the maturity, limitations, and capabilities of earth systems science methods, models, datasets, and emerging technologies relevant to understanding climate, weather, ocean systems, hydrology, hazards, and environmental resilience.Evaluate future earth systems science trends, scientific uncertainties, and operational limitations in unique MITRE customer environments and within the context of mission needs and public- and private-sector data sources.Identify earth systems integration and deployment challenges through analytical and model-based assessments, including evaluation of data quality, model uncertainty, and scenario assumptions.Frame and communicate earth systems impacts, risk, uncertainty, and decision-relevant findings for customer applications and stakeholders.Collaborate with diverse, transdisciplinary experts from across MITRE, our customers, and partners, providing subject matter expertise in earth systems science and related analytical methods.Analyze and synthesize large observational, remote sensing, geospatial, and model datasets to support evidence-based recommendations and mission decision-making.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.8 years of relevant experience in one of the following fields: Earth Science, Atmospheric Science, Oceanography, Hydrology, Geology, Environmental Science, Geography, Physics, Engineering, Data Science, or a related discipline.Deep technical expertise in one or more earth systems science areas, including: climate or weather analysis, hydrology, oceanography, geospatial analysis, remote sensing, environmental resilience, hazard modeling, data assimilation, scientific computing, or performance evaluation of analytical models and datasets.The ability to think critically and be proactive in pursuing research and problem-solving with minimal supervision.Strong technical writing and oral presentation skills.The ability to conduct research and development of new earth systems science capabilities to meet customer requirements in a collaborative environment with both internal and external researchers.Applicants selected for this position will be subject to a U.S. government security investigation and must be able to obtain a Department of Defense SECRET clearance, which requires U.S. citizenship.Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Secret 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 4 days a week on-sitePreferred Qualifications:MS +6 or PhD +3 years of relevant experience in one of the following areas: Earth Science, Atmospheric Science, Oceanography, Hydrology, Geology, Environmental Science, Geography, Physics, Engineering, Data Science, or a related discipline.Extensive experience and expertise, including recent publications, field work, or applied research related to earth systems modeling, climate or weather analysis, geospatial analytics, environmental resilience, hazard assessment, or related scientific applications.Experience applying machine learning or statistical learning methods to earth systems data, including feature engineering, model training and validation, uncertainty assessment, and visualization.Basic understanding of a broad range of earth systems science topics such as climate, weather, hydrology, ocean dynamics, hazards, environmental processes, geospatial data, and scientific modeling.This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):NoneThis requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):SecretSalary compensation range and midpoint:$147,200 - $184,000 - $220,800 AnnualWork Location Type:OnsiteIt is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.Commitment to Non-DiscriminationAll 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 View email address on click.appcast.io for general support and View email address on click.appcast.io 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.Job SummaryJob number: R117735Profession: Engineering