Consultant

Analytics Software Engineer (Core CHEETAS Developer)

Closest equivalent to a "software engineer for CHEETAS".

What they do:

• Build and extend analytics applications inside CHEETAS
• Develop data pipelines for flight test and mission data
• Create APIs, plugins, and analytics microservices
• Work in containerized/cloud-edge environments

Typical tech stack:

• Python
• Java
• C++
• REST APIs
• Docker / Kubernetes
• GitLab / CI-CD
• Linux

What to look for:

• DoD RDT&E background
• Test & Evaluation systems
• Experience with big data analytics frameworks

Data Analytics / Data Scientist Engineer

High-value role for F-35 telemetry and sustainment.

What they do:

• Analyze flight telemetry, mission systems, and maintenance data
• Build predictive models for readiness, failure trends, and sustainment
• Support mission capability analytics and anomaly detection

F-35 JPO has increasingly invested in predictive analytics for readiness, logistics, and maintenance optimization.

Skills:

• Python (Pandas, NumPy, SciPy)
• Machine Learning
• Statistical modeling
• SQL
• Data visualization
• Time-series analytics

Defense-specific nice-to-have:

• Sensor data analytics
• Telemetry exploitation
• Flight test data reduction

Test & Evaluation Analytics Engineer

Very common for CHEETAS support.

What they do:

• Support developmental testing (DT) and operational testing (OT)
• Analyze F-35 test mission data
• Create dashboards and post-flight analytics
• Support verification & validation of mission software

Ideal profile:

• Aerospace + analytics hybrid
• Flight test exposure
• Mission systems understanding

DevSecOps / Platform Engineer (CHEETAS Environment)

Critical role because CHEETAS is containerized and cloud-edge based.

CHEETAS uses an extensible, containerized framework with CI/CD and deployment across cloud/edge environments.

What they do:

• Deploy CHEETAS environments
• Manage Kubernetes clusters
• Build secure pipelines
• Handle IL4/IL5/IL6 environments

Skills:

• Kubernetes
• Docker
• AWS GovCloud / Azure Gov / Platform One
• Terraform
• Ansible
• RMF / STIG compliance

Data Engineer / ETL Engineer

Often overlooked but highly needed.

What they do:

• Build ingestion pipelines for:
• telemetry data
• sensor feeds
• maintenance systems
• logistics data
• Normalize and cleanse structured/unstructured data

Skills:

• Spark
• Kafka
• SQL/NoSQL
• Data lakes
• API integration

Visualization & Dashboard Engineer

Executive visibility / Digital War Room support.

F-35 JPO has initiatives around digital visualization and decision-support dashboards.

What they do:

• Build operational dashboards
• Mission readiness reporting
• KPI visualizations
• Programmatic analytics for leadership

Tools:

• Power BI
• Tableau
• Grafana
• Kibana
• React/Angular front ends

Model-Based Analytics / Simulation Engineer

Very SME-level role.

What they do:

• Modeling & simulation (M&S)
• Digital twins
• Predictive sustainment models
• Monte Carlo / mission reliability analysis

The F-35 JPO uses modeling and simulation for readiness and lifecycle optimization.

Skills:

• MATLAB
• Simulink
• Python
• Operations Research
• Statistical modeling