Chief Engineer, Survivable Communications and Networking Systems

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 N131 Survivable Communications and Networking Systems Department seeks to accelerate Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) capability development and expedite transition of these capabilities to the field to promote modernization of the nuclear enterprise and assure the US Nuclear Deterrence mission. To achieve this outcome, N131 partners with sponsors to expedite fielding of critical communication system capabilities to the field in support of the broad Nuclear Command and Control (NC2) mission. The department engages in a variety of work including waveform design, hardware and software prototyping, modeling, simulation, and analysis (MS&A), and research into novel concepts to help sponsors achieve their objectives. The research, development, and outcomes of these activities provide high-quality, comprehensive, quantitative insights for senior government decision makers shaping the future of our nation's nuclear deterrent operations and systems. The N131 department is a major contributor to the outcomes of MITRE's Nuclear Enterprise Mission Division work program.

Roles & Responsibilities

MITRE's N131 Survivable Communications and Networking Systems Department is seeking a technically deep and operationally oriented Department Chief Engineer (CE) to provide technical leadership for a set of dynamic and impactful work programs to meet the challenges of realizing the future of Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) and delivering modern and adaptive systems to our mission collaborators & stakeholders. As CE, you will be responsible for and have broad oversight of the technical integrity and quality of our work program, products & deliverables, the technical teams, and will partner with the Department Manager for strategic work-shaping and sponsor relationships. The individual will be a member of the core department and division leadership teams, providing thought leadership and technical guidance to enable the projects within the Nuclear Enterprise work program to successfully execute the mission areas of our sponsors to include a variety of line of site (LOS) and beyond line of sight (BLOS) communication technologies, applications of digital engineering to create more efficient acquisition processes, and development of open standard hardware and software prototypes that leverage common standards to promote extensibility and ease of integration across the enterprise. The Chief Engineer is expected to lead critical technical aspects of the work program and integrate across the department and MITRE's entire Nuclear Enterprise work program including partnering with other Air and Space Force Center (A&SFC) divisions, MITRE Technology & Engineering, and the breadth of the National Security Engineering Center (NSEC) to deliver technology solutions that drive impactful outcomes for our sponsors. The CE will also be expected to be a driver for innovation within the department and division as well as to engage externally with key stakeholders. The Chief Engineer will be an execution partner for the N131 Department Manager and a key member of the division CE team. We seek a "thought leader" who will represent the department and division as the voice of technical excellence and integrity across MITRE with particular focus on the C3 aspects of the nuclear mission. The successful candidate will be a critical thinker with deep technical skills and have a demonstrated track record of fostering, promoting and/or fielding innovative ideas and solutions for sponsors.

Technical Quality & Impact

• Be recognized as expert in technical fields critical to the department's work program and directly contribute to high-impact solutions. Leverage enablers like internal research and laboratories to address warfighter gaps, aligned to our cross-cutting objectives.
• Guide the Department's technical investments, technical initiatives, lab environments, and development of staff skills in support of MITRE's Strategy.
• Lead technical quality efforts and development of technical quality standards within the Nuclear Enterprise work program with technical focus in the Nuclear Enterprise mission area especially in digital communications for satellite, non-satellite BLOS, and LOS communication systems.
• Partner with business and people leadership to ensure a robust technical workforce by contributing to staff hiring, technical development of staff, and spearheading of training initiatives.
• Ensure the technical strength of the work program by shaping its content, participating in technical product definition and reviews, and bringing a perspective that reflects knowledge of the domain, understanding of the state of the art and practice in technology, and comprehension of MITRE and key external communities.
• Ensure individual projects are driving change at a technical level, while partnering with project leaders to ensure the project itself is the right level impact for MITRE, during its inception and onset.
• Provide input into the Mission Value Chains ("MVCs") used to trace mission outcomes to MITRE technical work and products, at the department and division level.

Strategy Development

• Grow the connective tissue across MITRE and our sponsors to both benefit from and contribute to other work, expertise, and capabilities, including identifying opportunities for integrating and accelerating the collective nuclear work program to drive larger impactful outcomes. Develop a strategy to cohere and mature the N130 (Division) communications program.
• Develop and lead execution of the department technical strategy and core competency areas and collaborating at the department/division level to focus on impact and growth of these core competencies.
• Develop the strategy for enhancing the communications specialty within MITRE or how that specialty is used, including the ability to call for a technical review on a specific project within the scope of the Chief Engineer and or how that specialty is used including research, internal and external initiatives, and partnerships.
• Lead a component of division strategy execution.
• Develop long term lab strategy to ensure capabilities maintain pace with technology and the evolution of the work program.
• Anticipate and address technology challenges that may impact the execution of work in the department.

Staff Development

• Collaborate with the department and Division leadership in deliberately growing the organization's core competency areas and ensuring a robust workforce by growing expertise based on training, mentoring, and project work opportunities.
• Staff development and input into talent assessment and development planning (hiring, mentoring, and training needs), including senior staff across Centers.
• Proactively develop and define cultural initiatives, in partnership with others across the organization, to foster and demonstrate a strong and positive culture built upon MITRE's cultural attributes.

Partnerships and Initiatives

• Conduct outreach, engage, and collaborate across the corporation, with academia, industry, FFRDCs/UARCs and government to develop and bring the best solutions to our sponsors which demonstrate MITRE's FFRDC Differential Value and Culture.
• Develop and maintain relationships with key technical leaders across MITRE program divisions, MITRE Technology and Engineering, MITRE Capabilities, and externally for new project collaboration opportunities, technical skillset development, and technical quality.
• Support the MITRE internal R&D program to pursue projects beyond our direct sponsor requests.
• Partner with Innovation leads, Chief Engineers, and Project Leaders to identify and execute work proposals aimed at injecting innovation across critical department projects and potentially developing new program areas.
• Lead the N131 innovation program.

Basic Qualifications

• Typically requires a minimum of 12 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 10 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 7 years' experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• A recognized expert in at least one of the following areas: Communications and digital signal processing such as detection and estimation, information theory, spread spectrum communications, waveform design, modulation theory, error control coding, channel equalization, interference cancellation, algorithm development, receiver design, embedded software, advanced wireless protocols.
• Experience in systems engineering with expertise across the development lifecycle from concept development, through requirements definition, system development and integration, and into verification.
• Experience with planning, executing, and presenting complex trade studies while balancing cost and schedule constraints, mission analysis, information assurance, systems integration, and understanding of the relationships between operational, technical, and system's architecture.
• Proficient in implementing technical quality into an organization.
• Demonstrated proficiency and strength in verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated proficiency in virtual and live presentation of complex technical issues.
• Must have an active Top Secret U.S Government issued Security Clearance. Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI, SAP U.S Government issued Security Clearance.
• The position has an on-site requirement of 5 days a week on-site.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the nuclear command and control (NC2)
• Depth with Military Satellite Communications (geosynchronous and polar), especially familiarity with EHF and AEHF SATCOM and associated Satellite Communications terminals (MILSTAR, FAB-T, FET, SMART-T, SCAMP, Global ASNT), HF and VLF communications systems
• Familiarity with multi-disciplinary modeling and simulation (physics-level, engineering-level and/or operational-level).
• Understanding of the nuclear environment and NC3
• Experience in prototyping efforts and innovation implementation
• Experience working collaboratively across diverse sponsors/stakeholders to propose, shape, and lead impactful MITRE work.
• The candidate should have mentoring experience as well as academic outreach experience.
• Active TS/SCI Clearance.

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):
SAP, Top Secret/SCI

Salary compensation range and midpoint:
$202,000 - $252,500 - $303,000 Annual

Work Location Type:
Onsite

It 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-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 for general support and 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.