Cost Analyst, Senior

Cost Analyst

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We are seeking an experienced cost analyst to join our team. The MITRE Corporation's Business Analytics and Acquisition Affordability Department is seeking a cost analyst to support multiple projects solving our sponsors' most critical economic and financial challenges. This department serves as a vanguard for MITRE to meet the future needs of our sponsors requiring technical excellence while encouraging creativity and fostering interest in the intersection of emerging technologies, cost, business, and economic impacts across its diverse membership. Expect a multi-disciplinary team environment with self-motivated, highly trained professionals. The work includes engaging with sponsors to scope and prioritize tasks, collecting large datasets to perform data-driven analyses, conducting market research, investigating relevant policies and regulations, understanding the current budgetary and political environment, and performing additional research and analysis as necessary. This is a project-oriented position that may require project management, collaboration, communicating to technical and non-technical audiences, and direct sponsor engagement.

The Business Analytics and Acquisition Affordability Department within the Acquisition Division in MITRE Technology and Engineering solves our sponsor's problems by leveraging our capabilities within:

• Cost Estimation and Analysis
• Investment Economics & Decision Analysis
• Strategic Business & Financial Analytics

This position supports the department's capabilities in cost, economic, business analyses, and data science as needed. That work could include life-cycle cost estimating, tradeoff and affordability analyses, decision analysis, portfolio investment analysis, economic analysis and modeling, research, business case analysis, modeling and simulation, advanced statistical techniques, and constrained optimization.

• Expect a dynamic team environment where tasks are rarely routine and often require novel approaches.
• Expect to work on multiple projects simultaneously, with limited structure and supervision.

Candidates should expect a dynamic and collaborative environment where tasks are rarely routine and often require innovative and adaptive approaches. Successful team members are comfortable working across multiple projects simultaneously, operating with limited structure or supervision, and engaging directly with sponsors to solve complex, ambiguous problems.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Lead teams of junior analysts to successfully meet project objectives
• Identify, scope, and execute structured analysis for government sponsors while managing timelines, deliverables and outcomes
• Key functions include developing models and performing qualitative and quantitative analyses to understand the cost/economic/financial impact of investments, risk mitigation strategies, options and other government actions
• Collecting and analyzing financial, cost, and economic data
• Develop and/or evaluate program technical and programmatic baselines
• Develop innovative development, production and operating and support (O&S) cost estimating techniques for a broad range of cost elements
• Develop independent or program life cycle cost estimates (LCCEs) and accompanying cost and schedule risk, uncertainty, and sensitivity analysis
• Develop cost estimates in support of source selection, including Independent Government Cost Estimates (IGCEs)
• Perform cost-related studies and analysis, e.g,, on rate reasonableness
• Develop investment economic and decision analyses, including business case analyses, cost/benefit analyses, analysis-of alternatives, and portfolio analysis
• Develop strategic business and financial analyses, including but not limited to economic studies, cost recovery strategies, budget development & planning, and affordability analysis
• Assess the credibility of government and industry cost estimates using benchmark guidance, such as the GAO 12 steps and the Cost Estimating Body of Knowledge (CEBoK)
• Assess the credibility of government and industry cost savings initiatives data.
• Conducting surveys and utilizing various sampling techniques.
• Researching various fields including politics, national security, healthcare, education, energy, etc.
• Making use of historical data and analyzing market trends.
• Assist in identifying sources of information and gathering a wide range of quantitative and qualitative data to support decisions that have implications for MITRE and its government sponsors
• Apply analysis skills, including exploratory data analysis, time series analysis, and linear regression
• Draw conclusions from analyses and clearly and concisely articulate key findings in both written and verbal form
• Assist in developing data visualization products that improve the presentation of complex data sets
• Translate unstructured data and nontraditional sources of information into business insights
• Performing data cleaning, visualization and analysis in standard statistical and graphics software languages such as R, Stata and Excel

Basic Qualifications:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience, including previous leadership experience in cost estimating, cost risk analysis, and/or budgeting and the CPIC process in defense, intelligence and/or civil agencies
• Proficiency in development of risk-adjusted LCCEs and investment economic and decision analyses
• Proficient with MS Office Suite, and other tools for analysis
• Technical depth with demonstrated skills and experience in presenting analytical results both verbally and in writing
• BA/BS or Master's in Economics, Mathematics, Statistics, Finance, Business, Operations Research, Systems Engineering, Data Science, or related field
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret level 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-site

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with software engineering best practices and agile devops software development processes
• Experience with econometric/economic modeling and analysis
• Experience with developing Independent Government Cost Estimates (IGCEs) for service and product acquisitions
• Strong working knowledge of federal budgeting and spending mechanics, processes, and data.
  • Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) and OMB Circular A-11
  • Acquisition reform and PPBE reform initiatives
  • Federal Acquisition Regulations
  • Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC)
  • Federal spending data, including: USASpending.gov, SAM.gov, or FPDS-NG
• Investment modeling and analysis, cost benefit analysis, experience in handling large datasets for data driven analysis, policy and investment analysis, and economic analysis in support of regulatory policy, pre- and post-implementation analysis, forecasting, and applied research
• Source selection cost evaluation experience
• Expertise in using parametric cost estimating tools (PRICE, SEER SEM, SEERAi,etc.) and other cost-related automated tools (e.g., ACEIT)
• ICEAA Certification or Defense Acquisition Workforce Initiative Act (DAWIA) certification desired
• Knowledge and understanding of federal government budget and spending rules, processes, and procedures
• Demonstrated interest in public service and advancing mission-focused outcomes.
• Strong foundation in Python and SQL and familiarity with modern data processing tools or frameworks (e.g., Pandas, Spark, Databricks, Airflow).
• Proficiency in optimization-related coding, e.g. in Python

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: $113,600 - $142,000 - $170,400 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