Capability Delivery Transformation Principal

The MITRE Corporation • New Bedford, MA

5d • $173,200 - $259,800 • Hybrid

About The Position

MITRE's Acquisition Studies & Analysis (ASA) Department seeks a well-connected and recognized expert on defense acquisition and innovation. The ideal candidate will be a credible authority on defense acquisition, emerging technologies, and national security processes. You will belong to a high-performing team that regularly initiates and implements projects in support of sponsors’ strategic initiatives, often before a sponsor can fully recognize or articulate that they are needed. The team may publish, speak at high visibility events, and advise senior government officials.

MITRE is 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.

Requirements

• Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 8 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 5 years’ experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Demonstrated experience navigating or improving DoW acquisition processes in programs, portfolios, or enterprise settings.
• Working knowledge of the Adaptive Acquisition Framework (AAF), including the Software Acquisition Pathway, and related requirements and resourcing processes.
• Practical knowledge of acquisition mechanisms such as OTAs, FAR-based strategies, and innovation pathways to enable adaptive delivery approaches.
• Experience implementing modern acquisition approaches in traditional acquisition or AAF environments.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional working groups and drive change across organizational boundaries with measurable improvement.
• Experience supporting or implementing governance improvements.
• Strong analytical, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Strong critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Ability to operate in dynamic sponsor environments with evolving objectives.
• Active DoD Secret clearance
• U.S. Citizenship required.
• Willingness to support hybrid on-site engagement as required by sponsors.
• This position requires a minimum of 50% hybrid on-site presence.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with the DoW software acquisition pathway leading critical acquisition modernization or reform
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Top Secret clearance with access to Secure Compartmented Information (TS/SCI).
• Private sector experience defense, technology, or consulting industries.
• Experience working with OSD Research and Engineering and/or Acquisition and Sustainment staffs.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain and leverage a strong professional network to provide thought leadership across the acquisition enterprise.

Responsibilities

• Lead transformation in how defense acquisition processes operate within existing statutory and regulatory frameworks. This role contributes acquisition process expertise that complements technical modernization leaders; and it includes streamlining governance, reducing friction across requirements, engineering, acquisition, and budgeting processes, and enabling adoption of modern acquisition approaches to facilitate produce continuous capability delivery.
• Shape and scale acquisition execution models across sponsor portfolios to better enable incremental capability delivery and continuous value realization.
• Influence governance structures, decision forums, and oversight approaches to align acquisition control mechanisms with modern engineering and delivery practices.
• Design practical execution architectures that integrate requirements, funding, contracting, engineering, test, and sustainment into synchronized delivery systems.
• Partner with engineering leaders to ensure acquisition strategies reinforce — rather than constrain — DevSecOps, iterative development, and platform-based approaches.
• Reframe performance management from milestone completion toward measurable delivery outcomes.
• Identify systemic barriers within acquisition structures (organizational, financial, cultural, or procedural) and implement pragmatic transformation strategies that improve portfolio throughput.
• Guide sponsors in structuring acquisition pathways — including Software Pathway, hybrid models, and alternative contracting mechanisms — to accelerate transition from prototype to continuous capability delivery.
• Advise senior leaders on portfolio-level prioritization, sequencing, and risk trade-offs to improve capability delivery performance.
• Contribute to development of repeatable frameworks, playbooks, and reference models that can be applied across multiple sponsors to institutionalize modernization gains.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to program teams and senior leaders.
• Proactively help sponsors identify and shape modernization opportunities.
• Build and sustain trusted relationships across sponsors, FFRDC partners, industry, and academic stakeholders to support integrated modernization efforts.
• Serve as an active member of multidisciplinary teams integrating acquisition, engineering, and delivery expertise to improve capability outcomes.

Benefits

• competitive benefits
• exceptional professional development opportunities for career growth
• culture of innovation that embraces adaptability, collaboration, technical excellence, and people in partnership

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal