Material Scientist

The MITRE Corporation • McLean, VA

5d • $121,200 - $181,800 • Onsite

About The Position

MITRE's Energy, Environmental, Material and Chemical Sciences 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 technologies across its diverse employees. Your future colleagues are a collegial team of chemists, energy and environmental engineers, material scientists, systems engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, physicists, and civil engineers who work across MITRE’s diverse sponsors and partners.

The candidate will work in the public interest to provide novel materials solutions to our sponsors’ most critical problems.
The candidate will be an independent contributor in laboratory experimentation efforts related to new materials fabrication, characterization, and analysis.
The candidate will have a firm grasp of materials science and engineering, with an emphasis on polymer/elastomer composites.
The candidate will be familiar with emerging materials concepts and be able to formulate experiments focused on validating the applicability of said concepts to a variety of different application/mission spaces.
The candidate will interface with sponsors to discuss their most critical technical problems.
The candidate will be able to propose new materials-based ideas within MITRE’s internal research and development program.
As needed and desired, the candidate will also contribute to other technical tasks requiring physical science and engineering expertise, including, but not limited to, next-generation materials for microelectronics.
Some domestic travel will be necessary.

Requirements

• Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 3 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with relevant experience who can immediately contribute at this job step; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Experience with advanced materials systems, including polymers/elastomers, composites, ceramics, metals, electrochemical materials, or related material platforms.
• Understanding of structure–processing–property relationships and the ability to apply materials science principles to the design, characterization, or optimization of functional materials or electrochemical systems.
• Experience designing, executing, and analyzing laboratory experiments, including materials synthesis, processing, characterization, and/or performance evaluation.
• Familiarity with data analysis, computational methods, modeling, simulation, or AI-enabled approaches applied to materials or energy-related research problems.
• Strong technical writing and oral communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to think critically, work independently and collaboratively, and contribute to interdisciplinary research environments.
• The ability to obtain a Department of Defense SECRET clearance.
• U.S. Citizen to be considered for a security clearance.
• Minimum of 4 days a week on-site.

Nice To Haves

• MS or PhD with research experience in materials science, electrochemistry, computational materials, or AI-enabled materials research.
• Experience in the synthesis, processing, characterization, and analysis of advanced materials systems, including polymers/elastomers, composites, electrochemical materials, ceramics, metals, or multifunctional materials.
• Experience applying AI/ML, statistical modeling, simulation, or data-driven methods to materials discovery, materials characterization, degradation analysis, or performance prediction.
• Experience integrating experimental materials data with computational or AI-based approaches, including model development, validation, and interpretation.
• Experience in electrochemical systems or energy storage technologies, including batteries, fuel cells, electrolyzers, or related systems.
• Experience relating material properties and microstructure to system-level performance, reliability, durability, or safety.
• Familiarity with multi-scale modeling or analysis spanning material behavior, device performance, and system integration.
• Experience with development and evaluation of early-stage or emerging technologies through iterative experimentation and data-informed design.
• Experience working with large experimental or materials datasets, including data management, feature extraction, visualization, or predictive analytics.
• Knowledge of materials degradation, failure mechanisms, environmental effects, or safety hazards associated with advanced materials or electrochemical systems.
• Experience collaborating across interdisciplinary teams involving materials science, electrochemistry, AI/data science, and systems engineering.
• Active or current DoD security clearance (Secret or higher).

Responsibilities

• Provide novel materials solutions to sponsors’ most critical problems.
• Act as an independent contributor in laboratory experimentation efforts related to new materials fabrication, characterization, and analysis.
• Formulate experiments focused on validating the applicability of emerging materials concepts to various application/mission spaces.
• Interface with sponsors to discuss their most critical technical problems.
• Propose new materials-based ideas within MITRE’s internal research and development program.
• Contribute to other technical tasks requiring physical science and engineering expertise, including next-generation materials for microelectronics.

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: Mid Level