Project Leader, OASW Industrial Base Policy (IBP) Program

The MITRE Corporation • McLean, VA

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

Why choose between doing meaningful work and having a fulfilling life? At MITRE, you can have both. That's because MITRE people are committed to tackling our nation's toughest challenges—and we're committed to the long-term well-being of our employees. MITRE is different from most technology companies. We are 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. If this sounds like the choice you want to make, then choose MITRE - and make a difference with us. MITRE’s Acquisition Studies & Analysis (ASA) Department seeks an accomplished, proactive staff member capable of serving as project leader and technical contributor for our work supporting the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War – Industrial Base Policy (OASW-IBP). As Project Leader, you will oversee a 6 Professional Technical Staff project that provide diverse expertise and work products to the sponsors across the OASW-IBP. MITRE’s work with the OASW-IBP helps our sponsors efforts to strengthen the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) to meet critical Warfighter needs. We provide rigorous and responsive evaluations of risks and rewards; we help inform government investment in industrial capacity, throughput, and capabilities; current focus areas include advanced batteries and microelectronics but future expected ones include missiles/munitions, critical minerals, and unmanned systems. Your primary role will be to identify and engage with current and potential government sponsors across OASW-IBP to increase the impact of MITRE on their diverse mission needs. This will involve working with diverse experts across the company to identify potential work opportunities for specific sponsors. Your secondary role will be to enable the individual task leads to be successful in delivering high impact work to the sponsor. This will involve ensuring technical quality, ensuring on-time and under-budget delivery, as well as identifying and fostering beneficial connections across MITRE work efforts and sponsor needs, both within the project and across the company. For internal MITRE candidates: This position will require a transfer to the N221 department to maximize impact in this pivotal role, which is essential for leading and shaping this work program with multiple key sponsors. Start date for the transfer will be no later than March 31 2026.

Requirements

• 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.
• Strong technical background in areas such as supply chains, economics, manufacturing, and critical DoW technologies (e.g., missiles/munitions, energy storage, unmanned systems).
• Active Secret with ability to obtain active TS/SCI through the sponsor
• Ability to obtain a SIPR and JWICS accounts, either via MITRE or the sponsor
• Ability to internally recruit, organize, supervise, and motivate teams of technical staff to execute task objectives.
• Consistent track record of generating relevant, impactful product deliverables (including definition, completion, and technical quality), in both an individual contributor and team setting.
• Strong critical thinking, analytic, and problem-solving skills – comfortable working in dynamic settings where task objectives may evolve or need to be shaped, or creative solutions to task impediments must be identified.
• Excellent interpersonal and technical communication skills, with the ability to write technical reports, present briefings, and persuasively speak to audiences of all backgrounds, including executives or senior customers.
• Demonstrated ability to work in an interdisciplinary team environment, establish and leverage a diverse professional network, and integrate contributions from a variety of resources (people, tools, organizations).
• This position requires a minimum of 50% hybrid on-site presence.

Nice To Haves

• Proven leadership experience with successful technical studies management or technical leadership with DoW-wide or Service impact.

Responsibilities

• Being a trusted MITRE interface to the project’s sponsors: build/maintain trusted relationships with key government leaders and stakeholders alongside, and in support of the relationships maintained by the Task Leads
• Being accountable for the overall execution of the project’s work program: negotiate entry/exit of major tasks; onboarding of new Task Leaders, serve as their mentor/advisor, and provide performance feedback; manage the project-level budget and assign task level budgets; oversee task-level staff plans; and ensure major milestones are met on time, within resources, and to sponsor expectations.
• Leading by example: personally contribute to (or lead the development of) one or more high impact project deliverables; long-term professional self-development to become/remain a credible MITRE voice on IBP topics; and support continuity of operations, when necessary, as a Task Leader of last resort.
• Establishing high quality of project deliverables, in consultation with the Department Chief Engineer: ensure delivered products lead to successful, impactful sponsor outcomes; ensure Task Leaders follow corporate quality norms; review project deliverables and ensure appropriate peer review; and archive and appropriately share key deliverables.
• Bringing MITRE to bear for the project’s sponsors: Support relevant strategic initiatives of MITRE and the Division/Department; and build partnerships between the project and other MITRE work programs, including our internal research & development program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees