Senior Operations Research Analyst
About The Position
Aether Aerospace is seeking a Senior Operations Research and Systems Analysis (ORSA) professional to lead the analytical design, evaluation, and interpretation of modeling and simulation studies assessing military capabilities and mission outcomes. The role supports a commercial client on an anticipated six-month project and involves developing study methodologies, establishing measures, designing comparative cases, analyzing simulation results, and communicating findings and limitations to support customer decisions. The analyst will work closely with the Study Lead, simulation technical staff, and operational subject matter experts. SMEs provide mission context and inform scenario assumptions, while simulation technical staff implement and execute scenarios. The analyst establishes analytical requirements and leads evaluation of the resulting data. The project is anticipated to require approximately 31.2 hours per week (748.8 total planned hours), with potential for up to 25% additional hours. The duration may be extended based on project needs and continued funding. Both W-2 employment and 1099 independent contractor arrangements will be considered, subject to applicable requirements. The annualized salary figure is provided for reference and does not represent guaranteed earnings for the six-month assignment. The position is intended for a candidate local to the Tidewater/Newport News, Virginia area. An active Secret clearance is required. The start date is immediate.
Requirements
- Active Secret clearance.
- Bachelor’s degree in operations research, mathematics, statistics, engineering, systems analysis, or a related quantitative discipline; equivalent combinations of advanced education and directly relevant experience will be considered.
- Ten or more years of relevant experience in operations research, quantitative systems analysis, mission effectiveness assessment, or modeling and simulation analysis.
- Demonstrated experience designing and executing comparative studies using simulations or other quantitative analytical methods.
- Strong working knowledge of experimental design, statistical inference, uncertainty assessment, sensitivity analysis, and interpretation of repeated simulation runs.
- Proficiency with one or more analytical programming environments, such as Python, R, or MATLAB, and experience using Excel for analysis and reporting.
- Experience developing measures of effectiveness and performance tied to study objectives.
- Ability to work with subject matter experts to translate domain knowledge into explicit assumptions, analytical requirements, and defensible interpretations.
- Ability to evaluate source credibility, document assumptions, recognize model limitations, and distinguish evidence from inference.
- Demonstrated ability to produce clear technical reports and communicate quantitative findings to technical and executive audiences.
- Ability to handle study information in accordance with applicable contractual, security, and export-control requirements.
Nice To Haves
- Master’s degree in operations research, statistics, engineering, or a related quantitative discipline.
- Experience supporting defense capability assessments, acquisition studies, mission analysis, or operational test and evaluation.
- Experience analyzing outputs from constructive simulations.
- Experience developing automated data processing, statistical analysis, and visualization workflows.
Responsibilities
- Develop analysis plans specifying study questions, hypotheses, comparison cases, measures of effectiveness and performance, analytical methods, and result-interpretation criteria.
- Work with operational SMEs to translate customer objectives into scenarios, mission success criteria, and measurable outcomes.
- Establish consistent baselines and controlled comparisons that isolate the effects of evaluated capabilities.
- Develop experimental designs, including replication strategies, sensitivity cases, and approaches to input uncertainty and run-to-run variability.
- Coordinate with simulation technical staff to define required inputs, output fields, event records, and data collection requirements.
- Assess whether model representations and available evidence support proposed measures; identify data gaps and outcomes that cannot be credibly estimated.
- Analyze mission completion time, mission success probability, personnel and platform losses, threat effectiveness, and resource expenditure when supported by the model and approved data.
- Distinguish modeled exposure, damage, mission kills, and casualties, and avoid unsupported conversions between outcomes.
- Evaluate uncertainty, convergence, and sensitivity to assumptions and scenario conditions.
- Develop and maintain scripts and automated workflows to ingest, clean, validate, combine, and process simulation outputs; calculate study measures; and generate repeatable analytical summaries and visualizations.
- Support model verification and assessment of fitness for the intended analytical purpose, including review of pilot runs, anomalous results, and consistency across comparison cases.
- Maintain traceability from source data and assumptions through scenarios, simulation outputs, analytical findings, and conclusions.
- Prepare analytical reports, visualizations, and executive briefings that communicate results and their practical significance.
- Collaborate with operational SMEs to interpret the mechanisms behind favorable, neutral, and unfavorable outcomes.
- Support customer reviews, resolve analytical comments, and recommend further data collection or follow-on studies.
- Handle study information in accordance with applicable contractual, security, and export-control requirements.
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What This Job Offers
Career Level
Senior
