Systems Analyst

MIT Lincoln Laboratory•Lexington, MA

4d•$140,000 - $187,000

About The Position

The Systems and Architectures Group provides technical analysis to the U.S. Department of Defense to inform senior leaders and guide defense technology development, with emphasis on air, missile, and maritime defense. Its work includes exploring challenging defense problems, assessing current and future U.S. capabilities through modeling and simulation, and identifying opportunities for next-generation technologies. The Group communicates analysis in context to audiences with varied goals and backgrounds, and collaborates with other Laboratory groups and government and non-government laboratories. The Systems Analyst (Technical Staff) will contribute to multidisciplinary, high-visibility studies and communicate research clearly to a wide range of audiences. The role involves analyzing defensive systems, including sensors, platforms, and algorithms, and learning to assess how adversary systems and actions affect U.S. defenses. Training in defense concepts and systems will be provided. With experience, the analyst will lead major analyses and brief senior leaders. This is a Level 5 Technical Staff position. The successful candidate will apply deep technical expertise and judgment to lead projects or major technical workstreams, perform independent research on complex problems, manage programs or lead teams on technology prototype efforts, and develop new approaches supporting mission needs. The role also involves working across multidisciplinary teams and sponsor-driven efforts, helping develop and execute programs, preparing briefings and reports, interfacing with sponsors, mentoring technical staff, and improving practices within the Group or mission area.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline or other relevant technical field and typically 6 or more years of relevant experience; or a master’s degree and typically 4 or more years; or a Ph.D. and typically 0 or more years; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Diverse technical expertise and demonstrated ability to adapt it to unfamiliar or emerging disciplines, systems, mission areas, or methods.
Education, skills, and experience demonstrating the ability to apply significant technical judgment to broad technical challenges requiring integration across related systems or methods.
Demonstrated ability to lead projects or major workstreams and deliver complex technical outcomes.
Experience evaluating trade-offs, recommending paths forward, and adapting technical approaches to evolving project needs.
Demonstrated mentorship, collaboration, and ability to communicate recommendations, risks, and technical findings to varied audiences.
Experience contributing to technical reports, papers, presentations, proposals, or other formal technical deliverables.
Ability to learn new technical areas quickly and apply that knowledge to challenging mission problems.
Ability to present technical concepts clearly to a wide spectrum of audiences.
Proficiency in programming languages for computer modeling, such as MATLAB, Python, or C.
Doctorate in Physics, Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Astronomy, or a related field; alternatively, a master’s degree with at least 5 years of technical experience will be considered.
Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret-level DoD security clearance.
U.S. citizenship is required.

Nice To Haves

Experience in one or more of the following areas: missile defense, electronic warfare, or undersea systems.
Experience with sensors or signal processing for radio-frequency, optical, or infrared systems.
Experience with directed energy or hypersonic technologies.

Responsibilities

Lead projects or major workstreams involving multidisciplinary design, development, data analysis, programming, prototyping, integration, testing, or transition activities.
Apply technical expertise to complex problems and evaluate alternative approaches, trade-offs, risks, and mission implications.
Influence technical approaches to mission research, systems and subsystems, architecture design, and integration within assigned projects or mission areas.
Structure and manage ambiguous work by translating project objectives into actionable technical plans.
Review work and provide constructive feedback, technical guidance, and mentorship to colleagues and technical support personnel.
Identify opportunities to improve Group tools, processes, methods, documentation, or execution practices.
Contribute to engineering or scientific papers, technical reports, presentations, and, where applicable, proposal or grant materials.
Contribute to multidisciplinary studies of defensive systems and communicate research findings to varied audiences.
After gaining experience, lead major analyses and brief senior leaders.