Lead Systems Engineer at The MITRE Corporation
Colorado Springs, CO
$146,400–$219,600from the description
Jul 20, 2026
Colorado Springs, CO
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level systems engineering role supporting federal agencies in designing, integrating, and analyzing complex enterprise systems and systems-of-systems. Day-to-day work spans architecture development, requirements management, trade-space analysis, and digital/model-based engineering, with some team leadership. Suits experienced systems engineers comfortable applying quantitative methods to national security and public-sector problems, who hold or can obtain a security clearance.
Senior level · 8+ years · Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
What the occupation pays Median $129,834 (middle half $101,882–$164,857). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The role is titled 'Senior Mission Engineer' and sits within MITRE's Systems Engineering Division. It is primarily a systems/mission engineering role — not a conventional software development or IT operations role — making SOC 15-1211 (Computer Systems Analysts) the closest fit, though 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is a reasonable runner-up given the specialized 'Mission Engineer' framing.
The posting requires a Secret clearance at hire and the ability to obtain a Top Secret clearance within one year. TS/SCI is listed only as a preferred qualification.
The experience minimum is stated as '8 years with a bachelor's, 6 years with a master's, or 3 years with a PhD.' The 8-year floor (bachelor's path) is used as the overall years minimum.
The degree requirement is a bachelor's in a relevant technical field; equivalent experience is explicitly accepted, but a specific degree is named as the baseline, so 'Bachelors' is recorded. The equivalent-experience clause is noted here.
The salary range shown ($146,400–$219,600) includes a midpoint of $183,000; the max reflects the top of the posted band.
MBSE, Digital Engineering, Mission Engineering, Machine Learning, and Data Analytics appear in the required responsibilities section as methods the candidate must apply, so they are marked as required. All specific tools (SysML/UML, DOORS, Cameo/MagicDraw, Rhapsody, AFSIM, MATLAB, Python/R, STK, Command PE) appear only under Preferred Qualifications.
The role requires a minimum of 4 days per week on-site; it is not remote.
Ignored 3 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): Model-Based Systems Engineering, Digital Engineering, Mission Engineering.
Requires a Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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