Lead Comms & Networking C2 Engineer

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Department Summary:

As an operator of Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, MITRE applies independent technical expertise to national security missions; the Advanced Wireless & SATCOM Department provides communications engineering, networking, and systems analysis capabilities. We seek a Lead Communications and Networking Command and Control (C2) Engineer to serve in a Deputy Trailboss capacity for Army Next Generation Command and Control (NGC2), shaping and delivering interoperable capabilities responsive to operational-unit needs. The successful candidate will provide trusted technical leadership across C2 applications, data services, tactical transport networks, and cloud & edge infrastructure to improve mission-level, system-of-systems performance.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Serve as a senior technical integrator and NGC2 Deputy Trailboss, shaping priorities, coordinating execution, and driving delivery of integrated C2 capabilities across acquisition stakeholders, operational units, and industry partners.
• Lead end-to-end architectures spanning C2 applications, data layers, tactical IP transport, resilient communications, and cloud & edge compute infrastructure to satisfy Army mission needs, including in disconnected, degraded, intermittent, or limited-bandwidth (DDIL) environments.
• Develop and connect operational mission threads, technical threads, system-of-systems designs, requirements, and interface assumptions to measurable operational outcomes and testable technical objectives.
• Evaluate cross-layer architecture tradeoffs involving routing, bandwidth, latency, reliability, cybersecurity, interoperability, data exchange, synchronization, and placement of workloads at the edge versus in the cloud.
• Organize and participate in laboratory integration, technical demonstrations, operational exercises, and iterative fielding events; coordinate root-cause analysis, integration-risk resolution, and performance assessment across vendor solutions.
• Engage directly with government acquisition sponsors, Army operational users, and industry engineering teams to reconcile competing requirements, develop interface agreements, and provide independent technical recommendations.
• Produce and review decision-quality engineering artifacts such as CONOPS, architecture diagrams, interface descriptions, trade studies, test plans, mission-thread analyses, and sponsor briefings; mentor staff and reinforce technical quality through peer review.

Basic Qualifications:

• Typically requires a minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 6 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 3 years’ experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Strong networking engineering foundation, including TCP/IP, routing and switching, wide-area or tactical transport, network performance, and network architecture across heterogeneous, multi-vendor environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex communications, network-centric command-and-control, or comparable multi-system architecture, integration, test, or fielding initiatives.
• Ability to analyze and explain tradeoffs among network transport, application services, data movement, compute infrastructure, and security, while maintaining deep expertise in networking.
• Experience translating operational needs into technical requirements, mission or system threads, architecture & interface descriptions, and plans for evaluating capability performance.
• Proven technical leadership and collaboration with government sponsors, operational users, and cross-organizational engineering teams; ability to manage competing priorities and reach practical technical decisions.
• Strong written, verbal, and briefing skills with the ability to turn complex technical issues into clear options, risks, and recommendations for technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Willingness and ability to travel approximately monthly to operational-unit locations, exercises, or fielding events, including travel to the U.S. West Coast and Pacific region.
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Secret U.S Government issued Security Clearance. Per the U.S. Government’s eligibility requirements, you must be a U.S Citizen to be considered for a security clearance.
• This position has an on-site requirement of 5 days a week on-site.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting Army acquisition programs, command-and-control modernization, unit fielding, and the operational needs and force structure of corps, division, or brigade organizations.
• Experience engineering or evaluating tactical communications in DDIL and contested environments, including MANET & mesh radios, SATCOM, tactical 5G, transport diversity, and network resiliency.
• Familiarity with modern C2 application and data-layer architectures, including common operational picture, event-driven data exchange, APIs, data synchronization, or platforms such as Anduril, Raft, Palantir, or equivalent solutions.
• Working knowledge of cloud-native and edge computing architectures, including containers & Kubernetes, virtualization, tactical compute hosting, and operating with intermittent backhaul connectivity.
• Familiarity with interoperability and tactical data standards, such as Cursor on Target (CoT), Link 16, relevant message & data models, and interface control documentation.
• Experience developing or evaluating mission threads and system-of-systems trade studies using model-based systems engineering (MBSE), architecture frameworks, modeling & simulation, or quantitative performance testing.
• Experience planning and leading operational integration events, multi-vendor demonstrations, soldier-touchpoints, or field exercises and using observations to shape subsequent capability increments.

This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s): Not Applicable This requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s): Secret

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

$147,200 - $184,000 - $220,800 Annual

Work Location Type:

Onsite Commitment to Non-Discrimination All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local or international law.

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