Complex Systems Jobs (NOW HIRING)

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MITRE's Model-Based Analytics Department (L644) is seeking a motivated, creative Complex Systems Modeler to apply their modeling, operational analysis, and applied research skills to bear on solving problems of critical national importance. MITRE's diverse work program provides opportunities to apply your expertise and creative thinking in challenging domains such as national security, healthcare, and transportation. This position offers the opportunity to interact directly with government leaders in a fast-paced and dynamic atmosphere with the ability to make a difference and impact outcomes with solid analysis.

Our department uses an array of approaches from the fields of both data analysis and modeling & simulation to help our sponsors develop a deep, causal understanding of the dynamics of their problems and identify and evaluate potential interventions in rigorous, intuitive, and analytically defensible ways. Modeling approaches, when combined and grounded with data analysis, allow us to go beyond correlations and pattern identification in data and help us test and develop intuition, leading to successful actions taken by our sponsor more quickly and more defensibly. We specialize in building deployable tools that allow sponsors to interact directly with models to develop intuition and explore causality within their domains. Our interdisciplinary department thrives on having a large toolbox to support data- and model-driven decision making and we value people who can bring diverse perspectives. Our employees are expected to work on multiple projects, cross-pollinate good ideas across the government and continuously learn. We work to solve modeling and analytic problems in the public interest, in partnership with the government. We also actively conduct independent research in areas of interest to our government partners. If you are passionate about applying your technical expertise, your skill sets align with our capabilities, and you like working in a collaborative, team-oriented environment, we want to hear from you!

Roles & Responsibilities:

To be successful you will:

• Be passionate about formulating and developing models and simulations of real world problems involving complex dynamic systems.
• Have an innate curiosity and interest in developing research questions and testing hypotheses with open ended tasking.
• Work with a spectrum of government sponsors to gain understanding of their challenges, evaluate possible solutions, and conduct insightful, actionable analyses.
• Support development and application of a variety of analytic models to sponsor challenges, with a willingness to adapt and learn in a fast-paced environment.
• Present results in an intuitive, actionable manner that can be understood by all audiences, regardless of technical expertise.
• Remain current on open-source, industry, academia, and US Government techniques and tools for modeling, analysis, data science, visualization, and engineering.
• Take initiative in owning aspects of your work and be a collaborative teammate.

Basic Qualifications:

• 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 of experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Relevant hands-on experience in computational modeling and analysis.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and ability to translate technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to formulate rigorous models based on loosely defined or underspecified research questions and requirements.
• Demonstrated expertise using at least one of the following paradigms: agent-based modeling, discrete event modeling, system dynamics, or applied statistical modeling/machine learning for complex systems.
• Experience leading or conducting research in computational social/behavioral sciences or natural sciences.
• Applied experience leading technical development tasks and teams.
• Experience developing models using multiple methodologies.
• Demonstrated experience leading stakeholder/funder facing engagements and providing relevant day-to-day tasking for one or more junior staff.
• Experience manipulating large datasets with at least one modern programming language or business intelligence platform (e.g., Python, R, SAS, MATLAB, Java, C++).
• Experience leveraging COTS tools or writing programs to visualize multi-dimensional data using tools like Tableau, ggplot2, Plotly, matplotlib, seaborn, or D3.js.
• Experience using notebooks (e.g., Jupyter, R Markdown, Zeppelin).
• Ability to apply, modify, and formulate algorithms and processes to solve challenging problems.
• Ability to obtain and maintain Top Secret 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 requires a minimum of 50% hybrid on-site.

Preferred Qualifications:

• PhD degree in quantitative field such as Data Science, Computational Social Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Operations Research, Geospatial Science, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Economics.
• Or PhD degree in Social/Behavioral Sciences (sociology, psychology, political science, public health) paired with significant hands-on computational experience.
• Applied experience leading large technical development tasks across multi-disciplinary teams.
• Demonstrated experience engaging with external stakeholders and shaping work with those stakeholders.
• Prior experience working with databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL, MongoDB, Neo4j).
• Prior experience developing programmatic solutions in a collaborative environment (e.g., Git, Mercurial, SVN).
• Prior experience developing simulation-based solutions in a poorly defined environment involving multiple stakeholders at various levels of technical sophistication
• Familiarity with ArcGIS or other GIS software or analytic tools.
• Comfort with modern AI tools (e.g., large language models) and their application, evaluation, and validation.
• Active TS.

Salary compensation range and midpoint: $155,200 - $194,000 - $232,800 Annual

Work Location Type: Hybrid

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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