The MITRE Corporation's National Space Program operates at the intersection of technological innovation and deep domain expertise. Our mission is to engineer end-to-end solutions for organizations developing, deploying, and operating next-generation space capabilities. By leveraging systems engineering, advanced analytics, and cross-cutting research, we mitigate risk and accelerate modernization across the entire space life cycle. Ultimately, the National Space Program serves as a foundation for global mission assurance. By reinforcing the digital and physical infrastructure underpinning space superiority, we empower operators to execute their objectives with absolute confidence-ensuring the success of critical national security, civil, and defense missions.
Roles & Responsibilities:- Deliver modern software capabilities, improving architecture, platforms, and developer workflows with strong engineering practices (secure coding, reviews, testing, maintainable design).
- Partner with UX, Architecture, Data, Security, and Operations to define technical strategy and influence roadmaps with a customer-centric mindset.
- Champion architectural excellence (cloud-native, event-driven, microservices where appropriate) across AWS/Azure, balancing long-term vision with pragmatic execution.
- Design and integrate backend services and RESTful APIs, ensuring reliable data flows for mission workflows and downstream consumers.
- Build and operate data pipelines (ETL/ELT) for ingestion, transformation, validation, and publishing to analytics and operational APIs (including Airflow orchestration as needed).
- Develop and optimize data models, SQL, and database access patterns (PostgreSQL/MongoDB), including migrations and data quality strategies.
- Implement containerized deployments with Docker/Kubernetes, including configuration, deployment patterns, and troubleshooting.
- Engineer DevSecOps/CI/CD pipelines with security and quality gates and repeatable release processes.
- Provision and manage Linux environments using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/Ansible) for reproducible dev/test/prod deployments.
- Communicate clearly via high-quality design docs/RFCs and runbooks; lead architecture reviews, incident response, post-incident learning, and compliance/observability integration (e.g., Splunk); mentor engineers and raise standards through reviews and design sessions.
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. The individual should be able to immediately contribute to this job step
- Strong Python development experience with modern software engineering practices
- Experience building distributed systems in AWS or multi-cloud environments
- Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes)
- Experience implementing DevSecOps and CI/CD pipelines
- Experience designing and integrating RESTful APIs and data pipelines
- Familiarity with databases such as PostgreSQL or MongoDB
- Experience with Linux environments and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible)
- Experience with modern web technologies (React, JavaScript, HTML/CSS)
- Ability to work in Agile development environments with strong documentation practices
- Active TS/SCI clearance with a polygraph
- U.S. Citizenship required
- This position has an on-site requirement of 5 days a week on-site
Preferred Qualifications: - Advanced degree in a technical discipline (including but not limited to Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, etc.)
- Experience delivering software in compliance-aligned environments and hardening systems to standards such as NIST 800-171 and/or NIST 800-53, including producing audit-ready evidence
- Experience building and operating AWS data platforms (e.g., Glue, EMR) and implementing automated data quality validation and monitoring
- Experience with workflow orchestration and streaming/event platforms such as Airflow and/or Kafka
- Experience with cloud automation and Infrastructure as Code beyond baseline use (e.g., reusable Terraform modules, AWS CDK patterns, environment promotion strategies)
- Experience with observability platforms such as Splunk, including onboarding data sources, parsing, dashboards, and alerting to support security/compliance and operational readiness
- Experience supporting mission analysis, test and evaluation, operational systems, and/or integration with external mission partners or vendor solutions
- Experience with simulation environments such as AFSIM
- Experience administering or operating production systems (applications, databases, and/or networks), including incident response practices and reliability improvements
- Experience using agentic software development tools and technologies, including Codex / ChatGPT, Cursor, Windsurf, or other similar models and agent-based tools
This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):Top Secret/SCI/Polygraph
This requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):Top Secret/SCI/Polygraph
Salary compensation range and midpoint:$156,800 - $196,000 - $235,200 Annual
Work Location Type:Onsite
