Job Abstract

Why choose between doing meaningful work and having a fulfilling life? At MITRE, you can have both. That's because MITRE people are committed to tackling our nation's toughest challenges—and we're committed to the long-term well-being of our employees. MITRE is different from most technology companies. We are a not-for-profit corporation chartered to work for the public interest, with no commercial conflicts to influence what we do. The R&D centers we operate for the government create lasting impact in fields as diverse as cybersecurity, healthcare, aviation, defense, and enterprise transformation. We're making a difference every day—working for a safer, healthier, and more secure nation and world. Our workplace reflects our values. We offer competitive benefits, exceptional professional development opportunities, and a culture of innovation that embraces diversity, inclusion, flexibility, collaboration, and career growth. If this sounds like the choice you want to make, then choose MITRE—and make a difference with us.

Department Summary:

The Acceleration Office is the focal point of MITRE-wide acceleration activities that supports MITRE’s three business sectors, achieving new levels in the speed of gap identification / validation and scalable disruptive solution delivery for a small number of brand building projects at MITRE. It drives the rapid delivery of breakthroughs in applied science and advanced technology, combined with strong levering of global partners and unique business models that enable positive disruption for our sponsors most urgent missions and our nations continued economic leadership and ensure the future of U.S. scientific and economic leadership.

The Acceleration Office runs the MITRE-Wide Accelerator, the Acceleration Café, and the special purpose entity MITRE Enginuity, enabling MITRE to provide distance when appropriate, for private sector and for-profit entity partnering and consortia building, working across all of our six FFRDCs that MITRE operates on behalf of its sponsors. The MITRE Acceleration Office (AO) also works with federal, state, and local governments and has robust partnerships with industry, consortia, non-profits and academia to drive impact in the public interest.

Learn more: https://www.mitre.org/impact-report/mitre-engenuitytm

Roles & Responsibilities:

Job Description:

The Accelerator Operations Principal is responsible for driving operational outcomes across the Acceleration Office by managing business and project finances, labor planning, capacity, and delivery.  The position is responsible for developing, refining, and managing processes around program delivery and to partner with within the AO and with corporate functions to improve business results for projects and programs.

The Operations Principal drives operations functions to plan, develop, execute, and measure outcomes across AO’s MITRE Wide Accelerator, Acceleration Café, and MITRE Enginuity as part of the operations team. The Operations Principal identifies areas to improve organizational speed and efficiency through well thought out processes and will contribute to the development of team skills aligned to Accelerator growth areas.

Primary Responsibilities

• Engage within Accelerator operations team to create, maintain, and track Accelerator wide goals and performance to plan within business programs and projects
• Develop with key strategies and plans supporting business objectives for successful project execution
• Create, maintain, improve and support Accelerator operational processes within operations team
• Responsible to anticipate and support MwA projects operational needs as a embedded team member
• Lead cross team engagements, drive initiatives, and special projects as assigned
• Support planning and execution of Acceleration Café, Roadshows, and Accelerator events
• Oversee development of plans and materials for key meetings, business reviews, and employee engagement events
• Maintain operational cadence between projects and support teams
• Lead identification, implementation, and standardized use of systems and tools across the organization
• Support identification and execution of workforce development and planning across organization
• Work with other operations team members to define and improve processes within the Accelerator

Basic Qualifications:

• A bachelor’s degree is required.  An advanced degree is preferred.
• Requires a minimum of 10 years or equivalent combination of related education and work experience
• A customer service mindset focused on minimizing barriers to execution and maximizing organizational performance and mission impact
• Quantitative mindset with proven skills in financial management and budgeting
• Experience overseeing project management and creating presentations and visualizations of timelines, milestones, and objectives related to budgets and resources
• Significant experience in operations or finance in a diverse, technology-focused organization
• Significant experience and demonstrated excellence partnering with support functions, including human resources, finance, and talent acquisition.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strategic thinking – experience developing strategy, executing work programs, and conceptualizing downstream impact of key decisions.
• Senior leadership partnership - proven ability to partner with senior leadership to establish innovative strategies and initiatives, and nurture programs in support of business objectives
• Program and project management - proven experience managing comprehensive work programs, using both broad and targeted strategies to advance the organization’s strategic mission and goals.  Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, delivering to or exceeding plan goals.
• Change management - proven success leading or supporting large-scale change management initiatives and/or transformations
• Communications - experience supporting senior and executive leadership communications in one-on-one and small group settings, to drive consensus and lead change management. 
• Relationship management – ability to develop network of positive relationships among officers and directors as well as excellent customer relationship management
• Problem-solving - must have proven ability to problem solve and execute plans while operating in a fast-paced environment and manage changing priorities.
• Excellent coaching and problem-solving abilities – highly attuned/active listening, root cause identification and ability to effectively translate feedback and steer above-the-line thinking while remaining empathetic to natural fear/resistance to change.

This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):

This requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):

Work Location Type:

MITRE is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. MITRE recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of age; ancestry; color; family medical or genetic information; gender identity and expression; marital, military, or veteran status; national and ethnic origin; physical or mental disability; political affiliation; pregnancy; race; religion; sex; sexual orientation; and any other protected characteristics. For further information please visit the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website EEO is the Law Poster and Pay Transparency.

MITRE intends to maintain a website that is fully accessible to all individuals. If you are unable to search or apply for jobs and would like to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of MITRE’s employment process, please email recruitinghelp@mitre.org.

Copyright © 2024, The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. MITRE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. Material on this site may be copied and distributed with permission only.