Principal Software, Data, and AI Engineer

About the role

The MITRE Army Resilient C2 and Communications Department drives the development of innovative capabilities addressing U.S. Army sponsors' most challenging problems. The department works across the Army and with industry to mature critical tactical and enterprise C2, network, communications, and cyber capabilities with a focus on accelerating fielded capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with government and industry to ensure successful development, testing, and fielding of innovative Data fabrics, Command and Control (C2) solutions, and related software capabilities.
• Prototype and experiment with innovative AI capabilities and software applications including in live, virtual, and constructive environments.
• Interface with Army units to understand operational needs, assess challenges, and rapidly identify, analyze, and recommend effective technical solutions.
• Provide senior technical leadership for key customers, maintaining strong communication with government leads to identify emerging needs and identify innovative technical approaches to solve their challenges.
• Ensure the rapid, timely, and high-quality delivery of technical products, solutions, and capabilities to customers.
• Build, lead, and mentor 5-15 person engineering teams to achieve program objectives and customer outcomes.
• Report status, opportunities, and challenges to internal management.
• Help manage program budgets in partnership with program management, while meeting customer outcomes and maintaining technical excellence.

Requirements

• Typically requires a minimum of 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 8 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 5 years’ experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Experience designing, implementing, or testing data layers and data fabrics for large scale integration.
• Experience developing Artificial Intelligence capabilities, including familiarity with agentic AI.
• Proficiency in Java and/or Python, with experience designing and developing RESTful APIs.
• Experience using Git for version control, including GitLab/GitHub workflows, branching strategies, or collaborative development practices.
• Proficiency working in both Windows and Linux environments.
• Experience with containerized and cloud-native application delivery using Docker and Kubernetes, including container/image management and cluster orchestration.
• Knowledge of microservices architecture and command-and-control system architectures, with familiarity in one or more military data standards/protocols such as VMF, USMTF, CoT, or Link 16/JREAP.
• Track record of developing innovative technical solutions.
• Ability to clearly communicate with both internal and external audiences.
• Active DoW Secret clearance with TS/SCI eligibility.
• U.S. Citizenship required.

Qualifications

• A minimum of 50% hybrid on-site presence is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with data engineering and pipeline technologies, including Apache NiFi for ingestion, routing, and transformation, Apache Kafka for real-time/event-driven streaming, and data modeling, mapping, and schema design.
• Demonstrated ability to lead an engineering team and a track record of exceptional performance in fast paced environments.
• Significant technical stature in the field of data, software engineering, or AI as evidence by successful track record of known products being fielded / adopted / sold, external publications, technical transition, patents, etc.
• Experience operating in secure government/DoD environments, including RMF, STIG compliance, PKI/CAC authentication, or Agile/Scrum development within a program of record or government contract setting.
• Experience with C/C++.
• Experience with parallel programming and high-performance computing.
• Successful track record of relationship development with customers.
• Familiarity with Army and Joint DoW platforms (e.g., vehicles), radios, data sources, data standards, C2 software, hardware, edge compute, and capability integration.
• Experience with modern service development practices, including Swagger/OpenAPI code generation, Protocol Buffers (protobuf), and gRPC service development.
• Experience designing and optimizing data solutions, including ETL pipelines, relational databases such as PostgreSQL and Oracle, and NoSQL technologies such as MongoDB and Elasticsearch.
• Familiarity with DevSecOps and infrastructure automation tools, including Helm, CI/CD pipelines such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, or ArgoCD, Infrastructure as Code tools such as Ansible and Terraform, and working in air-gapped or classified environments with Iron Bank hardened container images.
• Master’s degree in a relevant field.

Pay

$191,200 - $239,000 - $286,800

Schedule

Hybrid