Associate Staff - Systems Analyst

The Systems and Analysis group analyzes and evaluates concepts vital to maintaining the technological lead of the United States Air Force.

We work on a broad range of technical topics critical to Air Force missions:

• Survivability of U.S. Air Force aircraft against air defenses – today and into the future (strike bombers, fighter jets, ISR aircraft, and aerial refueling tankers)
• Enabling fighter technologies and air combat tactics
• Tactical sensor performance across the electromagnetic spectrum – radar to infrared
• Impact of radar jamming and electronic protection techniques
• Advanced air-to-air missile and air-to-surface weapon capabilities
• Myth-busting of unconventional technologies for military applications

Responsibilities:

• Learn how to be a Systems Analyst. Our staff excel at approaching large, complex problems by breaking them down into their basic components, analyzing what matters at the appropriate fidelity, and explaining key drivers to non-technical audiences
• Execute technical analysis projects independently or in small teams, from conception to completion. Projects typically last 3 months to 1 year
• Support rapid, quick turn analysis in response to sponsor and senior leader requests. Quick turn briefings are typically delivered within a few days to weeks
• Collaborate with other staff to research and compile relevant technical information
• Develop physics-based models at the required precision to support analysis efforts – from back-of-the-envelope calculations to computationally-intensive simulations
• Present analysis products to internal and external audiences at meetings, conferences, and site visits. This includes working with a team of professional graphic artists to build clear, concise, and technically accurate slides suitable for a wide range of audiences
• Travel to external meetings to present briefs and interface with the DoD community
• Mentor other staff on key analysis areas

Qualifications:

• For this role, we will consider candidates with an MS in any technical field within science or engineering. A BS with 3+ years of directly related experience will also be considered
• Strong technical and problem-solving skills
• Eagerness to tackle complex problems
• Ability to program in a technical environment (e.g., MATLAB, Python, C++, Java, etc.)
• Effective communication skills to convey technical concepts in a clear, concise manner to a wide spectrum of audiences
• Desire to work in support of DoD missions and the ability to learn on-the-job (prior military systems experience not expected)
• Interest in modeling and simulation. Our group is software-focused, but we do collaborate with other hardware-focused groups to validate our models with test data