Cost Analyst

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Department Summary:

We are seeking an intermediate cost analyst to join our team. The MITRE Corporation’s Acquisition Affordability and Business Analytics Department is seeking a cost analyst to support multiple projects solving our sponsors’ most critical economic and financial challenges. This department serves as a vanguard for MITRE to meet the future needs of our sponsors requiring technical excellence while encouraging creativity and fostering interest in the intersection of emerging technologies, cost, business, and economic impacts across its diverse membership. Expect a multi-disciplinary team environment with self-motivated, highly trained professionals. The work includes engaging with sponsors to scope and prioritize tasks, collecting large datasets to perform data-driven analyses, conducting market research, investigating relevant policies and regulations, understanding the current budgetary and political environment, and performing additional research and analysis as necessary. This is a project-oriented position that may require project management, collaboration, communicating to technical and non-technical audiences, and direct sponsor engagement.

The Acquisition Affordability and Business Analytics Department within the Acquisition Division in MITRE Technology and Engineering solves our sponsor’s problems by leveraging our capabilities within:

• Cost Estimation and Analysis
• Strategic Business & Financial Analytics
• Investment Economics & Decision Analysis

This position supports the department’s capabilities in cost, economic, business analyses, and data science as needed. That work could include life-cycle cost estimating, tradeoff and affordability analyses, decision analysis, portfolio investment analysis, economic analysis and modeling, research, business case analysis, modeling and simulation, advanced statistical techniques, and constrained optimization.

• Expect a dynamic team environment where tasks are rarely routine and often require novel approaches.
• Expect to work on multiple projects simultaneously, with limited structure and supervision.

Candidates should expect a dynamic and collaborative environment where tasks are rarely routine and often require innovative and adaptive approaches. Successful team members are comfortable working across multiple projects simultaneously, operating with limited structure or supervision, and engaging directly with sponsors to solve complex, ambiguous problems.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Key functions include developing models and performing qualitative and quantitative analyses to understand the cost/economic/financial impact of investments, risk mitigation strategies, options and other government actions
• Collecting and analyzing financial, cost, and economic data
• Develop and/or evaluate program technical and programmatic baselines
• Develop innovative development, production and operating and support (O&S) cost estimating techniques for a broad range of cost elements
• Develop independent or program life cycle cost estimates (LCCEs) and accompanying cost and schedule risk, uncertainty, and sensitivity analysis
• Develop cost estimates in support of source selection, including Independent Government Cost Estimates (IGCEs)
• Perform cost-related studies and analysis, e.g,, on rate reasonableness
• Develop investment economic and decision analyses, including business case analyses, cost/benefit analyses, analysis-of- alternatives, and portfolio analysis
• Develop strategic business and financial analyses, including but not limited to economic studies, cost recovery strategies, budget development & planning, and affordability analysis
• Assess the credibility of government and industry cost estimates using benchmark guidance, such as the GAO 12 steps and the Cost Estimating Body of Knowledge (CEBoK)
• Assess the credibility of government and industry cost savings initiatives data.
• Conducting surveys and utilizing various sampling techniques.
• Researching various fields including politics, national security, healthcare, education, energy, etc.
• Making use of historical data and analyzing market trends.
• Assist in identifying sources of information and gathering a wide range of quantitative and qualitative data to support decisions that have implications for MITRE and its government sponsors
• Apply analysis skills, including exploratory data analysis, time series analysis, and linear regression
• Draw conclusions from analyses and clearly and concisely articulate key findings in both written and verbal form
• Assist in developing data visualization products that improve the presentation of complex data sets
• Translate unstructured data and nontraditional sources of information into business insights
• Performing data cleaning, visualization and analysis in standard statistical and graphics software languages such as R, Stata and Excel

Basic Qualifications:

• Typically requires a Bachelor’s degree in one of the fields below and at least 2 years of related experience, or an advanced degree with relevant experience that supports immediate contribution in this role.
  • Economics
  • Engineering
  • Mathematics
  • Statistics
  • Operations Research
  • Data Science/Analytics
  • Quantitative Sciences
• Proficient at use of statistical methods including regressions, forecasting, and hypothesis testing
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Proficient with MS Office Suite, especially Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Top Secret U.S Government issued Security 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 4 days a week on-site

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with software engineering best practices and agile devops software development processes
• Experience with econometric/economic modeling and analysis
• Working knowledge of federal budgeting and spending mechanics, processes, and data.
  • Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) and OMB Circular A-11
  • Acquisition reform and PPBE reform initiatives
  • Federal Acquisition Regulations
  • Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC)
  • Federal spending data, including: USASpending.gov, SAM.gov, or FPDS-NG
• Investment modeling and analysis, cost benefit analysis, experience in handling large datasets for data driven analysis, policy and investment analysis, and economic analysis in support of regulatory policy, pre- and post-implementation analysis, forecasting, and applied research
• Source selection cost evaluation experience
• Expertise in using parametric cost estimating tools (PRICE, SEER SEM, etc.)
• ICEAA Certification or Defense Acquisition Workforce Initiative Act (DAWIA) certification desired
• Knowledge and understanding of federal government budget and spending rules, processes, and procedures
• Demonstrated interest in public service and advancing mission-focused outcomes.
• Strong foundation in Python and SQL and familiarity with modern data processing tools or frameworks (e.g., Pandas, Spark, Databricks, Airflow).

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

None

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

Top Secret

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

$90,000 - $112,500 - $135,000 Annual

Work Location Type:

Onsite

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

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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