system engineer

software engineer

principal software engineer

cybersecurity engineer

senior software engineer

MITRE

Great place to work...challenging and interesting work, top management who work hard to help professionals grow, benefits are top notch, pay is competitive, and the "Really Smart People" that work for MITRE will challenge you to excel intellectually and professionally. That's the measure of success...intellectual growth. You can't help but learn from the talent MITRE has...PhDs abound in an amazing variety of disciplines...engineering, mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence, robotics, linguistics, management theory, public administration...the list is endless.  Many are internationally known in their fields. I personally learned a lot in many technical areas I would never had explored otherwise.

From an human resources perspective, the company is extremely flexible with work-family balance...never an issue to deal with family matters.  MITRE is very flexible--in fact, encourages--telework when clients allow it.  The only exception are clients that require work in a SCIF...the work has to be done either on the client site or at the company facilities.

The one thing MITRE lacks is entrepreneurial environment...being a FFRDC, it is only allowed to do federal government work and does not compete with the for-profit contracting firms.  In fact, MITRE acts as an extension of its Government clients, provided in-depth technical expertise to government managers and executives.  As a result, if you're goal is business development and becoming a "rainmaker" in the hope of moving up the corporate food chain, and making lots of money, MITRE may be less than ideal.  That being said, growing MITRE's influence with clients is rewarded, especially when more billable staff can be added.  That always looks good on annual reviews, but the emphasis is technical expertise, leadership, and client interactions.

One can easily spend an entire career with MITRE, have a great variety of interesting projects, work with some really smart people, and retire very comfortably on it's superb retirement plan.

If you can get in...you will be very happy...my five years at the company were well rewarded professionally and intellectually before my own decision to become an independent consultant.

I can't speak to the engineering/scientific side of MITRE, but I can tell you that the entire administrative cohort is a hot mess. The majority of the admins are defensive, territorial, angry, lazy, and downright mean. There really isn't much work to do because the admin roles have not grown and changed with the rest of the company. Figuring out how to do the few tasks that you'll be given is nearly impossible; no one will help you and there is no assistance to be found on the intranet. Directors couldn't care less about harassment and apathy within the admin ranks, and HR won't help you either.

If it's important to you to feel you belong and that you are contributing to your company's success, MITRE is not the place for you. I've never been so depressed about my job. This place is just awful. A typical day at work involves trying to get my director to read and respond to my e-mails, trying to accomplish things that can't be accomplished without help but there is no help, trying to be proactive and find my own things to do (tip: never do this at MITRE--you will just infuriate people and stir hornets' nests), and, ultimately, surfing the 'net for a new job.

My director told me on my first day that he wanted someone decisive and self-directed, but every time I make a decision in an effort to move a task or project forward, I just get in trouble and am told not to do anything unless told to do it specifically by my director. See the catch-22 there? I'm so upset that I ended up at such a career-killing company. Staff in Finance, HR, and other support departments are just MEAN and will ignore your pleas for help until you go away (I hear this from many different people; it's not just me). I hear this used to be a great company. I don't see one tiny glimmer of greatness here.

Like any organization their  number 1 priority is their own self interest. They routinely compete with Industry although as a Federally Funded research and Development Center (FFRDC) they are not allowed to do so. Everyone knows it - bring it up at a MITRE meeting and everyone will smile and change the subject. 

MITRE is over the top obsessed with identity. Expect identity to be a large part of your career profile and advancement potential. 

MITRE seems to think they are smarter than everyone else. I once heard a chief engineer at MITRE say, "on a phone call or a at a conference, everyone assumes the MITRE person is the smartest person in the room" (no they don't btw). The engineers at MITRE are no different than the engineers anywhere else. The management at MITRE is not as good as the management in industry.

There are a large number (a very large number) of federally funded projects that are just adult sandboxes. They are not providing any value to anyone. Example - there was a two year project on advising a large federal agency on "business architecture".  The MITRE side of the project was staffed 100% by individuals whose only business expertise was reading articles about business. It took about a year  to decide what business architecture was. The only thing that was  ever produced was PowerPoint slides. There are *many* projects like this at MITRE. 

There is an attitude at MITRE that "industry is bad". MITRE employees  with virtually no real world experience think it is their job to criticize the companies and the individuals that are creating and producing.

I enjoyed my work in MITRE if I found it a good project inside company’s project options. I was very happy with their flexible work time with flat management - very little management involved. A worker is self-directed with little or no supervision. The company treats employees very well with the great benefit package. The coworkers are great to work with.

Only problem in MITRE is that you have to constantly  find a project to enroll your work with, otherwise, you would be off payroll if exceed 6 or 8 weeks without a project assignment. I had to constantly “find a job” inside the company  and was often worried being off payroll. Another problem is that the nature of switching between projects causes a hectic issue and sometime mismatching with my skills. Due to a pressure of being “off payroll”, if the company doesn’t have a right project matching my skills, I have to take a project even not matching well with me. I have to “learn” from work quickly by working extensively long hours and can be highly demanded with  huge efforts on a project starting (often work 100-120 hours each week). Once you learn that skill, then the project can be finished shortly, then you never use that skill again when switch to another project. After spent years with this kind of hectic nature, I eventually quitted my job from MITRE. I no longer want to work for the company which offers me a job, then  I have to constantly “look for job” inside the company. It is ironic.

If you like socializing right now is a great time to be at MITRE. I've been to at least one going away party every week for the last couple months and I don't think its going to end soon, and I know of dozens more actively looking to leave MITRE.

This was a place that most employees felt good about working for and the longevity of employees made that evident. Supporting our sponsors and the mission were things that addd to a sense of pride in our work and how we supported the federal government.

That has all changed since our latest CEO. Between forced early retirements, RIFs and treating staff like contractors that need to find their own projects otherwise be let go due to no funding, the atmospheres is extremely toxic. Our management thinks no one can do the job so micromanagement is rampant and if you don't like it, they have no problem replacing you with a contractor. We actually had a contractor withdraw his resume for a leadership position after working here for a month and realizing what h*!! it is.

Meanwhile upper management has a new incentive plan where they get bonuses for delivering on goals. Goals like reducing cost by cutting 20% staff. They also started a new communication plan "encouraging" lower level managers to stop employees complaining on sites like Indeed and others.

As with anywhere, the quality of your work experience at MITRE depends largely on the teams you work with and the caliber of your management. In both respects my experience has been largely positive. Most folks at MITRE are driven, compassionate, and great to work with. You also get the chance to work on widely different projects if you desire to broaden your skill set. Work/life balance is amazing here with flexible schedules and remote work (depending on your position and need for SCIF access). Retirement plans and matching are phenomenal.

To me, one of the greatest things about working for MITRE has been the incredible systematic support we have for laying down the facts. We frequently act in an advisory role to federal agencies, and our not-for-profit nature has really allowed us to be relatively unbiased, open, honest, and direct. Unfortunately, it seems like that's starting to change.

The company does amazing work. You'll likely have the opportunity to work on projects that have a measurable impact. However, while the work flexibility and benefits are mostly great (healthcare used to be better than it is now), you'll probably make about average pay, and advancement depends primarily on how much your supervisor likes you.

Mitre has an amazing group of professionals within it's company from a wide field of expertise.  You can grow from the bottom up or come in as a professional and advance to the top.

HR is not very good at keeping your information (or EEO issues), confidential.  If you talk to them, you might as well put it on Facebook.  The Executives need to appreciate their support staff and be mindful that people are not robots - they have feelings and needs and live outside of this company.

If you have anything to complain about, you honestly cannot trust many people, (especially the executives and some of the EA's). If you want honest help, go to the people who are working far below the Executive staff - that's just the truth.  The cut-throat things I've witnessed is sickening so be careful with these "mind" professionals, because they play a lot of mental games with people.  Sometimes position and titles can make a person think more highly of themselves than they really are.

As always, it's not the company or the programs that are necessarily negative - it's the people.  The company as a whole is great but keep to yourself if you have issues.  People and their toxic personalities are what make an office a place to work, or not.

i worked at MITRE for 26 years. Most of my time was spent at MITRE sites both overseas and in the states. I spent a few years at the MITRE Bedford MA Operations. The work environment was radically different depending on the site management. MITRE site leaders a given a substantial autonomy and the culture of each site is different. I spent the last 12 years of my career at the MITRE Scott AFB, IL site. That site was exceptionally well managed. I had an opportunity to get involved with very interesting hands on satellite communications projects. MITRE is good about creating a good work life balance. I was always proud that the work that I was doing was benefitting the country. I prefer the sites to the Operations Centers a.k.a Headquarters as they are far less bureaucratic and allow more freedom of action. MITRE is good at attracting talented people and is a good place to acquire technology.

Unfortunately promotions come very slowly and considerable politics and favoritism is involved in the process. The jobs are usually very stable and it is almost like working for the government. Rifts to happen and usually track government funding cycle.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working with my peers but mid management to the CEO is and was a disappointment to myself,  to the employees as well as the government customer.    

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Continued lack of successful projects as well as personal success.  Personal and lasting success is so difficult to achieve at MITRE.  MITRE is so biased to the larger sites such as Bedford and DC and does not care for mid to smaller sites.  This has always been a situation where a small site regardless of successes are seen as second class work. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Mid level management to upper management does not nurture hope or structure a culture that breeds new ideas and success in context of customer problems.  MITRE claims they have skills above and beyond the classic government contractors but most often this falls flat and does not deliver the value versus the cost of a MITRE engineer 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Teams meeting to teams meeting without clear strategy in how to manage the project and or the customer.  MITRE tries to wear the MIT badge as something superior to all other companies in this industry but it does not deliver

The company is going through a big culture change. This company is a private, not-for-profit that operates research and development centers for the federal government. It used to be 'mission-driven', focusing on solving tough problems and working in a collaborative way to do so. 

It is now a highly charged political hierarchy that is going through major culture changes--not for the better. While everyone at MITRE works hard and focuses on producing high-quality products, the company used to emphasize work-life balance. 

That is no longer true. The work-life balance is being chipped away to the point that this not-for-profit is being run more like the big consulting firms. That means long hours, weekends. In this case though, there's no chance for true financial reward because this is a not-for-profit. 

There is little room for advancement, and management skills in many cases are poor because the company promotes without ensuring people have true people management skills.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
System engineer 63 salaries reported	$145,714 per year
Software engineer 55 salaries reported	$139,597 per year
Principal software engineer 34 salaries reported	$214,024 per year
Cybersecurity engineer 57 salaries reported	$170,475 per year
Senior software engineer 20 salaries reported	$141,743 per year

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