Senior Operations Research Analyst

Start Date: Immediate
JHNA, CTSi, and EXPANSIA have come together to form a Defense Technology platform focused on delivering high-impact technologies, technology-enabled services and advanced manufacturing solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense and related national security customers. Backed by Falfurrias Management Partners, the platform brings together deep domain expertise across Army, Navy, and Air Force and Space Force programs, digital engineering, systems integration, and specialized manufacturing capabilities.
The combined organization operates as a multi-entity aerospace and defense technology and tech-enabled services and manufacturing enterprise positioned for scalable growth, operational excellence, and long-term value creation.
OVERVIEW
Full-time
Location: The ideal candidate will be local to the Tidewater/Newport News, VA area.
Anticipated Project Duration: Approximately six (6) months, with the potential for extension based on project needs and continued funding.
Aether Aerospace is seeking a MACE Modeling & Simulation Engineer to lead Modern Air Combat Environment (MACE) scenario development, model configuration, and simulation execution for an operations analysis study supporting a commercial aerospace and defense customer.
The study will assess the comparative mission effectiveness of precision-strike and electronic-warfare capabilities in representative U.S. Army aviation, launched-effects, and ground-force scenarios. The technical lead will translate the approved study plan into executable simulations, establish consistent comparison cases, verify model behavior, and provide documented simulation outputs to the study’s operations analysts.
This hands-on technical leadership position will work closely with the study lead, analysts, subject-matter experts, and customer representatives.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop analysis plans identifying study questions, hypotheses, comparison cases, measures of effectiveness and performance, analytical methods, and criteria for interpreting results.
• Work with operational SMEs to translate customer objectives into defined scenarios, mission success criteria, and measurable outcomes.
• Establish consistent baselines and design controlled comparisons that isolate the effects of the capabilities being evaluated.
• Develop experimental designs, including replication strategies, sensitivity cases, and treatment of input uncertainty and observed run-to-run variability.
• Coordinate with simulation technical staff to define required inputs, output fields, event records, and data collection requirements.
• Assess whether model representations and available evidence support proposed measures; identify data gaps and outcomes that cannot be credibly estimated.
• Analyze mission completion time, mission success probability, personnel and platform losses, threat effectiveness, and resource expenditure where supported by the model and approved data.
• Distinguish modeled exposure, damage, mission kills, and casualties; prevent unsupported conversions between these outcomes.
• Evaluate uncertainty, convergence, and sensitivity to key assumptions and scenario conditions.
• Develop and maintain scripts and automated workflows to ingest, clean, validate, combine, and process simulation outputs; calculate study measures; and generate repeatable analytical summaries and visualizations using Python, R, MATLAB, Excel, or comparable tools.
• Support model verification and assessment of fitness for the intended analytical purpose, including review of pilot runs, anomalous results, and consistency across comparison cases.
• Maintain traceability from source data and assumptions through scenarios, simulation outputs, analytical findings, and conclusions.
• Prepare analytical reports, visualizations, and executive briefings that communicate results and their practical significance.
• Collaborate with operational SMEs to interpret the mechanisms driving favorable, neutral, and unfavorable outcomes.
• Support customer reviews, resolve analytical comments, and recommend further data collection or follow-on studies.

KEY QUALIFICATIONS

Clearance: Active Secret Clearance

Education & Years of Experience: Bachelor’s degree in operations research, mathematics, statistics, engineering, systems analysis, or a related quantitative discipline. Ten or more years of relevant experience in operations research, quantitative systems analysis, mission effectiveness assessment, or modeling and simulation analysis. Equivalent combinations of advanced education and directly relevant experience will be considered.

• Demonstrated experience designing and executing comparative studies using simulations or other quantitative analytical methods.
• Strong working knowledge of experimental design, statistical inference, uncertainty assessment, sensitivity analysis, and interpretation of repeated simulation runs.
• Proficiency with one or more analytical programming environments, such as Python, R, or MATLAB, and experience using Excel for analysis and reporting.
• Experience developing measures of effectiveness and performance tied to study objectives.
• Ability to work with subject matter experts to translate domain knowledge into explicit assumptions, analytical requirements, and defensible interpretations.
• Ability to evaluate source credibility, document assumptions, recognize model limitations, and distinguish evidence from inference.
• Demonstrated ability to produce clear technical reports and communicate quantitative findings to technical and executive audiences.
• Ability to handle study information in accordance with applicable contractual, security, and export-control requirements.

PREFERRED ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s degree in operations research, statistics, engineering, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Experience supporting defense capability assessments, acquisition studies, mission analysis, or operational test and evaluation.
• Experience analyzing outputs from constructive simulations.
• Experience developing automated data processing, statistical analysis, and visualization workflows.

Aether Aerospace is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected characteristic.